21.   Colorado rookie defenseman Pascal Trepanier is a nephew of ex-Habs coach Mario Tremblay.

22.   Defensemen like him are big, physical, defensive defensemen.

23.   Defensemen are at a premium.

24.   Earlier, rookie defenseman Sergey Gusev was unable to take out Igor Larionov one-on-one and Larionov set up an easy tap-in for teammate Slava Fetisov.

25.   Heading back to junior hockey are defensemen Konrad Brand, Jeff Katcher, Kip Brennan, Mathieu Biron and Joe Rullier, center Justin Papineau and goalie Alexey Volkov....

26.   Kings healthy scratches were defenseman Steven Finn and forward Kai Nurminen.

27.   Kevin Stevens started a scoring play by knocking Robert Svehla off the puck just as the big defenseman was ready to hammer a shot at the right point.

28.   New to the club will be defenseman Barry Richter, who was in the Rangers organization last year, and forwards Troy Mallette and Sheldon Kennedy.

29.   One of the most egregious came early in the game, when defenseman Yevgeny Korolev was behind his own net.

30.   Other top Colorado defensemen are Rob Blake, acquired in a trade from Los Angeles, and Adam Foote, a veteran from the Quebec era.