NHL NOTEBOOK: ANAHEIM, L.A. TO OPEN IN LONDON.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

London called, and the Kings and Ducks answered.

The Southern California rivals will open the 2007-08 season in a newly refurbished arena in downtown London on Sept.29-30 as the NHL attempts to expand interest in the game beyond the North American shores.

News of the games leaked out several weeks ago, but the dates were formally announced before the Kings and Ducks faced off Thursday night at Staples Center.

The Anschutz Entertainment Group, owner of the Kings and Staples Center, owns the O2 Arena in London.

These will be the NHL's first regular-season games abroad since the San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames played two games in Tokyo to start the 1998-99 season.

A year earlier, the Ducks and Vancouver Canucks played twice on the same makeshift rink set up in the arena that played host to the 1964 Olympic swimming and diving events.

In addition to the games, the Kings will hold part of their training camp in London and play several exhibition games against Austrian club teams.

"That will be intense," Kings coach Marc Crawford said. "Those teams will be trying so hard to beat an NHL team, and that intensity will help us."

When Crawford coached Vancouver, the Canucks held their 2000-01 training camp in Sweden after drafting Swedish twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin.

Crawford said he would probably bring three goalies, eight defensemen and 14 forwards to the London portion of the training camp as a hedge against injuries.

Fatigue was an issue for the Ducks and Canucks when they returned from their two-game trip to Japan to start the 1997-98 season, with the Ducks finishing second-to-last and the Canucks finishing last in the Western Conference that season.

Ducks general manager Brian Burke jumped at the chance to start next season in London, but asked the NHL to make grant him three favors.

First, he wished to have extra days off built into the Ducks' schedule before they left for England. Second, he asked the league to give the team days off upon its return to North American. Third, he asked for the team to resume its schedule in the East.

The league agreed.

"We're honored," Burke said. "The Kings are going because it's their building. The league asked us and we said, 'Yes,' immediately. We've got to grow this game."

-- Elliott Teaford

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