For a few moments the years fell away and they were all young and vigorous again, pioneers in the strange, new hockey outpost that was Los Angeles in 1967 when the Kings joined the NHL.
Reunited to celebrate the franchise’s 50th anniversary season, more than a dozen players from that first team — and still-mellifluous broadcaster Jiggs McDonald — were welcomed at Staples Center before the current team played its first home game of the season. Many of the visitors entered the locker room with gaits slowed by knee or hip replacements, bypass surgery, or the aches of long-ago injuries.