Power Play

Al Garrett's mother told him she would shoot him if he ever joined a gang. That threat--and his mother's support--has kept the 19-year-old out of the swirl of violence that has claimed the lives of some of his friends in his Inglewood neighborhood. "I saw the same kids who were approaching me to join the gangs dying. Even those who tried to leave the gangs would get shot a couple of months later by a rival gang who didn't care whether they were in or out of the gang," Garrett said.

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.

It was a meaningless goal, really, a power-play effort that capped a 5-0 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night, but to Kings Coach Terry Murray , it was a thing of beauty and, he hopes, a sign of things to come. The Kings tend to get too fine with the puck sometimes, especially on the power play, opting for the extra pass instead of the shot, but that all changed with just under three minutes left in Colorado. Jarret Stoll won a faceoff in the Avalanche end, drawing the puck to teammate Jack Johnson at the blue line.

The dust was being blown off NHL record books. Potential alliterations trotted out -- Vancouver Vanquished? -- and then discarded. The next step was thinking about measuring space for a Dustin Brown statue in front of Staples Center. There was one small matter: The Kings had to go and play the second period Wednesday night. They were 40 minutes away from sweeping Vancouver in their first-round, best-of-seven playoff series, which would have been a franchise first for Los Angeles.

Last season, the Ducks had one of the least-respected power plays in the NHL. Not anymore. With the addition of Adam Oates, Petr Sykora and Sandis Ozolinsh, opponents fear the Ducks' power play, which entered Friday's game against the New York Rangers ranked eighth in the league. Sykora is among the NHL leaders in power-play goals with 13, and Paul Kariya is not far behind with nine. Yet the Ducks are just getting used to playing together.

The Duck power-play unit, so powerful last season in scoring on 22% of its chances, has gone on the fritz to start this season. The Ducks failed to score on five power-play chances in a 3-2 overtime loss Saturday to the Florida Panthers. True, the Ducks haven't spent much time on special teams during practice, but left wing Paul Kariya expects more from the power-play unit. After all, the Ducks are scoreless in nine chances in the first three games of this five-game trip.

If there's a difference in the Ducks' game in the last week or so, it's that their special teams finally are special. Three power-play goals helped the Ducks post a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond. Muzzling the Red Wings on four of their five power-play chances didn't hurt either. The Ducks have at least one power-play goal in 17 of their last 23 games, going 29 for 110 (26.4%). Overall, the Ducks are only 49 for 302 (16.2%).

Greek Socialist Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, staging a major political power play, persuaded party leaders to reject conservative President Constantine Karamanlis' candidacy for a second term. The 78-year-old Karamanlis, who nursed the country back to democracy from military rule, immediately announced that he would not be a candidate for a second term. "I did not ask for my reelection, but on the contrary, I had serious reservations in accepting," he said in a statement.

With 50 goals in 333 man-advantage situations, the Kings have the NHL's 17th-ranked power play at 15%. Not too bad, but a step down from last season when the Kings led the league at 20.7%. In the Kings' 5-1 loss to Vancouver on Saturday, they scored once in six power-play chances. They head into tonight's game at Phoenix four for 39 with a man advantage since the March 11 trade of defenseman Mathieu Schneider, who played the point on the Kings' power play.

The Mighty Ducks were the third-worst team against the power play last season and aren't doing much better this season. They were two for 13 with a man advantage in an 8-5 loss to the Colorado Avalanche Saturday night at Denver. It was the third loss in a row for the Ducks (1-4-0), who got three goals from Teemu Selanne. Selanne scored two goals in the first period, the second one coming on the power play at 18:11 to give the Ducks a 3-2 lead.

Keys for the Kings and Canucks in their playoff series: KINGS: The stellar penalty killers (fourth in the league) need to recapture some mojo after giving up four power-play goals the last two games; ability of shutdown duo Drew Doughty and Rob Scuderi to combat the Sedin twins; Mike Richards needs to become the Richards of 2010. CANUCKS: Daniel Sedin's health and ability to reignite the power play that has struggled in his absence (concussion); need the dazzling Roberto Luongo in goal, not the frazzled Luongo; trade-deadline acquisitions must quickly find chemistry with an experienced core.

