Two Exhibitions in Las Vegas

Youth will be served tonight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas when the Kings open their exhibition season against the Colorado Avalanche.

Olli Jokinen, Matt Zultek, Josh Green and Pavel Rosa will be spread among four lines, each with a veteran or two, with Coach Larry Robinson and Dave Taylor, the team’s vice president and general manager, getting a long look.

“We’ll be playing people who might be able to win a job for the first five or six games,” Robinson said. “That will give an opportunity to guys who might not necessarily start the season with us, but that we want to see.”

The final four or five exhibitions will be spent in honing the Kings for the coming season.

In Rosa, Green and Zultek, the King hierarchy is looking for the ability to score, and in Jokinen, a center, both scoring and play-making. Jokinen is given the best chance among the younger Kings of making the club.

There is a second game between the teams Sunday, and more veterans will be added to the lineup, including goalie Stephane Fiset, defensemen Gary Galley and Steve Duchesne and winger Luc Robitaille.

The NHL requires teams to dress 10 experienced players for exhibition games.

Defenseman Rob Blake and left wing Matt Johnson, who both signed Friday, will be along on the trip but are not expected to play until Tuesday in the first home exhibition, against the Mighty Ducks.

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The Kings trimmed their training camp roster to 42 players Friday, sending centers Roman Vopat and Justin Papineau and defensemen Kip Brennan, Mathieu Biron, Joe Rullier, Jeff Katcher and Konrad Brand back to their junior clubs, and assigning right wingers Greg Phillips and Justin Martin and defenseman Jan Nemecek to the Ice Dogs of the IHL.