Ryan Kesler wakes up every morning with a view of the Pacific. He goes to the rink every day wearing flip-flops. He skates every shift feeling better physically in training camp than he has since …

Well …

“Since I can remember,” he says.

Since that 41-goal, Selke-Trophy-winning, seventh-game-of-the-Stanley-Cup-Final season in 2010-11?

“Even before that,” he says.

Ryan Kesler is in a good place, and so now are the Anaheim Ducks, who finally have the kind of second-line center who can support Ryan Getzlaf and match up in the Darwinian Western Conference.

“Hopefully,” Kesler says, “we can be a one-two punch that’s dominant.”

When Kesler wanted a fresh start after 10 seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, he asked out and used his no-trade clause to narrow the options to two: Anaheim and Chicago. Both teams had openings at 2C. Both gave him a chance to win at age 30.

Anaheim had an added bonus: Kesler grew up in suburban Detroit and married a Michigan girl. He wears a Tigers cap to Ducks practice. But his wife, Andrea, moved to Michigan when she was 16. She’s originally from San Diego.

Ducks general manager Bob Murray tried to acquire Kesler before the trade deadline last season. He couldn’t close a deal with Mike Gillis, who was trying to hold onto the Canucks GM job and holding out for a high price.

View photos After 10 years in Vancouver, Ryan Kesler is feeling good in Anaheim. (Getty) More

The Ducks finished with 116 points, second-most in the NHL. They advanced to the second round of the playoffs and took the Los Angeles Kings – the eventual Stanley Cup champions – to seven games. But some of their weaknesses were exposed: center depth, faceoffs.

Murray says this goes back to the aftermath of the Ducks’ Cup victory in 2007. With Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne contemplating retirement, the Ducks signed Mathieu Schneider and Todd Bertuzzi. When Niedermayer and Selanne decided to come back, the Ducks found themselves in salary-cap trouble. They had to move players.

The biggest regrets: The Ducks traded center Andy McDonald during the 2007-08 season. They traded winger Chris Kunitz during the 2008-09 season.

“We got ourselves into a world of hurt years ago,” says Murray, who rose to GM in November 2008 when Brian Burke took over the Toronto Maple Leafs. “We screwed up, big time. … I think if you ask Brian Burke, he would tell you the same thing. We tried so hard to win the Cup again that we should have taken a step back and looked at what we were doing.”

Upset by the loss to the Kings, Murray wanted change over the summer. Out went Selanne, Nick Bonino, Jonas Hiller, Saku Koivu, Mathieu Perreault, Stephane Robidas, Luca Sbisa and Daniel Winnik. In came Kesler, Dany Heatley, Clayton Stoner and Nate Thompson.

He isn’t done. He has plenty of cap space and will be watching closely over the first 20 or 25 games, plotting his next move(s). Is there enough scoring? Is the defense stout enough? How are young goalies Frederik Andersen and John Gibson coming along?

The Ducks have young, promising defensemen: Cam Fowler, Hampus Lindholm, Sami Vatanen. But none has the skill of Niedermayer or the snarl of Chris Pronger, the stars who anchored the Ducks’ blueline when they won the Cup. Murray is keenly aware of that.

“That’s always in the back of my mind,” Murray says. “Where is that guy on the back end that’s going to be that type of guy? They don’t fall off the tree very easily. We’re trying to grow them here right now, and if you can’t grow them …”

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