We were Kings

Our last night in LA and definitely one to remember.  Ellis had got us all tickets for the hockey match at the Staples Center.

 

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The LA Kings were playing the Tampa Bay Lightnings and since this was the first ice-hockey match I’d been to, I didn’t really know what to expect apart from some fast and furious action.

 

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We had great seats and as we watched the teams warm up on the ice, we thought that it might be good to look out for a particular player.

 

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Once more, a gift of a quote for my blog was uttered: “Let’s support number 10, because he’s cute and he still has teeth”.

(as good a reason as any, wouldn’t you agree?)

So, Richards was our man then, and his return to the ice was noted now and again, “Oh look, our cutie-pie is back”.

 

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The men ensured we were well supplied with snacks.  Deep fried popcorn chicken, hand cooked potato chips and bags of sweet-salt popcorn too. 

 

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The match was indeed fast and furious, but what was particularly amusing was that there was not a single lapse in the action.  Fuelled by loud music, cheering, chanting and non-stop sponsor-led activity such as throwing T shirts into the crowd, the “kiss cam”  or the drawing of a lucky ticket, there wasn’t a minute’s quiet.

 

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Oh, and there was frequent clearing of ice, by huge machine or by hand, when a handful of people skated up and down with large snow-shovels.  The young bikini-topped women seemed to enjoy the task, in spite of the chill.

 

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Best of all, “our” team won, 5 – 2.  After each goal the Kings scored, the home crowd went wild and given that there can have been no more than a handful of Tampa supporters in there, the noise was phenomenal.  When Tampa scored their two goals there was little more than a whimper, possibly a low “boooo” but certainly no fuss beyond the minimal announcement.  Were we all biased?  You bet we were.

 

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So yes, we were indeed all Kings.  We left as the team mascot Bailey the lion skated onto the ice, wearing a rather familiar guise in honour of the month of Movember, too.

Go Kings, go!

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