It’s Not About Hockey on Special Night

The men in uniforms took the ice, and there were cheers. The biggest cheers of the night. Not for the Kings. Not for the Mighty Ducks. For the Los Angeles Police Honor Guard.

They carried the American and California flags out for the national anthem, and Tuesday night’s exhibition was as much an opportunity to cheer symbols of our country as it was about a hockey game.

After the Dodgers brought Los Angeles back to professional sports on Monday night, it was the Kings and Ducks’ chance to return the NHL to Staples Center.

More than that, it was a chance to honor Garnet “Ace” Bailey and Mark Bavis.

The two Kings scouts were coming to L.A. on United Airlines flight 175 from their homes in the Boston area for the start of training camp last Tuesday. It was the second plane to crash into the World Trade Center in the series of terrorist attacks on New York and Arlington, Va.

Their faces were shown on the giant scoreboard video screens. showed a video montage featuring images from the rescue efforts, set to Enya’s “Only Time” as well as sound bites from President Bush and others.

Mike Lurey, a Kings season-ticket holder since 1982, didn’t wear any purple or black. He wore a star-spangled hat he bought for the Women’s World Cup soccer team two years ago, and a USA hockey sweater.

“I wore my red, white and blue colors tonight in honor of America,” he said.

There were plenty of empty seats.

But one fan in section 118 used the four chairs next to him to spread out an American flag.

For the record, the Ducks won, 3-1. The more meaningful number came during the first intermission, King President Tim Leiweke and General Manager Dave Taylor joined L.A. Chief of Police Bernard Parks on the ice for the presentation of a $150,000 check to go to families of the killed rescue workers in New York, in honor of Bailey and Bavis. An additional $5,000 was raised from silent auctions of Kings memorabilia during the game.

Leiweke was one of the people who decided to donate proceeds from Tuesday’s game to the victims’ families.

“A lot of us had the idea,” Leiweke said. “It wasn’t hard to come up with the idea. When we were tracking Ace and trying to figure out where he was [last] Tuesday morning, then when we figured out what had happened. ... From that point on, like everybody else, I was absolutely mesmerized by everything going on there, and I was absolutely overwhelmed by the firemen and the policemen.

“It made me have to do something. Your heart went out to all those people. I couldn’t believe that they went into that building, knowing what they were facing. I couldn’t believe that the chief of the fire department was there and lost his life, and the chaplain was there and he lost his life. That was amazing.”

For the Kings it’s been especially difficult to have such a personal connection to the tragedy.

“Almost everybody’s touched by it,” Leiweke said. “For me, I’m really guilty, because two of my guys got killed. And I feel responsible for that. So that hurts.”

You try to tell him that he can’t take responsibility for simply expecting someone to show up for work, just like the hundreds of victims in their offices at the World Trade Center.

“Still, they’re on my call,” Leiweke said, his eyes staring straight down. “And I feel bad about that. I feel bad for their families. I feel bad for the organization. All you can do is you go help where you can help, and you give.

“I just believe God wants us to take this and turn something good [out] of it. I’m hoping this much pain means there’s a lot of good coming. I’ve got to believe that’s what this is all about.

“I’ve got to believe at the end of the day there’s going to be a re-awakening of patriotism and spiritualism. As it relates to the [Kings] family, I sure do appreciate the staff a lot more.”

Kings players will wear a special patch over their hearts on the their uniforms to honor Bailey and Bavis. The patches have the initials AM (for Ace and Mark) cut out of a stars-and-stripes pattern. The blue field between the stars in the “A” form maple leafs in honor Bailey’s country of birth, Canada.

Ottawa Senator assistant coach Perry Pearn--who, like nearly everyone else in the hockey world, was a friend of Bailey--came up with the concept. He had a Senators graphic artist work on the design, then sent it to Taylor.

The Kings coaches are already wearing a black circular patch with the Kings’ crown and the words ‘Ace’ and ‘Mark’ on their warm-up jackets.

It was amazing how quickly Staples Center turned quiet after the game. Soon there was no sound except for the Zamboni cleaning the ice.

It’s still impossible to shake the images of the past week from the mind. It doesn’t even take video tributes or patches to keep the memories of lives lost fresh.

All it took, even in a nearly empty arena, was a look at the American flag hanging from the Eastern rafters.

Ace and Mark, and the thousands of others who died, won’t be forgotten.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.