Approximately two years ago, I wrote a blog post here about the LA Kings first Stanley Cup Championship. As a long time Kings fan, that was a night I'd waited more than two decades for. It was unbelievable and amazing.
Tonight, on Friday the 13th, those same (for the most part) Kings did it again, becoming the 2014 Stanley Cup Champions.
This year, it was a lot harder. They were down 0-3 in the first round. They won in seven games, becoming only the fourth team in Stanley Cup history to come back and win from that deficit. They won rounds 2 and 3 in seven games too, with round 3 vs 2013 Champs Chicago being a double overtime win, courtesy of defensemen Alec Martinez.
In these Finals vs the New York Rangers, the Kings won Game 1 in OT. They won Game 2 in Double OT. They shut the Rangers out 3-0 in Game 3, and then lost Game 4, 1-2. The Rangers would not go down easily. Tonight, proved that point. Game 5 of the Finals went to Double OT too, with Alec Martinez once again scoring the double OT winner in what was the longest game in LA Kings history.
2012 was, after decades of trying, a remarkably easy playoff run.
2014 was hard!! And it proved you should never give up. And that if you #believe, anything is possible, even winning the most special trophy in all of sports.
Being present in the building for Double OT with that great trophy in the building... that close.. just waiting to be won... was mentally draining.
So rather than pontificate further about how special this win is (trust me, it is). Or how awesome this team is (cuz they are), I'm just going to post some photos and then go have a celebratory cocktail made from my legit Russian vodka I only break out on very special occasions... because being a Kings fan this year was awesome, but totally exhausting :)
Celebrating the double OT winner! (Well, the Kings and the crowd are. Lundqvist is likely not.)
Dad and Me. He's now 2-0 in Stanley Cup Championship games :)
The Conn Smythe Trophy
Conn Smythe Winner as Playoff MVP, Justin Williams, is congratulated by Anze Kopitar (#11)
Here comes The Cup!
The Stanley Cup!
Kings Captain Dustin Brown raises the Cup for the second time in three seasons!
Gaborik raises the Cup!
2014 Stanley Cup Champions!
LUUUUUUUC
Jonathan Quick (#32, center holding his daughter) and Anze Kopitar (#11, background) celebrate with their families on the ice.
Two years ago the LA Kings coasted through the first 3 rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs to face the New Jersey Devils in the Stanley Cup Finals.
They won games 1 and 2 in overtime. Game 3 was a shutout at home. Game 4, the would've-been sweep was an anxiety-ridden mess. Game 5 in NJ was also a loss as the Devils fought for their lives.
Game 6 was back in LA. In the 1st period, the Devils smashed Rob Scuderi's face into the glass, resulting in a 5-minute major penalty that the Kings scored three goals on. Before the night was over, they would score three more, giving up only one to the Eastern Conference Champs, on their way to their first-ever Stanley Cup Championship in 45 years.
That was June 11, 2012.
The 2013-14 LA Kings spent the first three rounds of the 2014 playoffs making history by coming from 0-3 to win Round 1, and then making more history by winning all three series in Game 7 on the road. Tonight, they shut out the New York Rangers 3-0 in Game 3 of the Finals, to take a 3-0 series lead.
They have now won 15 games this post-season. They need to win one more game to take back hockey's holy grail.
Stanley Cup Finals 2014, Game 4 is this Wednesday night.
This Wednesday is June 11.
#believe
PS: If needed, Game 5 in LA is on Friday the 13th. My superstitious self kinda feels that's when the 16th win will come. It would only be appropriate for such a superstitious sport (and superstitious Kings fans like me, who have tickets to Game 5 ;) #knockonwoodnowhammiesnojinxes #gokingsgo
A little over a year ago, Rob Scuderi got his face boarded into the glass at Staples Center by Steve Bernier of the New Jersey Devils in the first period of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Bernier received a five minute major penalty. What that means to you non-hockey people, is the Kings had a one-man advantage for five minutes. But unlike a normal power play, when once you score, the power play is over and the penalty ends, on a major power play the penalty doesn't end when you score. It goes the whole five minutes. You have a man-advantage for five whole minutes. And you can score as many times as you're able during that power play.
The Kings scored three goals in that five minutes, putting them up 3-0 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals with a series lead of 3-2 games. The Devils were deflated. And the Kings and crowd at Staples Center were not only able to breathe a bit, but were totally fired up on their way to a joyous celebration 50 minutes of play later :)
Today, Scuderi -- as an unrestricted free-agent -- left the Kings for a better deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He's the first significantly contributing member of the 2012 Championship team to leave the Kings.
