HockeyFest Day 1: Let's Go Kings!

This has been the longest summer I can remember. Almost since our last home game on April 11th, I've been dreading the long hiatus without my Kings. Following the Stanley Cup playoffs held me over for a while, but by June I was pretty much ready for the season to start. So thank goodness the Kings found a way to end my suffering and make summer a little more bearable by putting on an entire weekend of hockey activities! The first annual LA Kings Hockey Fest started tonight with a big pep rally at the Nokia Theatre, right across from Staples Center.

This event is about more than just the current lineup of Kings. The organization brought back many noteworthy alumni, including a reunion 30 years in the making with the participation of the Kings famous "Triple Crown Line" - Marcel Dionne, Charlie Simmer and Dave Taylor. In their heyday, these guys were a goal scoring machine together, and it was so fun to watch the video montages of them playing. I got chills realizing the team I love has this kind of history behind it.

The alumni were announced first, and since they're old dudes they got to sit. Then the current players came out and stood in a row behind them.



It's so great to see Drew and the boys back together. Everyone looked tan, rested, and healthy, which I hope means they're ready to kick some major ass this season. In the photo below, Drew is 4th from the left.



But my favorite moment of the rally was a speech by our captain, Dustin Brown.



He's such a quiet and humble guy, and I have to imagine speech-making is his least favorite part of the captain gig. But he talked a lot about all the efforts the team has made to become more cohesive over the summer, training together and really getting to know and trust each other. In his mind, this group of individuals is finally becoming a team, and I know his leadership has a lot to do with that. He also owned up to the fact that success is now up to this team, and they've got no more excuses not to win. I know in my heart they're gonna leave it all on the ice this season. And I got a little choked up thinking about how far Brownie has come - from an 18 year old in a strange city getting bullied by Sean Avery to a man ready to lead his team into battle. I can't imagine a better captain for our team.

And on the eye candy front, can we take a moment and marvel at the Greek-God perfection of my favorite enforcer, Kevin Westgarth?



Kevin will get his chance to make the big club in camp starting in a week. I'm pulling for him!

The rest of the weekend is going to be full of autograph signings, speaker panels, games, and more cool hockey-ness that you can imagine. And I can't wait to do it all!

"Rock The Red Tour" - The Long Journey Home

With an exciting Caps game over, and final goodbyes exchanged with my DC area buddies, the end of the "Rock the Red Tour" began.

After the game, Denie and I decided the end of a great weekend was a good reason for high calorie intake. Dinner at Gordon Biersch, which happened to be in our hotel, fit the bill nicely. This mega slice of chocolate cake proved to be too much for us, but we had a great time attempting to make a dent.



Then it was time to try and get a good nights sleep in anticipation of a long travel day Monday, followed by an appearance at Staples Center for the Kings vs Canucks. Because we can just never get enough hockey! So we left DC and transferred again through Chicago, where we unfortunately got delayed, the first snag in an otherwise perfect trip. We were cutting it close anyway getting to the game on time, and now I was getting irritated because we were probably going to be late.

At least a visit with Jake and Elwood Blues made me feel a little better....



So after about an hour delay, we started the LONG flight back to LA. The pilots fought 120 mph headwinds most of the way back, so we made up no time at all. At that point, I was resigned to missing the puck drop but hoping not to be too late. Unfortunately, by the time we hit LAX, Nadine was feeling sick, and I decided it was the right thing to do to get her home first and likely skip the game.

So we got back to Casa Donat just as the game was starting. I decided to head towards Staples anyway, figuring if the traffic was horrible I could just go home. But the hockey gods smiled, the traffic was clear, and I listened to the first period in the car on the radio, arriving at the arena just in time for the start of the second period.

The Kings played a terrific game against an always difficult Canucks squad, winning a nail-biter 3-2 and pulling within 3 points of the 8th spot in the Western Conference. Since I arrived late, I didn't get my usual "Hottie of the Night" photos, etc. But to celebrate Kevin Westgarth being back up from Manchester and in the lineup, I thought I'd throw in a short video clip. Welcome back Westie!



And in traffic downtown on the ride home, I spotted the perfect photo op to close out the perfect girls hockey weekend....



Couldn't have said it better myself.

A New Point of View

For the Kings game against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings, I decided it was time to look at things from a different angle. Still bummed out from the Drew incident Monday against the Lightning, which left him out of the line-up tonight, I needed something else to distract me. Nadine wasn't able to attend the game, and gave her tickets to friends from Michigan who would appreciate the Wings visit. This gave me an excuse to buy a ticket for a different seat, so I decided to see what the view looked like from center ice. I found an affordable seat in Section 101, row 8. This section is directly between both team benches, so it was fun to watch to coaches and staff and well as the players...reading lips to see who's swearing is always fun!

Plus, I got to look over at our regular section and wave to the regulars! Looks like most of them gave their tickets to Wings fans too!



Major fun watching the guys come out from the locker room after each period!




And a better view of my buddy Sully!



Front and center for the opening face-off!



Unfortunately the Kings lost 4-0. Not surprising since Detroit has a team full of all the same guys that won the Cup last year, and they're second overall in the Western Conference standings so far this season, behind only the on-fire San Jose Sharks. The biggest bummer of the night was Kevin Westgarth not being in the line-up in spite of his call-up from the Kings AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs.

Pretty sad when the only silver lining of the night is the hotness of two Swedes on the Wings team. So without further ado, my opposing team "Hotties of the Night."

#1 - Defenseman & Captain Nicklas Lidstrom



Hottie #2 and Best Hockey Hair - Center Henrik Zetterberg.




And a very honorable "Hottie" mention goes out to Wings head coach Mike Babcock (on the right in the photo below). He's got great hair now...I can only imagine how hot he was in his hockey playing days!



With no win again for the Kings, the Lucky Jersey Contest remains Drew 3, Sully 2.

Let's hope we get out of this losing rut soon, and that Drew gets back on the ice. Tonight gave me an interesting point of view, but it's just not what I was looking for....

Another Kind of Election

Yesterday was obviously all about elections, and not just the Presidential kind. I was thrilled to be appointed "Officer of California" for the Drew Doughty Fan Club by my friend Ed Liberato. Now don't get too excited...this is a Facebook fan club and since Ed is the group leader, his endorsement was the only one needed to make me an officer. But I think it's cool anyway!! Plus I love Drew...probably the best draft pick the Kings have made in recent memory, a hard worker, and good looking to boot! He deserves any support I can give him, so in honor of my "appointment" I made sure to get some pictures and video to add to his fan club site. If you're on Facebook, check it out!



Drew skates really fast, which is awesome but also makes it a little challenging to get a good picture without Nadine's fancy long lens high speed camera that would get us thrown out of Staples Center. So this is the best I could do with my pocket size digital...






And for your viewing pleasure, here is a short clip of Drew at work last night. He played well in spite of the Kings loss...bummer! It was a well-fought contest, and we lost in overtime so at least we got a point towards the overall standings. Every dark cloud has a rainbow, right?

This was only the first in a total of 3 fights he got involved in. Nice to have someone besides Bam-Bam (that's Raitas Ivanas for all you readers unfamiliar with the Kings) to get the crowd going.

So if you see #33 on the street, smile and give him a hug. If you skate against him, all bets are off.