Kings

Imagine tens of thousands of cycling fans gathered in front of Staples Center on Sunday morning for the final leg of the country's largest stage cycling race, the Amgen Tour of California. Now mix in 20,000 hockey fans, nearly all of them giddy in the anticipation of watching their underdog Kings clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup finals, and another 20,000 basketball fans, with the Clippers trying to reach the Western Conference finals for the first time. Those sports worlds will collide on the streets outside the arena Sunday; the Kings are scheduled to take on the Phoenix Coyotes in Game 4 of the NHL Western Conference finals at noon — about the same time some of the world's best cyclists will be barreling toward the finish line.

The Kings were five points out of a playoff spot and stood a wobbly 11th in the Western Conference on Dec. 22, the day Darryl Sutter made his debut as their coach. The team he took over was flailing. General Manager Dean Lombardi thought he had acquired the final pieces for a contender six months earlier when he traded for center Mike Richards and signed free-agent winger Simon Gagne, but the offense was sputtering. Coach Terry Murray's defense-oriented foundation had become the team's ceiling, leaving no room for skill or creativity.

It was an expensive trip to Hollywood for Tom Renney. Actually, it was a costly night at Staples Center for the Oilers coach.   Renney was fined $10,000 on Tuesday by the NHL for comments made in his postgame session Monday night, specifically about the officiating in the Kings' 2-0 win against the Oilers.  "Maybe you need Hollywood in the playoffs. I'm not sure," Renney said. The 'you' apparently referred to the NHL, and Hollywood, the Kings, hence the fine. At least Renney didn't start talking about the clock at Staples Center...  ALSO: The NFL: Sam Farmer's mock draft Is Tim Tebow too good to be true and yet not good enough?

For Willie Mitchell , it has been nine years since he just missed out on the chance to play in the Stanley Cup Final, and two years since his hockey-playing future was in serious doubt because of a lingering concussion. So what's another week of waiting for the Cup puck to drop? That may seem like an interminable amount of time for some of his younger Kings teammates, but not for the 35-year-old defenseman. Rest is embraced, not rejected, by the team's "over-35 crowd," Mitchell said.

Staples Center is home to four professional sports franchises, the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks. Each team has a different set-up on the arena floor. It is up to the crew overseen by the Staples Center operations department to reconfigure the floor for each game. Several times a year they must make the changeover twice or more over one weekend in between games. Last Saturday afternoon, while fans were still heading for the exits after the Clippers' 103-100 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, 65 workers began transforming the arena for the Kings' game against the Calgary Flames that night.

They were mere steps away from each other in the giddy, crowded hallway at Staples Center: Tim Leiweke and Bruce McNall. The present and past nearly collided Thursday night, the bookend faces of a long and winding and often frustrating hockey journey for the Kings' franchise. Nineteen years after McNall's Kings reached the Stanley Cup finals for the first time, Leiweke's Kings are on the verge of their second appearance in the finals. "Memories," said McNall, the former owner.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Clarence Campbell bowl, awarded to the champion of the NHL's Western Conference, is not what the Kings dreamed of lifting or kissing or winning this season. Always, their goal was to win the Stanley Cup, as preposterous as it seemed while their offense went stale and they struggled to score goals and went through the turmoil of a midseason coaching change. Sometimes it seemed that they alone believed, that they alone saw what they could become with the right tweaks and right coach and right approach.

If you don't like the personality of Kings Coach Darryl Sutter, then simply wait five minutes for the cold front to swirl out the door. Or, in some cases, not even a minute. Sutter was at his contrarian and charming best Thursday, all within about an hour on the day after the Kings' first stumble in the playoffs this season, a 3-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. In between there was some vintage, "sarcastic-ness," a word invented by defenseman Drew Doughty the other day, in an effort to explain Sutter's impact.

Reporting from Detroit — Defenseman Davis Drewiske forgot that goal scorers usually linger after games to talk to reporters, but his lapse Thursday was understandable. Before his shot got through a screen for the first goal in the Kings' 2-1 victory over the Blue Jackets, he had not scored since Oct. 6, 2009 — and that was into an empty net. His feat Thursday drew huge smiles from his teammates, who knew of his drought and as well as their shutout streak of 130 minutes 35 seconds over three games.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Kings' dormant power play stirred to life, as did forward Jeff Carter, and the Phoenix Coyotes picked the second game of the Western Conference finals to look like they had spent too much time in the midday sun. The Coyotes simply lost it, and now the Kings are within two victories of winning the series and reaching the Stanley Cup finals for the second time in franchise history. Getting there took a collective effort, featuring the first career playoff hat trick from Carter and another goal from rookie Dwight King in the Kings' 4-0 victory over the Coyotes on Tuesday night at Jobing.com Arena.