Scuderi (aka Scuds) was one of our veteran, reliable, stay-at-home, help-the-newbie-D's-get-their-footing defensemen. And for that, he will be missed.
But he will always be remembered for sacrificing his face (and coming back to finish the game!) the night the LA Kings won their Stanley Cup! And I wish him well.
Exactly one year ago tonight, I was standing in the lower bowl of Staples Center with my dad watching this happen...
Sadly, I won't get to relive that experience again this season. The Kings' 2013 season ended last Saturday night in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals when the Chicago Blackhawks (who, ironically, ruined our home opener/Stanley Cup banner raising at the beginning of the season) beat them in double overtime -- the longest game in Kings history -- and eliminated them from this year's playoffs. The Blackhawks will now play the Boston Bruins in this year's Stanley Cup Finals, beginning tomorrow. (And by the way... GO BRUINS!)
Those who know me assumed that game was an extremely upsetting event for me. (I actually received condolence messages from multiple friends and coworkers.) But as someone who's been upset and disappointed for approximately 90% of my 25 years as a Kings fan, that was nothing. In fact, I was actually proud of them. Sure they were eliminated in five games. But they made it back to the Western Conference Finals the year after winning The Cup. Most teams who've won the Stanley Cup in recent years have been eliminated in the first round the next year. The New Jersey Devils, who we beat last year, didn't even make the playoffs this year. So to even make it to the Conference Finals was a big accomplishment.
On top of that, after quickly falling behind 0-2 in Game 5, the Kings battled back to tie the game 2-2 in the 3rd. Then, with three minutes remaining in the game, the Hawks scored what many assumed was the game winning goal. But the Kings wouldn't go quietly, and with 9.3 seconds left in regulation, Anze Kopitar deflected a shot off of Mike Richards and into the net to send the game to OT. No Kings team of my first 23 years of fandom would've battled back like that. And yes, they were eventually beaten 32 minutes later when Patrick Kane finally got a puck past Jonathan Quick. But they went down fighting and that's all you can ask for... especially from a team that was too beaten up to realistically go much further. The Blackhawks were too good this year, and the Kings were hurting, bad.
In the playoffs, no one talks about injuries. But any Kings fan could tell things were not right with the team, especially the top lines. Hits weren't being thrown. Goals weren't being scored. Skating fast seemed reeeeally hard sometimes.
I was certain Kopitar had messed up his knee again -- that was the only way to explain his lack of goal scoring. But it turns out, he's the only top-line player who wasn't injured. Justin Williams had been playing with a separated shoulder since the San Jose series. Dustin Brown was playing with a torn PCL in his knee. Drew Doughty was skating on a messed up ankle for the last two series. And Robin Regher just had surgery today to repair his elbow that's been damaged since the start of the playoffs.
Considering all that, the fact that they beat San Jose in Round 2 was a minor miracle. So I can't be upset about losing to Chicago.
All I want now is for them to get healthy again so they can kick butt next year... specifically the Blackhawks' butts... and of course the Ginger Twins'. (Me, hold a grudge? Ha.)
And until then, I will enjoy not having to drive downtown twice a week to fight for parking spaces that haven't yet been vacated by downtown worker bees by the time nationally televised games start.
And I will watch this and remember the most amazing two months of hockey that culminated in the most surreal, amazing, fairy tale ending 365 days ago.
Happy Cup-iVersary LA Kings and Fans! It was an amazing ride... and I have no doubt we'll experience it again very soon :)
... Reliving the LA Kings' Road to the 2012 Stanley Cup.
This is a great retrospective video series they've been showing during intermissions at games this season. I'm mostly posting it here for me so I can watch them all in one place whenever I want to, but hopefully the hockey fans amongst you will enjoy it too :)
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 1: Stoll's OT Winner
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 2: Penner's OT Winner
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 3: Scuderi Hit
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 4: Daryl Sutter Hired
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 5: The Trade Deadline
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 6: Brown Hits Sedin
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 7: Kings Sweeps St. Louis
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 8: LAX Arrival
Added 3/30/13
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 9: Kopitar's OT Winner
Added 4/5/13
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 10: Carter's OT Winner
Added 4/8/13
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 11: The 5-Minute Major
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 12: The Final Minutes
Added 4/12/13
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 13: The Stanley Cup
Added 4/16/13
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 14: Looking Back
Added 4/20/13
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 15: The 16-4 Playoff Record
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 16: Quick Wins the Conn Smythe
Added 4/23/13
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 17: Champagne Shower
Added 4/26/13
Stanley Cup Moments Episode 18: Championship Parade
So I woke up yesterday and, per my normal routine, grabbed my phone and started scrolling through my Twitter feed (which is where I get most of my news) to see what happened in the world overnight.
