Hockey Players

OTTAWA -- It was the day after Christmas and Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi was making his way through the long-and-winding security line at Los Angeles International Airport. He was on his way to the Czech Republic for more viewings of Steve Stamkos, Drew Doughty, Zach Bogosian and Co. at the World Junior Championships. There was the small matter, however, of the security worker who recognized him and put his arm on Lombardi.

The Kings unloaded another high-priced player this off-season as they dealt defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky to the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday for center Jarret Stoll and defenseman Matt Greene. Visnovsky, 31, slumped to eight goals and 33 assists last season but has been the team's highest-scoring defenseman for the last three years. He is scheduled to make $7 million this season in the first year of his five-year, $28-million extension.

The gap on the top-left side of his mouth where two teeth used to shine attests to Ryan Getzlaf's toughness. The "A" on his sweater designating him one of the Ducks' alternate captains -- the youngest of the leadership troika by more than a decade -- attests to the regard his coaches and teammates have for him, and rightfully so. When the 23-year-old center faltered early this season, so did the Ducks.

Dustin Brown can leave an impression. That was clear early in his Kings career. As a 20-year-old forward with fewer than 40 NHL games on his resume, he went to work. In one week, he clobbered three future Hall of Famers -- Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom, the Ducks' Chris Pronger and Colorado's Joe Sakic -- to start the 2005-06 season. Some remember. "I recall that. I had the puck, then I was on the ice," Lidstrom said. Some don't. "Nope, don't remember it," Pronger said. "Who can Brown hit for you?"

Drew Doughty's life is color-coordinated. Greene, he's at home. Brown, he's on the road. That is how the Kings have structured things for Doughty, hoping that by keeping things simple off the ice for the 19-year-old defenseman he can continue to make life difficult for opposing teams on it. Doughty, the second overall pick in June, walked out of the Ontario Hockey League in spring and into the Kings' lineup in fall.

As he took the ice Thursday night against the Dallas Stars, goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov was already feeling the heat. The league-leading Ducks, whose franchise-record start had turned heads, now were turning over pucks. They had lost key players to injury, including star defenseman Chris Pronger and starting goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere. They also had lost five of their last six games and were stumbling toward the All-Star break.

As a player, Luc Robitaille had a knack for finding the right spot to rifle the puck past helpless goaltenders. On the night his jersey was retired by the Kings, he found the right mix of humor and humility to generate laughter and tears from the fans who first heard of him as a bad-skate, good-hands, longshot draft pick and came to know him as a marvelous player and equally fine man. "I lived the dream.

Threat of imminent bodily harm -- even if it was doom shaped in the form of a Bobby Hull slap shot -- didn't make a set-in-his-ways goaltender change his mind and put on a mask. Not until his final season in the NHL. Gump, you see, had it all figured out. "He often said he was already married and had kids, so it didn't matter whether he was ugly or not," said former Minnesota North Stars defenseman Tom Reid, laughing.

The acquisition of winger George Parros by Ducks General Manager Brian Burke in November didn't appear to rank high on the list of significant hockey transactions. After all, Parros, then of the Colorado Avalanche, had only five points in 74 NHL games. Indeed, Burke's trading of former first-round pick Stanislav Chistov appeared to make the most noise of the three he made that day.