sport world

Little context is required to understand John Stevens’ loyalty. Since Stevens was 18, the Kings coach’s employment record consists of three hockey organizations. He tued 51 in May. Before the Kings promoted him to head coach in April, his other NHL head coaching stint was for the same Philadelphia...

The plaed merger between dueling leaders of the daily fantasy sports industry, DraftKings and FanDuel, is officially off, less than a month after the Federal Trade Commission aounced its plan to block the union. “FanDuel decided to merge with DraftKings last November because we believed that thi...

Jaret Anderson-Dolan grew up on skates, which doesn’t make him all that different from most of Canada’s 35 million citizens. But he scored a hat trick in his first game as a 15-year-old with the junior-level Spokane (Wash.) Chiefs of the Weste Hockey League, a sign he was extraordinary. Anderson-D...

The plaed merger of daily fantasy sports leaders DraftKings and FanDuel is on hold, after the Federal Trade Commission aounced Monday it would file a complaint to block the merger on grounds it violates antitrust laws. The complaint, which will be filed jointly with the office of Califoia Atto...

As expected, the Kings didn’t protect forwards Dustin Brown and Marian Gaborik on Sunday, hoping Vegas Golden Knights general manager George McPhee might take one of them off their hands Wednesday in the NHL expansion draft. McPhee isn’t expected to take Brown or Gaborik, their bloated contracts out...

LOS ANGELES >> The Clippers need a break.Fortunately, the schedule finally gives them one.After blowing an 18-point lead in the last five minutes in a 98-97 loss to the lottery-bound Sacramento Kings on Sunday, the Clippers do not play again until Wednesday against Washington. The Clippers hav...

LOS ANGELES >> There were only a handful of seconds remaining in a scoreless first period when Ducks center Ryan Kesler drifted into the left circle to battle Kings counterpart Nic Down for a faceoff in the attacking zone Tuesday at Staples Center. Ducks coach Randy Carlyle substituted Rickard Rakell for Andrew Cogliano just before the puck was dropped, stationing him just to Kesler’s left. Kesler, a wily veteran, tied up Dowd, a first-year player, at the drop of the puck and kicked it behind him to a hard-charging Rakell. With a flick of his wrists, Rakell snapped the puck through the legs of first Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin and then goaltender Peter Budaj for a goal in his season ...

EL SEGUNDO >> Left wing Devin Setoguchi skated with center Anze Kopitar and right wing Dustin Brown on Monday, which indicated he made the Kings’ opening-night roster as the longest of long shots after arriving at their training camp last month on a pro tryout basis. Opening-night rosters must be set by 2 p.m. Tuesday. One day at a time, though. “It’s not like I’m here and I’m here to stay,” Setoguchi said. “It’s still, for me, an every day evaluation on my work ethic, my play, my ability. So, I’m just thankful to be here, but at the same time, I know how important and how critical it is for me to push myself every in order to get back.” Setoguchi last played in the NHL nearly two yea...

EL SEGUNDO >> Teddy Purcell was here once before. It was six years ago, but it seems as if it was only yesterday. The Kings’ training facility is the same now, but different. Many of the faces are familiar, making his homecoming all the more comfortable, the transition to a new team far easier. “The weight room has a retractable roof now,” Purcell said Saturday after the first of two practice sessions at the Kings’ workout facility. “It’s almost fuy when you hear about it, especially when you come from Edmonton and your car doesn’t start when you leave the rink.” No sub-zero temperatures are in the forecast in Southe Califoia, where summer seems endless. “I bought a beach cruiser,” Pu...

For the first time in my 15 years of playing fantasy football, I found myself last season at the bottom of a downward spiral. It was a cold, dark place, the kind of nightmare sequence where Blake Bortles and Kirk Cousins were top-eight quarterbacks and Devonta Freeman, left for dead by most analyst circles, led all ruing backs in scoring. In the grips of this fantasy melancholia, Sundays tued a dreary, meaningless gray. The hum of Redzone in the background was cause to shudder. The prospect of watching my star wideout catch passes from Matt Cassel just hurt too much to bear. Perhaps you’ve been there before, watching helplessly as your fantasy team comes apart at the seams. Maybe like me, y...

Left wing Milan Lucic’s one-season stint with the Kings officially ended Friday, only minutes after the NHL’s free-agency signing period began. Lucic signed a seven-year, $42-million contract with the Edmonton Oilers as an unrestricted free agent. In the end, and as expected, the deal was too rich and too lengthy for the Kings, who have salary-cap issues. The Kings reportedly made a final run at re-signing Lucic, placing defenseman Matt Greene on buyout waivers Thursday in order to clear more cap space. Lucic scored 20 goals and 55 points last season for the Kings, who acquired him last summer from the Boston Bruins in exchange for backup goaltender Martin Jones, prospect Colin Miller and a...

Left wing Milan Lucic’s one-season stint with the Kings officially ended Friday, only minutes after the NHL’s free-agency signing period began. Lucic signed with a seven-year, $42-million contract with the Edmonton Oilers as an unrestricted free agent. In the end, and as expected, the deal was too rich and too long for the Kings, who have salary-cap issues. The Kings reportedly made a final run at re-signing Lucic, placing defenseman Matt Greene on buyout waivers Thursday in order to clear more cap space. Lucic scored 20 goals and 55 points last season for the Kings, who acquired him last summer from the Boston Bruins in exchange for backup goaltender Martin Jones, prospect Colin Miller and...