About 15 tweets in, I had to pinch myself to make sure I was really awake, because CNN, ABC7, and my fave local hockey writers @helenenothelen and @reallisa from the LA Times, plus players like Dustin Brown were all tweeting and retweeting that after 100+ days, an agreement had finally been reached between the NHL and the NHL Players Association to end the evil lockout and get back on the ice.
I kind of couldn't believe it.
I'd given up hope about a month ago. And -- out of ticked-off frustration -- created an awesome excel spreadsheet calculating not only the amount I was going to be refunded in cancelled LA Kings games this season, but also the 5% interest I was earning on that refund by allowing the Kings to hold on to my cash for future purchases of playoff tickets or next season's tickets (vs sending it back to me so it could sit in my bank account earning maybe 0.1% interest if I'm lucky :P). I figured out it would be at least Summer 2014 before they got another not-already-paid-to-them cent out of me!
I was angry at the greedy owners, getting close to angry with the players I love (although not really) and hated Commissioner Gary Bettman even more than I already did (thanks to two previous lockouts during his "reign" and the fact that he's just a squirrely, annoying little man).
Then, as I scrolled my feed, I saw a tweet from the LA Kings twitter feed: "First order of business: raise banner."
And suddenly, all my joy from last June came flooding back. My team won the holy grail of hockey on June 11th after 45 years of trying. And they, plus all us long-suffering LA Kings fans, have been waiting since then to claim real estate in the Staples Center rafters with a banner that reads: 2012 Stanley Cup CHAMPIONS!
I'm not saying all is forgiven... there was serious damage done to the sport and it remains to be seen if anyone actually "won" anything from all this "negotiating." Lots of fans are ticked off and planning to boycott games.
But I've missed hockey.
And I want to see that banner go up on the wall.
And I've got a brand new Dustin Brown jersey that I bought in the early morning hours of June 12th that hasn't been to a game at Staples Center yet. :)
So I am keeping my schedule free from next Thursday night onward, waiting for the NHL's shortened-season schedule to be released. And I will be in Section 205 when that banner is raised.
I guess I love hockey too much to hold a grudge. Sorry Angry Fans :P
I met with my dad's financial adviser, who is now my financial adviser, and she told me to go to Tuscany.
Said financial adviser is also going to start making smart decisions (vs. no decisions, which has been the case the last three-ish years) for me about my 401k that will soon be rolled into an IRA.
I spent lots of time with my amazing friends and family this week eating, drinking, hiking, talking, commiserating, laughing and rocking out. Most of them also told me to go to Italy, and one of them found me a dream "old stone house in Tuscany" to stay in for $100/night.
I finally saw Pat Benatar in concert, one of the artists on my musical bucket list, also with great friends (and lots of vodka ;)
For the first time since his kidney disease diagnosis last November, both of my cat Lucky's kidney values went down in unison + he continues to maintain his puny 6 lbs-1 oz weight for the fifth month in a row. (Hey, he didn't lose weight, which would be very, very bad.)
I love this video. I have loved it for two months since it debuted at Game 3 of Round 2 of the playoffs vs. the St. Louis Blues. It has slightly evolved during every subsequent playoff round since April and this is my most favorite version of it :-)
Today was the LA Kings Stanley Cup Victory Parade, an event I never thought I'd ever live to see ;) It was great to see all the players so relaxed and having so much fun after working so hard for the last two months. It was also great to see that really pretty shiny Cup in their hands :)
Here are a few pics from the day:
(The majority are on my Facebook page. If we're friends, go check them out there)
My "money shot" -- Dustin Brown lifts The Stanley Cup, while Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Quick hug it out. Awww.
I was taking pics of Mike Richards, Drew Doughty, Dustin Penner and Jeff Carter and didn't even notice Luuuuuc Robitaille standing right behind them until now :)
President of Business Operations Luuuuuc Robitaille addresses the team and fans
Team photo with the hardware :)
Today was a celebration for every player who's ever worn a Kings jersey, and all the fans who cheered for them over the last 45 years. It was also for all the personnel who've worked within the Kings organization over the years to mold the team that won that Cup on Monday.