  Anyone out there have some cheese they can give Shane Doan? He needs it to go with his whine. In the locker room after the Phoenix Coyotes' 4-3 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, a loss that eliminated the Coyotes from the playoffs, Doan called out the refs for their penalty decisions over the last three games of the series. "I know they always try their best and I know they are going to make mistakes," Doan said.

PHOENIX — As hockey fever grips Los Angeles, Dodgers President Stan Kasten said he plans to explore whether the Kings could play in an NHL Winter Classic game at Dodger Stadium. "Facility-wise, we could certainly handle it," Kasten said. The NHL has yet to award its New Year's Day showcase to a warm-weather city. The Dodgers could offer baseball's largest stadium and the iconic backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains. Kasten, former president of the NHL Atlanta Thrashers, said technology would allow ice to remain playable for an outdoor hockey game at Dodger Stadium but said he was unsure if the league would be interested.

Hint No. 1 that this was something big. Text messages. "It's one of those signs you've done something unusual," he said. Hint No. 2 that this was something extra big. An outpouring of fan support, post-midnight, adjacent to LAX after the Kings' flight had landed. "It was like driving down a hallway lined with human flesh," he said. "You couldn't see anything except people screaming and Kings jerseys. It was a feeling that not anyone will forget ever, I think on the Kings team.

The voice on the phone was animated, a Kings fan talking about the team's run to the Stanley Cup Final with the passion typical of their loyal, long-suffering audience. "It's been unreal what they've done and what they've accomplished so far," Wayne Gretzky said Wednesday. "It's been unreal for the organization and it's been great for hockey in California and L.A. We live in L.A., so we're seeing it first-hand how fans are rallying around the Kings and hoping that they bring home the Stanley Cup. "It's been fun to watch.

The MapMyFitness universe wants users to take a hike and give its new design and functionality a workout. And maybe you'll get to be king of the hill. The hiking, biking, fitness, running and walking tracking site and community is beta testing three new features: updated routes, personal challenges and courses. They let you check up on details around your run, walk or ride, check in on well-trod paths and check out how you're doing on your path to fitness.

GLENDALE, Ariz.--Greetings from Glendale, where it’s 97 degrees and expected to climb as the day goes on. Advice from locals if you’re visiting is to stay hydrated, so be careful. The Kings, who will have a second chance Tuesday night to win the Western Conference title and clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup finals, had a full morning skate at Jobing.com Arena. A few of their Manchester callups joined the session.

To generations of Kings fans conditioned to expect playoff misfortunes, this was a sweet and gratifying moment, their every hope realized and their every fear quashed, the old playoff ghosts put to rest. To a franchise whose crowning postseason moments are so rare and so old they're classified as ancient relics, the Kings' 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday was a defining moment, a performance so cohesive and impressive that it would be held up as a new standard if it weren't like so many other exemplary efforts the Kings have mustered this spring.

Imagine inner tubing down a water slide only to realize you've been riding along the back of a hissing 250-foot-long snake and are about to plunge into the gaping mouth of the fang-bearing and venom-spewing King Cobra. The new racing slide debuting in early July at Six Flags Great Adventure's Hurricane Harbor in New Jersey sounds more like a terrifying psychotic nightmare than a fun-filled day at the water park. PHOTOS: King Cobra water slide at Six Flags Great Adventure With King Cobra installations already in place in Turkey and Russia, the new Hurricane Harbor water park attraction marks the United States debut of the snake-themed water slide.

Special-teams play is considered crucial to playoff success, but the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup a year ago with a so-so power play and the Kings reached the Western Conference finals this spring without getting significant production with a man advantage. The Kings also won their first three games against the Phoenix Coyotes despite scoring only two power-play goals, each generated during a two-man edge in Game 2. But their power play's failings were magnified Sunday when they had a chance to advance to the Stanley Cup finals but were stymied six times in a 2-0 loss that sent the series back to Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Ariz., on Tuesday.