head coach: Larry Robinson

roster: C - Ray Ferraro, Olli Jokinen, Ian Laperriere, Donald MacLean, Yanic Perreault, Jozef Stumpel, Roman Vopat. LW - Craig Johnson, Matt Johnson, Luc Robitaille, Vladimir Tsyplakov. RW - Sandy Moger, Glenn Murray, Brad Smyth. D - Aki Berg, Rob Blake, Phillippe Boucher, Garry Galley, Mattias Norstrom, Sean O'Donnell, Jan Vopat, Doug Zmolek. G - Frederic Chabot, Stephane Fiset, Jamie Storr.

injuries: Ray Ferraro, C (sprained knee, unknown); Jamie Storr, G (groin, soon?).

transactions: Signed Jamie Storr, G, to a one-year contract extension.

standings:

GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   HOME      ROAD
 3   0   1   2     2   10   11  0-0-0     0-1-2

game results:

10/1 at Pittsburgh  T 3-3
10/2 at Boston      L 6-5
10/5 at NY Rangers  T 2-2

team news:

by Matt Moore, Los Angeles Correspondent

Ah, a new season begins. The Dave Taylor-era is now in its first full season, and his presence has already been felt. Taylor has brought back two former teammates from his playing days, Garry Galley and Luc Robitaille, to try and provide some leadership and some offensive spark to the team. With Galley, the Kings gained an offensive-minded defenseman who will provide the point man for the power-play unit the Kings have been missing since forever. With Luc, you return one of the most popular players in Kings' history, and, if he regains his old form, Robitaille will provide the sniper that was sorely missing last year.

Taylor also made one of the better moves in the past few years, getting Jozef Stumpel and Sandy Moger from Boston in exchange for Dmitri Khristich and Byron Dafoe.

In Stumpel the Kings get a playmaker, which was something that was definitely not there last year. By getting rid of Khristich, the overall team atmosphere improved and also eliminated the one-man army attitude that Khristich seemed to approach the game with. And by moving Dafoe, the Kings have made it clear that Jamie Storr is the goaltender of the future and that he was going to have to step up and become a backup goaltender to Stephane Fiset. This trade also emphasized the movement of the Kings toward a bigger, younger team.

This season began in Pittsburgh, the first of five road games, which is somewhat frightening considering how crappy the Kings were on the road last year. They had the worst road record in the NHL. But the Kings showed admirable spunk despite falling behind 2-0 to the Pens. Led by Garry Galley's two power-play goals and a Luc Robitaille goal, the Kings had the opportunity to win the game, which is all one can ask for from such a young team.

The next night was more of a disappointment. Other than raise the question of who the hell would schedule back-to- back road games on the first two nights of the season, it also made one wonder why Stephane Fiset would be forced to start both games. Sure, Jamie Storr is on the injured list and Frederic Chabot has never started an NHL game, but why not start Chabot? The game was against the Bruins, who aren't exactly the class of the league, and if you send the message to Chabot that he can't start against them, what happens if he is forced to start against a team like the Red Wings or Avs?

This game saw the return of Jozef Stumpel to Boston for the first time since the trade. He scored his first goal of the season and seemed all happy about it, but somehow it didn't seem as big of a deal considering that Dafoe was the winning goaltender for the Bruins and that Dmitri Khristich also scored a goal.

The third game of the season was a mixture of good and bad. The good: the Kings were in the position to win a tight game against one of the better teams in the league, and the very good play of Craig Johnson, who could have easily broken open the game in the Kings favor except for some bad luck and good plays by Rangers.

The bad? The fact that they gave up the game-tying goal in the last nine seconds of the game. That the Kings went into a passive mode of play, where they allowed the Rangers to control the tempo and style of play. And that there were entirely too many players in the game who have played for both teams, which made for some very confusing times when I listened to the play-by-play. But a point is a point, especially a point made while on the road.

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