Damn you, Doublemint Twins!
By Editorial Staff
For real reporting, please check out Fansided’s official Kings writer, for highlights check out our good friends at VERSUS and for a cool die hard Kings fan story, check out Chris Erskine’s piece in the Los Angeles Times!
Face buried in hands, I mercifully missed the empty net goal as the Vancouver fans erupted all around me. The last thing I wanted to do was write about this game. My first post season experience and the team I was pulling for lose. **boo hoo hoo!!**
Then I came to my senses and sucked up the pain like Dustin Brown while the trainer staple guns his face back together.
Okay, so the Kings lost when the Sedin’s busted a cap in L.A.’s ass in the third, but that’s not why we, as hockey fans, go to a postseason game. We go to par-tay baby!
And the party started early in the finally completed L.A. Live town square with a beer garden, a ball hockey rink, radio station trucks and canopied kiosks hawking who knows what.
Black and white balloons wreathed the Staples entrance and even the Magic Johnson and Wayne Gretzky statues got into the swing of things.
Hockeytown L.A.? Inconceivable. Unbelivable. Stunning. Jaw-droppingly cool.
But before the game, sustenance is necessary. Fortunately, L.A. Live has a bevy of restaurants to choose from, from the hoity toity to pub fare, which is uber cool because I’m pretty sure most of us are sick of $6 concession stand hot dogs and $12 Budweisers.
ESPN Zone and The Yardhouse were (as usual) packed to overflowing. One of these days I’ll get smart and make a reservation. Okay, plan two, check out the other restaurants. Hmmm, there’s an overpriced steak house, an overpriced sushi place … ooh! The new Wolfgang Puck restaurant is open! Let’s check that out! … hmmm, maybe not. I don’t know about you, but I’m not paying $20 for a burger and $10 for a side of potatoes.
So it was off to our reliable stand by – Trader Vic’s! The place is probably the best kept secret of L.A. Live. Before a game the atmosphere is the perfect balance between restaurant normalcy and slightly tipsy fans. Reasonable prices, big portions, attentive service and it’s a Tiki Lodge. Three or four times during our meal, the bar crowd busted out with throaty chants of “Luuuuuuuuuooooooogoooo!” The Vancouver fans seemed to take it all in stride; they’re such a polite people. I remember seeing an interview with a Vancouver band and they were asked what words Americans should learn in order to be accepted in Canada. The singer said, “The main word to learn is ‘sorry’, because Canadians apologize for everything.”
Inside Staples Center, the Bobby Lou mocking continued and the place was rocking off its foundations. Every seat was filled, every suite was packed, every rally towel was waved and I’d wager dollars to donuts that the place ran out of booze.
It’s impossible to put a postseason game into perspective in words. It’s not just the game; it’s what happens before and after all around the arena. A lot of writers would describe the atmosphere as ‘electric’ or ‘charged’, but the experience is much, much more intense. Being caught in a class 5 tornado during an 8.2 magnitude earthquake might come close. My ears are still ringing and my ribs feel like someone mistook them for a xylophone last night. I figured I’d let the pix tell the rest of the story.
Even if your team lost yesterday, this’ll make you laugh (because we ALL hate the officials).
**Pointing and laughing hysterically at the Devils**
Obviously taken before the game, but then again, the ladies are paid to be perky!
Almost as good as the “FROPITAR” sweater!