Steven Stamkos re-signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning for $68 million over eight seasons, declining the option to test the free-agent market as the prized catch of the summer of 2016. P.K. Subban was traded, unexpectedly going in a nanosecond from the Montreal Canadiens to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Shea Weber. Taylor Hall was dealt from the Edmonton Oilers to the New Jersey Devils for Adam Larsson. The summer blockbuster season kicked off with a flurry of activity in a span of 30 breathtaking minutes Wednesday, but the Kings were merely spectators. The free-agent signing period begins Friday, but the Kings aren’t expected to be active participants in the aual frenzy of player m...

Rogie Vachon’s very, very long wait ended Monday afteoon. Vachon, a former Kings goaltender who last played in the NHL during the 1981-82 season, was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Finally. Vachon won 355 games during a 16-year career in the NHL, including 171 wins in 389 games with the Kings from 1971-78. He set Kings records for victories, shutouts (32) and games played (389), which have since been broken by Jonathan Quick. His 34-year wait is believed to be the longest in the history of the Hall, tying Dick Duff, who was elected in 1996 after retiring from the NHL in 1972. Duff played for five teams during an 18-year career that included a stint with the Kings. “Originally, it’s ver...

There’s no evidence Drew Doughty lost sleep over the Norris Trophy. When you’re done playing 28 minutes, 1 second per game in the NHL, you sleep through everything. If the Kings didn’t feel Doughty was already the best defenseman in the league, they wouldn’t have paid him $7 million last season. Nor would they have won the 2012 or 2014 Stanley Cups, or won a franchise-best 48 games in 2015-16. Still, there’s nothing like trophy in hand, or name on plaque, and Doughty finally held the Norris on Tuesday in Las Vegas. The Professional Hockey Writers gave him a clear win over Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson, who outscored Doughty by 31 points (82-51). Eriksson had won two Norrises based on what he did i...

Drew Doughty has often been seen as the best defenseman in this era to have never won the Norris Trophy but that all changed Wednesday night. Doughty was honored as the league’s top defenseman for the 2015-16 season while fellow Kings star Anze Kopitar claimed the Frank J. Selke Trophy as its top defensive forward and Lady Byng Memorial Trophy as its most gentlemanly player. A second straight season came to a premature end for the Kings but Doughty and Kopitar were plenty victorious during the NHL Awards show at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday night. It is the first such wins for both in those categories. Long considered one of the NHL’s very best defensemen – and argued by so...

The Kings kick off their 50th aiversary season Oct. 12 at Stanley Cup finalist San Jose then retu for their home opener against Philadelphia two days later. After a four-day break, the Kings, looking to rebound from last season’s first-round playoff loss, head to Miesota on Oct. 18, where former Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau is starting his first season as coach of the Wild. The Kings then travel to Dallas on Oct. 20. The Kings are home for six of their next eight games, the two out-of-state games being at Weste Conference finalist St. Louis (Oct. 28) and Chicago (Oct. 30). They retu to Staples Center to face their other in-state rival, the Ducks, on Nov. 1, for the first of five meetings. The...

The Ducks will begin Randy Carlyle’s second stint as their coach by opening the 2016-17 season with four games on the road, starting with their season opener Oct. 13 at Dallas. Teams were allowed Monday to aounce dates for their home openers as the full NHL schedule will be released Tuesday. The Ducks will serve as the visiting team for three others — New York Islanders (Oct. 16), New Jersey (Oct. 18) and Philadelphia (Oct. 20). After their season-opening road trip, the Ducks retu to Honda Center for their home opener against Vancouver on Oct. 23. The Kings will travel to San Jose to open their season against the Weste Conference champion Sharks on Oct. 12 — the NHL’s Opening Night. It will...

The Los Angeles Kings have aounced center Anze Kopitar as the team’s new captain, taking over for longtime captain Dustin Brown. Kopitar and Brown, who have spent their entire careers with the franchise, teamed to lead the Kings to the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014. Kopitar, who has played for the Kings for 10 seasons, has been assistant captain since 2008. He scored 25 goals and totaled 74 points, leading the Kings in scoring for a record-setting ninth consecutive season. The 28-year-old native of Slovenia ranks sixth on the Kings career scoring list with 684 points in 764 regular-season games. He signed an eight-year contract extension with the Kings in January, which runs through the 2023-...

The Los Angeles Kings have aounced center Anze Kopitar as the team’s new captain, taking over for longtime captain Dustin Brown. Kopitar and Brown, who have spent their entire careers with the franchise, teamed to lead the Kings to the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014. Kopitar, who has played for the Kings for 10 seasons, has been assistant captain since 2008. He scored 25 goals and totaled 74 points, leading the Kings in scoring for a record-setting ninth consecutive season. The 28-year-old native of Slovenia ranks sixth on the Kings career scoring list with 684 points in 764 regular-season games. He signed an eight-year contract extension with the Kings in January, which runs through the 2023-...