Kings Announced Truncated Schedule

Sunday evening the NHL and the NHL Players' Association officially signed all the documents needed to end what was perhaps the most idiotic lockout in sports history. That meant the Kings were finally able to officially release their 48-game schedule.

As was leaked during the week, the Kings will open at STAPLES Center Saturday at Noon against the Chicago Blackhawks where they will raise the championship banner to the rafters of the arena. They immediately head out on a three-game road trip to Colorado, Edmonton and Phoenix before closing out the month at home against Vancouver and Nashville.

This sets up the dreaded Grammy road trip that evicts everyone from the STAPLES Center for nearly all of February. The Kings will only have four home games in February, the first coming on Feb. 15 against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The official schedule can be found on the Kings website.

The Kings will open up their training camp tomorrow at 10 a.m. in their practice facility at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo. All practices are open to the public. In addition the Kings will hold an open practice Monday night at STAPLES Center at 7 p.m. The public will be able to download tickets for free at www.ticketmaster.com/lakings starting Sunday at 6 p.m.

For those who can't get tickets, it will be broadcast on Fox Sports West hosted by Bob Miller, Jim Fox and Patrick O'Neal.

For those who will be able to make it, they will be able to start purchasing single-game tickets at STAPLES Center at 6 p.m. Tickets will also go on sale at LAKings.com.

Whether the Kings repeat or not is up in the air, but at least they will be defending their championship this year.