12 Down, 4 To Go

Now, I already did a column last month on why I think the Kings will win the Stanley Cup. But, I feel the need to devote another column to the Kings. Plus, I feel I'm slacking on the hockey coverage. Since I last blogged about the Kings (right after they beat Vancouver), the Kings have continued on an amazing run, going 8-1 the last two series against St. Louis and Phoenix. The points I wrote about in the first article are still valid today, one month later. The Kings' goalie, Jonathan Quick, is playing maybe the best out of any goalie in the NHL, Dustin Brown has continued to come up with big goals and big plays for the Kings, and could win the Smythe Trophy should the Kings win it all. Anze Kopitar has been another player to come up big this postseason. Also, Drew Doughty and Brad Richards have made big plays too. The appropriately named Dwight King has also come up big for the Kings in this postseason, and is an example of the deep, young, and talented roster of the LA Kings. This Kings team always plays with a full effort and are disciplined, physical, and mentally tough.

However, this goes just beyond the Kings. This is about Los Angeles. LA has often been made fun of in hockey circles as a city that has little to no knowledge of hockey. I would just like to say that is BULLSHIT. What those people don't realize is, while hockey may not have the same significance in our city's sports scene as it does in New York, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, or Pittsburgh, it is still important to us. Steadily, over the years, the LA Kings have developed a loyal following here in Southern California, even before Wayne Gretzky arrived. Now, just 4 wins away from hockey's ultimate prize, the Kings' cup run has become LA's top sports story, and even people who showed no interest in hockey up to this point have followed the Kings. Yes, that sounds like a description of a bandwagon fan. But you know what? The Kings have been an underappreciated part of the SoCal sports landscape for years. A Cup win will put them on a level they have never reached before, even beyond the levels they reached during the Gretzky years. So, yes, people in northern cities/Canada, we do fuckin' care about hockey, and yes, if this team wins the Cup, we will be there at the parade, because there is one thing LA loves more than anything else: a winner.