KINGS HOME OPENER TONIGHT AT STAPLES.

Byline: Matt McHale Staff Writer

You probably didn't know there is a honeymoon suite among the luxury boxes at the new Staples Center.

It belongs to the Kings.

For now.

Along with the polished brass and marble of the city's new state-of-the-art arena comes great expectations that this season will not be another one of those numbing, six-month rides to nowhere.

``Everything is in place,'' team owner Ed Roski said Tuesday, looking out on the Staples Center ice on the eve of the tonight's sold-out home opener against Boston. ``This is a very exciting time for everyone, but we know the only thing that will bring people back is winning.''

Roski and fellow owner Phillip Anschutz will be part of the sellout crowd of 18,500 on hand to see a Kings team that opened the season with an solid 4-2-1 trip that took them as far as Miami and Edmonton and gave the team some well-deserved optimism.

General manager Dave Taylor added seven new players and a new coach to a team that finished out of the playoffs last year and often drew fewer than 5,000 fans to games at the Great Western Forum.

He brought in high-scoring winger Ziggy Palffy, a three-time 40-goal scorer with the New York Islanders, and spent a hefty $6.6 million over four years to ensure veteran defenseman Mattias Norstrom was back from a lengthy holdout in time to open the Staples Center.

``To me, that showed this team isn't just going to sit back and ride the wave of a new building,'' Norstrom said. ``We know that the crowds will be good because the place is opening and people want to see it. But we know that will be brief because this town demands a winner. We think we've got one here.''

Perhaps more important than Palffy or Luc Robitaille, who revived his career last year with 39 goals and was named this season's first NHL Player of the Week, is rookie coach Andy Murray.

A long-time assistant who was hired last summer after coaching a high school team in Minnesota, Murray replaced Hall of Famer Larry Robinson behind the Kings bench. In such a critical season, the Kings could have played it safe by hiring a more established name. But Murray, with great attention to detail and impressive motivational skills, appears to have clicked with this group.

``He has opened the lines of communication,'' said captain Rob Blake, who played for Murray on the Canadian national team. ``When players think somebody cares about them, they respond. I think fans will see that in this team.''

As impressive as the Staples Center is structurally, fitting the Kings into a schedule that includes the Lakers and Clippers makes it the busiest facility in the country.

Because of the quick turnarounds between sports (the Lakers and Clippers will actually play on different floors), the Kings will not hold practices at the Staples Center. The club will continue to work out at the Iceoplex in the San Fernando Valley until mid-December, when it moves with the Kings to a multisport facility in El Segundo.

``It is quite a place,'' Robitaille said. ``It will be great for us and the fans. When you're proud of something, there is a definite home-ice advantage.''

Last year, when the Kings failed to make the playoffs for the fifth time in six years, the team's home record was 18-20-3.

But Murray has not overlooked the possibility of the Kings pressing due to the hype of tonight's Staples Center debut.

Murray addressed a Kings luncheon of nearly 200 on Tuesday with a convincing speech about getting hard work and accountability from his players. It is the same talk he has fed the Kings since he took the job and a quick start was the result.

``But it is easy to get caught up in everything that surrounds the new building,'' said Murray, 48, an intense man with a dry Canadian wit. ``Boston knows that and they will be gunning for us. We've talked a lot the past week about what that first night will be like. We'll do what we've been doing, working hard for 60 minutes.''

Although the Kings were one of the league's surprise teams in the first two weeks, they showed several lapses during the final game in Edmonton, a 5-4 loss. Their first line of Robitaille, Palffy and Stumpel disappeared for long stretches and the defense had trouble keeping up with the quicker Oiler forwards.

But the Kings refused to use fatigue as an excuse even though they were at the end of a seven-game trip and had played the night before in Calgary.

``We did not keep the intensity up in the last game, but I think that (intensity) is one of our strong points,'' Palffy said. ``That is something that makes being here fun. The building is terrific, but so is this team.''

Earlier Staples

A look at L.A.'s arenas and stadiums:

ROSE BOWL

Gates opened: Oct. 28, 1922

Original capacity: 57,000

First sporting event: Cal beat USC 12-0 in front of 35,000, handing the Trojans their only loss of the season.

L.A. MEMORIAL COLISEUM

Gates opened: Oct. 6, 1923

Original capacity: 92,000

First sporting event: USC beat Pomona College 23-7 in front of 12,863 in the first football game at the new stadium.

L.A. SPORTS ARENA

Gates opened: July 8, 1959

Original capacity: 15,000

First sporting event: A bantamweight boxing title match between Jose Becerra and Alphonse Halimi, drawing 13,657.

DODGER STADIUM

Gates opened: April 10, 1962

Original capacity: 56,000

First sporting event: A day after it opened, the Dodgers beat Cincinnati 6-2.

ANAHEIM STADIUM

Gates opened: April 9, 1966

Original capacity: 43,204

First sporting event: Gene Autry's California Angels lost 9-3 to San Francisco in an exhibition game.

THE FORUM

Gates opened: Dec. 30, 1967

Original capacity: 19,000

First sporting event: The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Kings 2-0. The next day, the Lakers beat Houston 147-118.

ARROWHEAD POND OF ANAHEIM

Gates opened: June 19, 1993

Original capacity: 19,400

First sporting event: After Pond christening by a Barry Manilow concert in the spring, the Ducks lost 7-2 to Detroit on Oct. 8.

BOSTON vs. KINGS

Time: 7:30 p.m. at Staples Center.

TV/Radio:Fox Sports West; KRLA-AM (1110).

Tickets: Sold out.

Matchup: The thing that scares the 4-2-1 Kings more than being psyched-out by the hype of a new arena is that the Bruins are due after opening the season 0-5-3. Boston has struggled in the absence of goalie Byron Dafoe, a former King who is holding out, Dmitri Khristich, who was let go after his arbitration award, and Tim Taylor, who signed with the New York Rangers as a free agent. There could be a deal involving Dafoe for a forward, possibly Bill Guerin or Bob Corkum. Rob Tallas will start in goal for the Bruins, Stephane Fiset for the Kings.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 2 boxes

PHOTO (1 -- color) Ziggy Palffy, who makes his home debut as a King tonight, says the new Staples Center is ``terrific but so is this team.''

(2) The Kings, shown practicing at the Staples Center, host Boston tonight in their season home opener with seven new players, including ex-Islanders star Ziggy Palffy, and coach Andy Murray.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

BOX: (1) Earlier Staples (see text)

(2) Boston vs. Kings (see text)