Team to Visit Ground Zero

On Tuesday--the three-month anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks--General Manager Dave Taylor said that the Kings will visit the World Trade Center site during a trip to New York City next month. The Kings, following the lead of several other teams, will gather at the site Jan. 8, a day before they play the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

The visit will carry particular significance for the Kings, who lost two scouts in the disaster. Garnet “Ace” Bailey and Mark Bavis were aboard the hijacked Los Angeles-bound United Airlines flight that was crashed into the center’s south tower.

“I know a lot of teams have been going down to pay their respects, and that’s what we’d like to do,” Taylor said from Toronto, where he is scouting tryouts for the Canadian team that will compete in the World Junior Championships this month.

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Forward Adam Mair, recalled Monday from the Kings’ American Hockey League team at Manchester, N.H., is wearing a visor on his helmet after suffering a broken left eye socket during a game Oct. 13 at Norfolk, Va.

Doctors permanently inserted four titanium plates and 16 screws into his head to repair the damage, and Mair sat out 16 games for the Manchester Monarchs.

Acquired in the March trade that sent Aki Berg to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Mair, 22, said that he was deep in the attacking zone against the Norfolk Admirals when an Admiral defenseman attempted to make a desperation clearing pass.

Mair, standing about 10 feet away, blocked the puck with his face.

Sidelined for more than six weeks, he returned to the lineup Nov. 28 and had three goals and four assists in eight games before being called up. The area around his left eye is still “tingly,” he said, and much of the front left side of his head is numb.

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King captain Mattias Norstrom, a Swedish Olympian, is scheduled to carry the Olympic torch through a stretch of Pasadena on Jan. 16 as part of the torch’s 65-day, 13,500-mile journey through 46 states.