No Playoffs, but Play Continues

The start of a long off-season is only days away for the Kings, who wrap up the Staples Center portion of their schedule tonight against Colorado. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be idle all summer, or even off the ice.

Along with Coach Andy Murray, who was named Monday to lead Team Canada, several will participate in the World Championships starting April 26 in Finland.

Ziggy Palffy and defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky will again play for Slovakia after helping the Slovaks win the gold medal last year with a 4-3 victory over Russia in the championship game at Gothenburg, Sweden.

Captain Mattias Norstrom, like Palffy a two-time Olympian, will play for Sweden and rookie Alexander Frolov will play in the annual event for the first time. Defenseman Jaroslav Modry will play for the Czech Republic and 2002 Olympian Mikko Eloranta has been asked to try out for Finland.

Also, seven Kings on the current roster -- Joe Corvo, Sean Avery, Tomas Zizka, Ryan Flinn, Steve Kelly, Jerred Smithson and Cristobal Huet -- will join the club’s American Hockey League team at Manchester, N.H., for the playoffs.

*

TONIGHT

vs. Colorado, 7:30, FSN

Site -- Staples Center.

Radio -- KSPN (710).

Records -- Kings 31-37-6-5, Avalanche 40-18-13-8.

Record vs. Avalanche -- 0-3.

Update -- In February and March, the Kings were 1-10-1-1 against playoff-bound teams.