Despite being underdogs against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Edmonton Oilers in the Smythe Division semifinals, Gretzky led the Kings to a shocking upset of his old squad, spearheading the Kings ' return from a 3 – 1 series deficit to win the series 4 – 3.

* Despite successfully invading England in 1216, being proclaimed King Louis of England in London and conquering half the country, under the terms of the treaty of Lambeth Louis is not counted as one of the Kings of England.

Despite injuries suffered in the series with Calgary, they defeated the Los Angeles Kings in six games.

* Despite its literal meaning, unlike many other titles meaning Great King, neither Maharaja nor Rajadhiraja (' King of Kings '), nor even its equivalent amongst Maharajas, ' Maharajadhiraja ', ever reached the standing required for imperial rank, as each was soon the object of title inflation.

Despite their misgivings ( and Belvedere's declaration that he detests children ), the Kings reluctantly agree to a trial period.

Despite a significant bias that only black musicians could play “ real ” jazz, white bands such as the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band ( ODJB ) emerged and found great success, especially in their recordings.

Despite winning the 1966 Memorial Cup, the Edmonton Oil Kings ' owner, Bill Hunter, was growing concerned about the state of junior hockey in western Canada.

Despite the Ottoman conquest, the title of " Duke of Athens and Neopatras " continued in use by the kings of Aragon, and through them by the Kings of Spain, up to the present day.

Despite leading the playoffs in scoring through the first three rounds, Kovalchuk was playing through a herniated disc in his back, and was very ineffective against the Kings, scoring just one point in the series, an empty-net goal in Game 4, as the Devils fell to the Kings in six games.

Despite Dionne's production during the regular season, he was frustrated with the Kings ' lack of playoff success ; they made the postseason from 1976 – 82 but only advanced to the second round three times for a total of 43 playoff games.

Despite using the same game engine and similar code to its predecessor, development of The Age of Kings took a year longer than expected, forcing Ensemble Studios to release Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome in 1998 instead.

Despite this, though, he struggled in the playoffs and earned the ire of Canuck fans when he asked his idol Wayne Gretzky for a game stick immediately following the team's ouster from the playoffs by the Los Angeles Kings, an action fans felt symbolized the lack of commitment to winning from a player who scored just 3 goals in 28 playoff games as a Canuck.

Despite his great fighting abilities, the armies of the Priest Kings were too many to defeat: Lahmia was sacked, its people enslaved or killed, and the undead aristocrats hunted down and put to the sword.

Despite a pair of impressive back-to-back 4-0 wins over Indiana Invaders and Cincinnati Kings in the run-in-the last of which saw all four goals being scored by Daniel Revivo-Toronto's final day defeat to Michigan left them in third place in the Great Lakes division, squeaking into the playoffs on ' games won ' ahead of Des Moines Menace, but needing to negotiate a preliminary ' Divisional Round ' play-in game against Cleveland Internationals.

Despite the amount of pristine uncut old growth available when logging began, the Kings River Lumber Company was unable to ever recover much, if any, profit due to the cost of logging such large and isolated timber.

Despite Brown's personal success, the rebuilding Kings missed the playoffs for the fifth straight year.

Despite the 1217 Treaty of Lambeth, hostilities continued between the successive Kings of France and England until 1259.

Despite not being able to play Bogut has since expressed interest in joining the Kings coaching staff during the lockout to help out the club and still helping to raise the NBL's profile.

Despite his refusal to become a knight, he is named a knight of Joffrey's Kingsguard in A Clash of Kings and is often assigned to guard Sansa.

Despite losing their opening two fixtures, the Kings nevertheless became a tough team to beat, and enjoyed improved home form throughout the season.

Despite their advertising the Lizard Kings were not able to cover their operating costs, and lost $ 2. 2 million over four years.

Despite his reputation as a fighting-only player, Laraque has had offensive bursts during his career and on February 21, 2000, Laraque scored a hat trick against the Los Angeles Kings and was also named the game's first star.

Despite a formal request to the AFL being denied, players wore yellow armbands for the match which resulted in the club being fined $ 20, 000.

Despite a request from the Burritos that the remnants of their publicity budget be diverted to promotion of the single, it also flopped.

Despite the efforts of the United States, Israel, Egypt, and others to obtain an extension of the UN role in observing the peace between Israel and Egypt, as called for under the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty of 1979, the mandate could not be extended because of the veto by the USSR in the security council, at the request of Syria.

Despite her personal views, Alexandra supported her son's reluctant agreement to Prime Minister H. H. Asquith's request to create sufficient Liberal peers after a general election if the Lords continued to block the legislation.

Despite this, the authorities did not provide protection for Fortuyn, nor did he request protection.

Despite calls for a boycott by Gazan students, and a request to boycott from PACBI Atwood visited Israel and accepted the $ 1, 000, 000 Dan David Prize along with Indian author Amitav Ghosh at Tel Aviv University in May 2010.

Despite this clause, the will does not contain a formal request or plans for a posthumous journey to Russia.

Despite the U. S. request that those involved be brought to account, Sharon was not prosecuted.

Despite the request, Wannabe Fansubs and a handful of other fansubbing groups continued to produce fansubs of MFI anime series.

Despite having agreed to Sullivan's request that the line " Girl we couldn't get much higher " be changed for the show, Jim Morrison performs it the way it was written and The Doors are banned from the show.

Despite starting the season for Newcastle and scoring in a League Cup win over Coventry City, it was revealed after the game that Milner had handed in a written transfer request the week before.

Despite the fact that he was on the list of war criminals, France decided to consider him as a political prisoner and refused to comply with the British request.

Despite Faisal's dying request that the life of his assassin be spared, he was beheaded in the public square in Riyadh.

Despite this recognition, the royal family rigidly opposed her potential marriage to the King's uncle, a rejection that deeply wounded her pride and led her to distance herself from the royal family and embrace grassroots causes, such as her answering the request of the Egyptian legion trapped in Falujah during the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict to sing a particular song.

Despite the government decision, the eight municipalities of Södertörn sent another request to the Swedish government that the university college be lifted to full university status.

Despite courting controversy by accusing manager Rafael Benítez of ' treating him like a slave ', he insisted that he had no ill feelings towards the club or anyone associated with it and only wanted to leave after failing to make Poland's World Cup squad, but still stayed on for another year at the manager's request.

Despite the overt request for direct action, many consumers respond to the messages in an infomercial with purchases at retail outlets.

Despite formally retiring at the end of the 2004 season, with a possible view to moving into the World Touring Car Championship, he was to actually find himself invited back to the WRC fold on the request of Citroën, to replace the faltering Belgian driver François Duval.

Despite intense opposition from the traditional Buddhist schools in Nara, his request was granted by Emperor Saga in 822, several days after Saichō died.

Despite the initial request of the Calcutta Club that the trophy be used as rugby's answer to football's FA Cup, the RFU refused to turn the Calcutta Cup into a knock-out competition for English club sides.

Despite evidence of Big Bear's efforts to actually prevent the killings at Frog Lake, he was convicted for participation in the rebellion with a request from the jury for mercy.

Despite Sleeper's request for criticism, none of Hynek's commentary resulted in any substantial changes in Blue Book.

) Despite this, Crittenden refused a request to represent Beauchamp in his murder trial because he wanted to avoid any implication in the matter.

Despite Nevada's request, the petition was submitted and approved in 1974.