Hockey in LA

The Good

• Tickets for Games 3 and 4 were very sold out. As in none available. Now, you could argue that in selling out 18,867 tickets in market with some 16.37 Million people in it as not terribly impressive, but in Vancouver this year, a (sometimes violently) crazed hockey market of 2.3 Million, there were plenty of tickets available in a buidling that holds 18,910. Prices at the Staples Center ranged from $190 to $950+. Sucks they were sold out becuse I totally for real would have bought one of the $950+ ones, I swear.

• I was at pub/bar/restaurant/club/whatever the hell you want to call it, and Game 4 was on the Big Screen TV. It was in a part of the room where not a lot of people were for reasons too long and dull to explain here. As I stood watching it, so did a handful others, a few quite intently. One of them, noticing my mutual game-centric focus, walked up and said "Man, has Slava Voynov ever been amazing this playoffs." Now, I am a Winnipeg raised, borderline obssessive Hockey fanatic – one that also happens to write for a hockey site, at that – and I could not have had any less of an idea of how well Slava Voynov had been playing. I would have been proud to have told a someone I knew who Slava Voynov was, and what position he played. That this random LA dude knew of him, and his brilliance to date – 12 points in 17 gamess to that point, leading the defense in scoring and Drew Doughty by 7 points – was impressive. I knew these numbers because an on-screen graphic showed it, coincidentally, immediatlety following his comment, allowing me to agree and further extoll on his brilliance as any self respecting hockey fan/writer would. There were serious fans out there, I saw.

• The Kings were a frequent topic of discussion on the local Sports radio station. Even the somewhat legendary Pat O’Brien was onboard the Kings train. He interviewed Dustin Penner, and seemed to be a relatively knowledgable hockey observer, which is a good trait in a Sports Radio host. O’Brien made references to other times he had Penner on the show, which pleased me, as it proved Hockey was more than a passing fancy in the Market. O’Brien also made references to the Celebrities at the games, such as Tom Cruise and David Beckham, how you only have to go to one game to fall in love with the game, and how he had a better car than Justin Bieber, whom he demanded, hopefully not jokingly, to get out of his seats. The Kings were mentioned frequently on all programs – they were certanly on the Radar.

• I met the guy in the picture at the top of the page on the Street. Well, ‘met him’ is a stretch. It was 2:00am, he drunkenly walked passed me, and I had to take his photo as proof that people actually wear LA Kings gear in public. Rather than get upset a total stranger for blatantly taking his photo in the wee hours of the morning, he chose to pose, ask for a cigarette, and share his dismay at the series score, at that point 3-1 Chicago. I high-fived him for posing, declined his cigarette request (buy your own damn smokes) and told him to keep his chin up, because "The Series ain’t over yet!". The statement was true for another 48 hours. 

• Watching TV late one night, I turned to it the local sports channel and found myself shocked to find a special feature on none other than Daryl Sutter. It profiled the previous season’s events, culminating in the big Stanley Cup party at the Sutter’s ranch in Viking, Alberta. Until you see Daryl Sutter’s unrelenting mug beaming across the TV at you in Los Angeles, you’ve never seen weird. If there’s anything less ‘LA" than Daryl Sutter, I challenge you to name it. To see the stern faced Sutter flipping hamburgers at his Cup celebration at his rural Alberta farm, in Southern California, is truly sight to behold. An amazing contrast. In a town that wholly embraces shallow vapididty, it was a breath of fresh air to see Daryl’s unforgettable scowl on the Television.

The Bad

• The Kings may have been on the LA sports Radio radar, but it was far from the largest blip. The stories that took up the majority of the airtime were the NBA Finals and the stunning debut week of LA Dodger rookie outfielder Yusiel Puig. I mean, they went nuts on Puig. I could only compare it to the love of Sidney Crosby  after ‘The Golden Goal’. You’d think Yusiel Puig was bigger than Jesus, mostly because one DJ suggested as much. They were literally singing his praise, improvising songs about Puig (pronounced Pweeg), putting his name in whatever song they could cram it in, singing tunes like "Puig Dreams are made of these", "Getting Puig’y with it", and "Sweet Puig o’ Mine". It was nuts. It proved that, as defending Cup Champs, Sutter’s gang could, at a moment’s notice, be considerably less popular than a red-hot Rookie on the Dodgers with a unique, pun’able last  name

The Ugly

• I saw a hat store and figured it would be as good a barometer as any of the NHL’s status in town. I had hoped to find a Jets hat, but realistically figured that might be a stretch, but a Flames or Canucks hat would suffice as evidence of some kind of traction with local hat wearers and bald guys. What was there? Certainly no Jets hat. Nor Flames, nor Canucks, nor even Maple Leafs. No Rangers. No Ducks. In fact, there wasn’t even one Kings hat. Nothing. There were he standard NFL, NBA and MLB hats, but not one NHL hat of any kind. Even worse was the stunning amount of Batman hats. Dozens of them. All diffirent kinds of Batman hats. There were Big Bang Theory Hats, Sons of Anarchy hats. I’m sure they would have had a Price is Right toque in the back, if I asked. But nothing Hockey at all.  

The Moral of the Story