Fifty-three. Really?

But April 9, Robitaille was shown on TV at the NHL Draft Lottery in Toronto, seated in the front row with hopeful colleagues Ken Holland (Detroit), Ray Shero (New Jersey) and Joe Sakic (Colorado). Robitaille looked unusually exhausted, almost with that hollowed-out look you see from players at the end of a long playoff run.

In a sense, this was his personal playoff saga — corporate style — jammed into two days. The day before the draft lottery, instead of going from Los Angeles to Toronto, Robitaille took a different route. Robitaille first flew to Vancouver to meet with the No. 1 target for the Kings’ vacant coaching job, Todd McLellan.

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