Kings’ Jack Johnson channeling his inner Tebow

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That, apparently, was it for the Tebow.

It sounded like Kings’ defenseman Jack Johnson would not be “Tebowing,” again.

I talked with him after Monday’s night’s 5-2 win against the Capitals and about his Tim Tebow-inspired celebration after scoring off an odd-man rush at 3:01 of the second period.

Johnson nearly scored again later in the game. Would he have Tebowed again?

“No, I think once was enough,” he told me, smiling. “It’s not a regular thing.”

It all started when some of Johnson’s buddies from the University of Michigan were in town and they watched the Denver-Pittsburgh game together on Sunday. Tebow led Denver to a playoff victory over Pittsburgh in overtime. They asked him if he would Tebow if he scored.

“I said, ‘Sure deal,’ ” Johnson said. “Then I ended up scoring and I thought, ‘I’ve got to pay up.’ ”

His coach, Darryl Sutter got off a good line of his own.

“If we could all play like Tebow in a big game, we wouldn’t have lost a game yet,” Sutter said.

Said Kings’ teammate Kyle Clifford: “Yeah, I saw that. That was pretty funny.”

Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner, who has a pretty lively personality of his own, exchanged a few words with Johnson. “I understand he’s just trying to be funny, but still it’s kind of a stupid celebration,” Alzner said to reporters. “It’s like those teams in the world junior riding their stick giving high-fives across the bench.”

Johnson has a big personality on a fairly tame Kings’ team. It’s nice to see he still has that inner moxie, a flair for the moment.

“It’s fun to score,” said Johnson, who now has six goals this season. “You should have some fun. Have some personality out there and have fun.”

-- Lisa Dillman