Team readies for long trip

The Kings will play their final home preseason game tonight against the San Jose Sharks at Staples Center. After the game, the team will take a plane to Denver to start a trip that won’t end until Sept. 30 with the second of consecutive regular-season games against the Ducks in London.

“The jelling effect doesn’t really start until you start with the travel,” forward Michael Cammalleri said about the Kings, whose condensed training camp had them in Southern California for only nine days. “You get on planes, go to hotels and go out to dinner with the guys. . . . This year is going to be the ultimate bonding experience.”

After playing at Colorado on Wednesday, the Kings will travel to Las Vegas for Saturday’s game against the Avalanche at the MGM Grand.

From there, it’s off to Austria for the Kings to participate in a two-day exhibition tournament in Salzburg hosted by Red Bull Salzburg of the Austrian Hockey League on Sept. 25-26.

“We’re going to hop on the plane for a 12-hour trip that should give us enough opportunity to know each other,” Cammalleri said.

Forward Anze Kopitar, a native of Slovenia, expects the Kings to have a strong following in Austria. “I think I will have a lot of fans there,” he said. “Most people have never seen NHL live before. I know that I have a lot of requests for tickets. It’s a big thing back home.”

Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky, a native of Slovakia, agreed. “It is very close to my home,” he said. “A lot of people have interest in the game. Maybe 2,000 Slovakians will be at game. I have a lot of friends asking for tickets. It’s tough for me.”

Coach Marc Crawford said the Kings will travel with 25 players to Austria. “We will have three goalies, eight defensemen and 14 forwards when we leave for Europe,” he said.

According to Visnovsky, former Kings forward Ziggy Palffy, who retired from the NHL because of back problems in January 2006, has returned to the ice and is playing in a Slovakian league with Visnovsky’s older brother. Palffy, 35, told a source that he plans to play at the world championships in Canada next year.

The Kings recently made several front-office moves starting with the promotion of Chris McGowan to chief marketing officer and Michael Altieri to vice president of communications and corporate development.

The Kings also hired Jennifer Weinstein as community relations manager and Bryan Stratte as video editor. Other promotions included Jeff Moeller to senior director of communications and James Cefaly to director of fan development and community relations.

--

lonnie.white@latimes.com