That's why this photo -- taken at the 9-11 Memorial by Kings fan Dave Krasne in New York, and posted today on Twitter with the message, "As a Kings fan in NYC, I couldn't let Mark Bavis or Ace Bailey miss the festivities" -- is so poignant.
Mark Bavis and Garnet "Ace" Bailey were LA Kings scouts who perished on one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center on 9-11. (The Kings mascot "Bailey" is named after Ace.) There is a rumor that the team is petitioning the NHL to put Mark and Ace's names on the Cup. I hope they succeed.
I don't really know how to put into words what I'm feeling tonight. I just watched the LA Kings win the Stanley Cup for the first time in their 45-year history, live from Section 206 at Staples Center. I expected to cry at the game when it looked like they'd win. Well, they looked like they'd win in the first period after taking advantage of a 5-minute major penalty and scoring three power play goals. I didn't cry then. I cheered. I didn't cry at the end of the game either. Instead, I started shaking with about 10 minutes left in the game. My hands, my legs... and I'm still not sure my hands have completely stopped shaking. But I didn't cry till I got home and watched my favorite current King, Captain Dustin Brown, lift the Cup, kiss it and hand it off to 35-year-old, first time Champion Willie Mitchell...
Seeing their faces close-up, hearing them speak. So happy! They worked so hard. And they did something truly remarkable. The Kings were a 75-1 long shot to win the Stanley Cup at the beginning of the season. Since then, they fired one coach, and hired another. They struggled to score goals and barely made the playoffs, scraping in as the 8th seed just two games before the end of the regular season. But once they got there, they knocked off the #1, #2 and #3 seeds in the West.
Then they took a 3-0 lead against the Eastern Champions, and one of the best goaltenders -- Martin Broudeur -- to ever play in the NHL. Games 4 and 5, which they lost due to bad luck and stupid mistakes, nearly broke me as a fan. All my doubts -- ingrained over 24 years of disappointment -- about their ability to win came back. I actually thought about selling my tickets tonight -- they were going for $1,200 to $9,999 each on stubhub.com, and I knew I couldn't sit through another three hours of nervous nausea like I'd experienced in Games 4 and 5.
But I also knew if they won tonight and I wasn't there, I'd slit my wrists. So I drove to Staples Center, for the 9th time in the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, this time with my Dad because if they were going to win, I wanted a family member there with me to experience it. (My little brother had come with me to Game 4.) I was wearing what I wore last Monday when they won 4-0. I ordered the exact same drink and food. And I sat in the exact same seat -- row 7, seat 8. And tonight, I watched my Kings completely eviscerate that future Hall of Fame goaltender... scoring 6 goals (5 with him in net) before it was all over. They came out hard. These were the Kings of Game 3, not the Kings who let nerves get to them in Games 4 and 5. And because of that, these Kings ARE the 2012 Stanley Cup Champions!
Here are some of the sights of Game 6 -- the game when the Kings were finally crowned Champions!
From the awesome pre-game video:
After goals by Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter and Trevor Lewis during the 5-minute major boarding penalty (Rob Scuderi really took one for the team with that hit. So glad he wasn't seriously injured and came back to play. He's really gonna feel that tomorrow, but something tells me he won't care :)
Jeff Carter scores goal #2 for him and #4 for the rest of us :)
Me and Dad during 2nd intermission... kinda grainy cuz I had to pump up the color levels to make us visible under the super-bright florescent lights.
The final stats
Dustin "Pancakes" Penner (who said he'd mix pancake batter in the bowl of the Cup if he won it again ;) passes Lord Stanley's Cup to Jonathan Quick.
Conn Smythe Winner, Stanley Cup Champ and most likely Vezina Trophy Winner Jonathan Quick hoists the Cup!
Drew Doughty celebrates!
The Captain presents the Cup to the Kings elusive owner Phil Anschutz at the bench.
Luuuuuuuuuuc Robitaille finally lifts the Cup as a KING!! (He won it as a player, but had to go to Detroit to do it)
Willie Mitchell with the Cup, surrounded by press, players and their families
The photo I've been waiting 24 years for! (Love that Luc and former King/now special assistant to the coach Bernie Nicholls snuck in there on the right :)
And this just makes me smile.. Dustin Brown with one of his three mini-me sons (photo stolen from the awesome LA Kings twitter feed :)
