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A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

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What: “NHL Power Players” (CBS/Fox Video).

Price: $14.95.

On the slim chance that anyone in Los Angeles still believes the Kings’ trading of Wayne Gretzky was a bright idea, “NHL Power Players” sets the record straight in its opening minutes.

“Remarkably, Gretzky led his overachieving Kings to the 1993 Stanley Cup finals,” the narration intones over archival footage of L.A. hockey players cheering and hugging during a Stanley Cup semifinal game.

Then: “As a member of the Kings, the Great One broke the most revered records in hockey”--first the league’s all-time points record, then the all-time goals record.

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There they are, three of the greatest on-ice moments in the history of the franchise, all signed off by Gretzky during his eight years in Los Angeles.

Now, those moments seem like eons ago while a current-day Gretzky is shown cavorting with another “power player,” Mark Messier, with the New York Rangers. Also featured on this “insider’s look at today’s premier players” are Mario Lemieux, Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov, Brett Hull, Chris Chelios, Joe Sakic, Patrick Roy and Brendan Shanahan.

Not much new ground is broken in this collection of mini-vignettes.

What makes the tape worthwhile are highlights of USA-Canada in the 1996 World Cup (Chelios and Hull over Gretzky, Lemieux and Shanahan) and occasional off-ice moments, such as Chelios’ mother revealing that young Chris wasn’t “that tough. His younger sister used to beat the heck out of him when they were little.”

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