Reporting from Glendale, Ariz. — The injustice of it all stood out for the Kings after a 5-4 shootout loss to the Phoenix Coyotes in which they squandered leads of 3-0 and 4-2 and went winless for the fifth time in six games. Not just what they considered unwarranted major and match penalties against Kyle Clifford for an illegal check to the head of Gilbert Brule late in the third period, which gave the Coyotes a three-minute power play and led to Phoenix's tying goal by Radim Vrbata.

As the evening call to prayer sounded through the alleyways of old Damascus, the aging storyteller known as Abu Shadi clambered into an elevated chair at the Nawfara cafe, slipped on a pair of rimless reading glasses and turned to the page where he'd left off. An expectant silence settled over the smoke-filled room, interrupted by the clink of coffee cups and tea glasses. For two decades, Abu Shadi has regaled his audience of shopkeepers, university students and tourists with epic tales of war and romance, heroes and rogues from the classics of Arabic literature.

It occurred to Drew Doughty soon after he slammed himself against the glass to exult over the decisive goal in a 3-2 victory for the Kings over Columbus on Wednesday that maybe he hadn't beaten the clock, and that he'd have a red face when the puck was dropped for overtime at Staples Center. "I didn't know how much time was left. I was sneaking in there and I knew there wasn't a lot of time," Doughty said of the frantic scramble during a power play in the Blue Jackets' zone. "I didn't hear the buzzer, so I assumed it was a goal and after we celebrated the goal I was skating back and realized there wasn't a lot of time left.

The Kings lost a game Thursday but dodged a far more dire fate. Center Anze Kopitar, helped off the ice at 12:12 of the third period of what became a 5-4 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars at Staples Center, had a bloody nose and sore neck and shoulder and will be monitored Friday. However, General Manager Dean Lombardi said Kopitar's injuries were not as serious as they initially appeared. "He should be fine," Coach Darryl Sutter said, a bloody nose and sore neck being all in a day's work for him in his playing and farming days.

Assist, Aaron Rome. The Ducks may have been fairly exhaustive in their team meeting the other day to discuss ways out of the current abyss. But it's doubtful they could have imagined the scenario behind their 4-3 win over Vancouver on Friday night at Honda Center. First, they watched the Canucks' Rome take an incredibly lame five-minute major for elbowing Ducks rookie Devante Smith-Pelly, next they scored twice on the following power play and built a four-goal lead by the end of two periods.

No. 4 DUCKS VS. NO. 5 NASHVILLE The Ducks faced the Nashville Predators four times this season. The Ducks won only the second game, 5-4, Nov. 7 at Anaheim. The Predators won, 4-1, at home Oct. 9, and by the same score at Anaheim on Jan. 5. The Predators won the teams' final meeting, 5-4, at Nashville on March 24. Goaltender Jonas Hiller started for the Ducks but couldn't finish and hasn't played since then. REGULAR-SEASON RECORDS DUCKS: 47-30-5 PREDATORS: 44-27-11 TOP SCORERS DUCKS: Corey Perry 50 goals (1st in NHL)

After playing two noncontending teams and winning fairly easily, the Kings on Thursday faced an elite opponent and got their first chance to gauge where they stand after losing Justin Williams and Anze Kopitar to serious injuries. On the whole, they stood up well against the league-leading Vancouver Canucks — until the emotions of a hard-fought and tense game boiled over and led to two penalties that did the Kings in and led to the end of their four-game winning streak. Kyle Clifford's five-minute penalty for checking Canucks defenseman Chris Tanev from behind gave Vancouver a late power play, and Matt Greene's crosschecking penalty less than a minute later created a two-man disadvantage, which Ryan Kesler capitalized on for a 3-1 victory at Rogers Arena that clinched the President's trophy for the league's best record and home ice throughout the playoffs.