Phil Anschutz is the city's most elusive important billionaire — the builder of Staples Center, remaker of Downtown, and erstwhile Hollywood morals guru and news media mogul. On the occasion of his Los Angeles Kings approaching the end of a sixth straight season out of the NHL playoffs, the LAT's Helene Elliott calls out the absentee landlord from Denver. Excerpt:

Dear Phil...

Hockey fans here would love to know what you think about the Kings' future.

But you haven't done an interview since you and Ed Roski talked to me in a cubbyhole of a room beneath the stands of the Forum for a story that ran in The Times on May 12, 1997. It took several months and lots of persuasion from Commissioner Gary Bettman to get you to talk, but you did.

As for ticket prices, she says: "Cut 'em." A key part of the story is the AP photo of the very media-shy Anschutz with then-Fox boss Peter Chernin at Home Depot Center. There aren't too many photos of Anschutz out and about.

On the beat: Rich Hammond, the hockey writer for the Daily News, talks to Yahoo Sports about that mid-season furlough.