The restaurant sits in shouting distance of Honda Center and has the usual sounds of a lunchtime crowd at work. Plates and glasses jingle together in the background as the conversations from table to table bounce off one another in harmony.

Ryan Kesler is a Michigan man but he enters the establishment looking as if he’s from La Habra instead of Livonia. T-shirt, hat, shorts, sandals. His ever-present beard already in playoff form.

The young greeter gives a quick double-take as if she may recognize this very recognizable player in hockey circles but isn’t quite sure before seating him and his guest. Kesler dines on a club sandwich and not one person stops by for a picture or an autograph. Peace.

Would this happen in Vancouver? Maybe. Not likely.

It is different in Southern California where the options for sports and just about anything else are more plentiful. Teemu Selanne calls this his “happy place” and why wouldn’t it be if you can score hundreds of goals, be the icon for an NHL franchise and still live and go about it in relative anonymity.

It is something that Kesler, the prize catch for the Ducks this summer, is readily eager to enjoy. The next phase is upon him.

“Right off the bat, you can tell this is a first-class organization,” he said. “Being in Orange County, it’s icing on the cake. The family loves it here. I love it here.”

The Ducks made sure their critical piece to what they hope is a championship puzzle is in a happy and peaceful place before he even hit the ice with his new team. They flew out him and his wife, Andrea, and gave him the grand tour of the arena and its facilities, fitting him in the club’s new white road sweater adorned with his name and customary No. 17.

It was then on to nearby Angel Stadium where he hobnobbed with Mike Trout and Mike Scioscia before throwing out the first pitch – a decent one the former baseball player rightly had to do from the mound. “It’s secretly something I’ve always wanted to do,” Kesler said, beaming as he spoke.

All that fun was nice on a sunny July day. What really matters is what the hard-boiled center does on the ice – preferably in June.

The Ducks are would-be Stanley Cup contenders, would-be because the champions who sit only 30 miles away rudely had them packing their equipment after the second round. Bob Murray, the team’s straightforward general manager, quickly determined that the status quo would not get his group past the Kings.

Kesler, a six-time 20-goal scorer and defensive demon as a former Selke Trophy winner, was his target, and Murray found a player ready to cast aside 11 eventful years with the Canucks for another chance to be the last one standing.

“I think changes needed to be made with the new management coming in and the new coaches,” Kesler said. “I felt I was stuck in a rut there. I needed a change.

“Talking with management, they were going into a rebuild or that’s what they told me. I just thought it was best to move on.”

The word had long been out that Kesler wanted off Vancouver’s descent from its run to Game 7 of the 2011 Cup Final. The stars aligned for the Ducks.

The Ducks desperately wanted a top center to pair with star captain Ryan Getzlaf. They had the salary cap space to absorb a big salary that a proven veteran would bring.

Kesler had a list of six teams he’d waive his no-trade clause for and whittled it down to two – the Ducks and Chicago. Pittsburgh coveted him but already had Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin as its top two pivots, and Chicago had much less cap room available.

The price of underrated center Nick Bonino, defenseman Luca Sbisa and a first-round pick wasn’t cheap. But Murray got his $5 million man.

“I think the main reason is they’re ready to win and ready to win now,” Kesler said. “They have management that wants to win and wanted to use that cap space. But at the same time, they’re young and they have young talent on this team that’s pushing to make the team.

“I thought it was a good fit. That’s why I waived to come here.”

This, of course, is the honeymoon period. Sky-high expectations have yet to be filled or unfulfilled.

Kesler, 30, brings that because he can do anything that is needed. Hits, scores, defends, irritates. A boost to the power play, penalty kill and facoff circle, all of which were covered issues that helped bring down a 54-win team.

Most of all, it is attitude. Playoff attitude. The Ducks can use a little more mean.

“I just think it’s who I am,” Kesler said. “It’s the way I play the game. For me, I play to win. It doesn’t matter who’s on the other side of the puck.

“It’s my puck and I’ll do anything I need to get it. Obviously I get under a lot of people’s skin out there.”

Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau can’t wait to see the one-two punch of Getzlaf and Kesler in action. Boudreau said Kesler’s size and all-around ability is something that they didn’t have at that slot behind Getzlaf and “that’s why he was so sought after by everybody.”

“He’s a big, strong centerman,” Boudreau said. “As much as I loved all of the players on our team last year, Saku (Koivu) wasn’t very big, Nick Bonino isn’t very big and Mathieu Perreault isn’t very big.

“Now we have that big centerman who can play against every other team’s top line, and allow Ryan Getzlaf’s line not to have to play against them, especially at home.”

The do-everything Getzlaf is looking forward to Kesler carry some of the load, particularly when it comes to defending against top forwards.

“He’ll be great,” Getzlaf said. “Kes is a great hockey player who will help our team and help support me on the ice, especially in certain situations.

“He can play when I normally had to do both things. It’ll be good for our team.”

Kesler understands his place in the Ducks’ grand plan. He’ll just be glad to do it where the daily spotlight isn’t as bright.

Playing in a beautiful city such as Vancouver is something he’ll never forget. Answering the daily questions from an ever-present media in a hockey-obsessed town is something he won’t miss.

“I get they’ve got to sell papers in that city,” Kesler said. “Negative stories sell more than positive stories. Saying that, that never bothered me. Obviously you get irritated with them sometimes. But the media was fine. I liked most of them.”

One big issue with Kesler was the perception that he wasn’t the ideal guy to be around when the Canucks went south last season. The reported trade demand that came out of the Sochi Olympics didn’t help.

Can he be moody during a losing streak? Sure. Is he a bad teammate? Hardly, he insists.

“I don’t buy that I’m not a good teammate,” he said. “You can ask any of my teammates. I know when I was traded, if I was such a bad teammate, 95 percent of the guys wouldn’t have texted me (afterward).

“That’s the problem with Vancouver. The media makes up a lot of stories that aren’t true. To be honest, I was really sick of certain media guys throwing people under the bus.

“No matter how much my old teammates say it doesn’t bother them. It affects them. It does in that city.”

There is a funny side and it shows in photo-bombing interviews of teammates or wearing too-tight Speedos for his own ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The ferocious side comes from years of being in the competitive Detroit youth hockey scene.

Battles were plenty in the Kesler household, and if big brother Todd and big sister Jenny were allowed to get the better of him in anything, little Ryan’s blood would boil. “I’d be pretty mad,” he said.

With a devilish smile, Kesler remembers how he and close friend Chris Conner – an NHL journeyman now with Washington – went at each other so intensely that Conner gave him a black eye with a cross check. Time has allowed Kesler to handle losing better, at least off the ice.

“The people in Michigan are hard-working, first-class citizens,” Kesler said. “It is the way I was brought up. Work hard. Earn your stripes.

“Growing up in that hockey atmosphere, but at the same time, you got the other three big sports there. There was great competition there. It helped me develop into the player I am now.”

Smiling. Agitating. Joking. Irritating. Whether he likes it or not, Kesler will be quite recognizable in Duckland.

Contact the writer: estephens@ocregister.com