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The London trip is over, but the Kings are still dealing with its aftermath. For the past couple days, I've been hearing from people in the organization about their struggles to sleep and get back to normal activities after the trip to Europe. Coach Marc Crawford said he has been mindful of preparing his players, especially after the Ducks turned in an uneven effort against Detroit on Wednesday night.

``Our guys have been really dedicated and diligent about doing the things that are going to help them get through the tough travel and the lack of sleep and the change in sleep patterns,'' Crawford said. ``When you change your time nine hours, the way we have twice in a two-week period, it's challenging to say the least. Our guys have paid attention to doing their workouts early in the morning, being in the sunshine and just paying attentions to the details that will allow them to feel as well as they can possibly feel.

``I think most of our players watched the Anaheim game last night and they could tell Anaheim looked somewhat sluggish. But a lot of that credit goes to Detroit too.''

I asked Crawford if he took anyway away from his Japan experience, when Crawford traveled to Nagano mid-season to coach Canada's Olympic team. Crawford then returned to coach the Colorado Avalanche.

``We were probably the team that had the worst results after that Olympic break back in 1998,'' Crawford said. ``It really affected some of our key people. We didn't plan for it the way we did this time. Maybe there's a learning curve for myself. There's certainly a learning curve for the team. It speaks to just how attentive our organization is being. We paid attention to it all summer long.''

There is one potential positive though. The consensus seems to be that East-to-West travel is easier than West-to-East travel, so the Kings might avoid some of the pitfalls that have doomed other transcontinental-traveling teams.

``Talking to the European players, they all feel that way,'' Crawford said. ``They feel that when they come over from Europe, it's easier. So hopefully it is easier for us. With our guys, you call tell that by the third day over there, they definitely hit a wall. There wasn't much jump in their step. I haven't seen that here, coming back. Guys have looked good.''

Finally, Crawford was asked if he was concerned about any players in particular, in terms of re-adjustment.

``I think the smaller guys,'' Crawford said. ``You wonder if they have as much body mass, as much muscle mass, to get through it. I think the younger guys, Bernier, Brady Murray, O'Sullivan and Kopitar and some of those guys, I think with youth you want to make sure those guys are paying attention to details.''