LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Los Angeles Kings gathered at centre ice while the Stanley Cup was lowered from the scoreboard, and they watched their championship banner raised to the rafters in a stirring pregame ceremony.Those good feelings were largely gone by the time the Kings stumbled back to their dressing room after a blowout loss to the San Jose Sharks, who seized the chance to erase a bit of last seasons bad memories.Tommy Wingels scored two goals, Antti Niemi made 34 saves in his 28th career shutout, and the Sharks crashed the Kings Stanley Cup banner celebration with a 4-0 victory in the season opener Wednesday night.The pregame celebration was the only thing that went according to plan for the Kings, who commemorated their 26-game playoff run to their second title in three years. After the standing ovations and celebrations, San Jose largely dominated the Kings in the first two periods with superior puck possession and movement.Thats just an excuse, Kings captain Dustin Brown said. Weve been there before. ... There are worse problems to have, so its one of those things that goes with the territory. That wasnt why we were sloppy. We were sloppy because we didnt prepare properly.Los Angeles started its playoff charge with a seven-game, first-round victory over the Sharks, who went through an off-season of rigorous self-evaluation. San Jose stripped the captaincy from Joe Thornton and parted ways with defencemen Dan Boyle and Brad Stuart.Yet little else changed about the perennial playoff team, and the Sharks returned in their usual regular-season form.Its been a long summer, thinking about this game, Wingels said. When the schedule came out and we saw that this was our first game, the media loved it, the fans loved it, and we as players loved it, too. Theres not a better way for us to start the season, and for us to be able to come in here and have this kind of success, its a big win.Patrick Marleau had a goal and an assist. Wingels and Matt Nieto scored 14 seconds apart in a three-goal second period that sent the Sharks to their NHL-best fifth straight season-opening victory.Niemi withstood a two-man advantage for the Kings in the final 1:07 of the third period.Losing the way we lost to them, we waited a long time for today, Niemi said. I think weve gained a little bit (of ground) on them (in the off-season). Were more hungry and we really want to do the details right this time.The home team had won 20 of the last 22 games in this rivalry before this one-sided win by the Sharks, who were an interesting choice of opponent for the Kings celebration night. San Jose had a 3-0 series lead in the first round before the Kings stormed back to win the series in seven games, becoming the fourth NHL team to rally from such a deficit.The Sharks stayed in their dressing room while the Kings celebrated their second championship with an on-ice ceremony starring the Stanley Cup, which was lowered from the scoreboard in a glass case.Former Kings Marcel Dionne and Rogie Vachon then brought out the new banner, and the Kings raised it amid a lengthy standing ovation.The Kings then lost on their banner night for the second time. Chicago beat Los Angeles 5-2 in January 2013.I thought the mood in the room was good, but it didnt translate once the game started, Kings defenceman Alec Martinez said. You cant come out like that against a hockey club of this calibre.Jonathan Quick stopped 23 shots for the Kings, but was replaced by Martin Jones in the third period.Wingels put the Sharks ahead with a sharp-angled shot in the first period. Marleau then redirected Brent Burns shot during a power play early in the second, and Wingels scored again on a breakaway moments before Marleau caught Quick dawdling behind his net and got the puck to Nieto.NOTES: D Brayden McNabb made his Kings debut in place of injured Jake Muzzin. Los Angeles acquired McNabb in March from Buffalo, where he played 37 games over two seasons. He beat out Jeff Schultz for a roster spot in training camp. ... Sharks D Mirco Mueller looked good in his NHL debut after making the roster in training camp. The 19-year-old Swiss prospect was San Joses first-round pick in 2013. ... Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers and middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin attended the festivities. Wholesale Royals Jerseys . TSNs Farhan Lalji reports the Edmonton Eskimos non-import DT has a workout scheduled with an NFL team next week and isnt expected to sign a deal with any team until then. Royals Jerseys China .com) - Former FBI director Robert Mueller said his investigation found no evidence that the NFL saw the elevator video of Ray Rice striking his then-fiancee before the tape was released in September. https://www.cheaproyals.com/ . "I wasnt waving the pom-poms to be involved with it to start with," Carlyle said after a 5-2 win over Carolina on Sunday night. "Its been a trying time. "Specifically we havent played as well as wed like to hang our hat on. Custom Kansas City Royals Jerseys . I wondered how NHL coaches would feel about a playoff schedule that allowed them to open a best-of-seven series on the road, which many claim to favour, yet still gave them the precious home-ice edge for a seventh game. Cheap Royals Jerseys .com) - The Miami Heat stopped a four-game losing streak last time out and thats the same length slide their opponents Wednesday night, the Denver Nuggets, will try to halt when the two teams meet at the Pepsi Center.MELBOURNE, Australia -- John Isner fired 23 aces in a match which had no service breaks to beat Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) in the final of the ATPs Heineken Open in Auckland on Saturday. Isner, ranked No. 14, won his eighth career singles title and took the title in New Zealand for the second time after his victory in 2010. The match was similar to Isners quarterfinal victory over fifth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber which went to three sets, all tiebreaks and contained no breaks of serve. Isner played six tiebreaks in 10 sets at the tournament and won five. The third-seeded Isner, playing with a right ankle injury he picked up at the Hopman Cup the previous week, took a crucial minibreak to open the first set tiebreaker. In the second tiebreaker, he rallied from 3-0 down and closed with an ace on his third championship point. "This match was very tight as every match Ive played this week was very tight," Isner said. "I needed every bit of it to come out on top. "Ive spent a lot of time on this court this week but as each match progressed I was getting more and more comfortable." Isner heads into the Australian Open with a question mark hanging over his fitness because of his injured ankle. He has drawn a qualifier in the first round. "Id like to thank my chiropractor because I had a bit of a banged-up ankle coming in here and he spent tireless hours working on me," he said. "Without him I wouldnt have been able to take this court." In the final of the Kooyong Classic exhibition event, Japans Kei Nishikori joined his coach Michael Chang as a tournament chaampion with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Tomas Berdych.dddddddddddd Nishikori, seeded No. 16 at the Australian Open, was watched in the stands by former French Open champion Chang, a three-time winner at the Melbourne venue in 1995-97. Nishikori is drawn to face Australias Marinko Matosevic in the first round of the Australian Open. "It wont be an easy first match, and its not easy to play an Australian," Nishikori said. "But if I can play like I did today, I have a big chance to win." In the WTA event at Hobart, Spanish qualifier Garbine Muguruza defeated Klara Zakapalova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-0 to claim her first singles title. The 20-year-old Muguzura, who did not drop a set from the qualifiers to the final, joins 2012 champion Mona Barthel as the only qualifiers to win the Hobart event. Muguruza, ranked 58th, beat second-seeded and Wimbledon semifinalist Kirsten Flipkens in the quarterfinals, while Zakapalova defeated top-seeded and former U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur in the semis. Muguruza won the opening set when she broke Zakapalovas service in the 10th game. The 20-year-old Muguruza didnt play after Wimbledon last year after due to right ankle surgery, and the recovery took longer than expected. "I started to play on a chair, and then it was a little bit more until I was like normal," she said. "I didnt expect to win a lot of matches in the second tournament of the year but I just know that Id worked so hard before. I was like a big bull." The Venezuelan-born Muguruza has a first-round match against Kaia Kanepi of Estonia at the Australian Open. ' ' '