Veteran defenseman Willie Mitchell had much more to say about sitting out for all of last season after undergoing surgery. He also talked about his battle to return to form and how he was feeling going into the Kings’ first exhibition games. Here’s more:

[Any setbacks so far in training camp?]

“No, nothing right now. I’m pretty happy about that. I won’t lie. You go through something and you have one setback like I did last year and you have some inflammation. It’s pretty tough at this time of the year. You ask players and they all say it’s the toughest time of the year. I’ve battled my way through this and not having any issues, it’s looking full steam ahead. So far, so good. Like I said, the first day there was a lot of stopping and starting and putting myself in a lot of situations that I normally don’t get into during a game. My knee handled that. It makes me optimistic. I’ll take it for what it is. …

“I’m enjoying the fact I’m with my teammates again and enjoying that camaraderie. Love the game. We’ve got a good team. Just kind of enjoying those things right now. I’m looking forward to doing this again tomorrow. No pressure at all, are you kidding me? It’s out of my control, really. There’s a lot of things as a player that are in your control, which you’re working on every day. Get my gap control. Get my shots on net. Get my reads. That’s what’s in my control. But in the health aspect, it’s probably zero percent. From now on, I wouldn’t say zero percent. There’s not a lot I can do. What I can do is do what I did all summer, stick with the rehab. Obviously, it’s gotten me to this point. So, there’s value in that. Stay with that.”