From the files: Kings bring Stanley Cup to Ground Zero

The Los Angeles Kings open training camp on Thursday at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo. It's the first step in the long slog to try to be on the ice next June when the Stanley Cup is awarded to a bunch of exhausted guys with beards.

After the Kings won the Cup in 2012, the organization took care of a special piece of business. The team arranged to quietly bring the Cup to Ground Zero. Scouts Ace Bailey and Mark Bavis died on one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center. Bailey's widow and Bavis' sister visited the site for the first time, along with Kings general manager Dean Lombardi.

Despite the presence of the most famous trophy in sports, onlookers kept a respectful distance. "Everybody understood why they were there," Lombardi said last year.

Previously on LA Observed:
For Ace and Mark

Photo: Hockey Hall of Fame