Mondays are usually full of suck, but not today! For it was only on the opposite end of this past weekend that our Los Angeles Kings beat the New York Rangers to win the 2014 Stanley Cup - not only their second franchise title, but their second in the past three years.
Thus, it was time for another parade.
Much like last time around, it went down Figueroa Street from 5th to Chick Hearn Court and culminated in a large indoor ceremony open to some extremely lucky Kings fans who had tickets to the event.
Click to watch the 2014 Stanley Cup Championship Parade in its entirety!
The parade itself was very brief, less than 5 minutes long, but it was a perfect day in the city -- happy people celebrating and congregating on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles, most of whom took transit here (Kings fans, since their team started playing at Staples Center in 1999, have always been great at taking transit to their games, unlike their Lakers counterparts, who still insist on filling parking lots and not representing nearly as much as the Silver & Black ones on the subway). After it was over, it was time for Kings fans and Downtown workers alike to have lunch in DTLA, it was a great day for the DTLA economy as well. Best of all, no one caused any trouble, both today and on Friday night.
It looks like the Lakers' younger brother has taken the crown (no pun intended) as Los Angeles' newest sports dynasty. With a young team and a coach who actually knows how to win titles (we're looking at you, any coach who's last name isn't Sutter), we can expect a few more of these in the near future.
Savor it, Kings fans, because it's a big f'in day.
Los Angeles vs. San Francisco, circa October, 2012. Note the incidental Dodgers-Giants team color contrast between the two pics.
The Militant, eternal Dodger fan he is, was downright crushed to learn that the hated SF Giants won their 2nd World Series title in three seasons on Sunday, sweeping the docile Detroit Tigers 4-0 in the 2012 Fall Classic.
Fortunately, following the game, rioting, arson fires and people doing all sorts of crazy shit broke out in the streets of San Francisco. The Militant enjoyed reading #sfriots pics on Twitter and munched on popcorn as he watched live streaming video of their "celebration."
Oh sure, Los Angeles has been known for riots. But let's face it, it's all in the past. Lakers championship rioting has become mellower with each title since 2000. And when the Kings won the Stanley Cup this past June, aside from a couple newspaper stands getting knocked down on Figueroa, there was no riot.
In the meantime, we had real cool stuff like CicLAvia, a big-ass rock and a big-ass spaceship go through our streets, and no one caused any problems.
Maybe Los Angeles is finally progressing, and SF is regressing? Guess it's time for us to be the smug ones now.
Congrats on your World Series title, BTW. Besides, two is still less than five. Giants still suck.
In case you may not know already, the Los Angeles Kings ar...
naw, naw, naw...let's do that again.
In case you may not know already...
THE LOS ANGELES KINGS ARE THE 2012 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!!!!!!1
Dude, this is like...history!
The Militant can't reveal where he was watching the devastating 6-1 victory over the New Joisey Devils, but later that evening, he wanted to bask in the glory of victory somehow, so he took the (M) Red Line to Downtown and walked down Figueroa.
No, he wasn't there to cause any trouble, and in fact, aside from a few minor incidents, there really was no riot to talk about whatsoever. A damaged newsstand and an overturned illuminated traffic arrow trailer (pictured left) were pretty much the extent of the irresponsible celebrating.
The Militant passed groups of straggler Kings fans, held out his palm and got free high-fives as he walked past them. A few horns honked, and the few that were still out on the streets, whooped and hollered in accord.
Some three hours after the game ended, and the crowds have cleared, the Staples Center, once a roaring beast earlier in the evening, was now darkened save for a few parties going on in the patio level.
The Militant went across Chick Hearn Court and stared at LA Live's characteristic near-seizure-inducing video displays, which bore the words, "CONGRATULATIONS LA KINGS - 2012 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS."
The Militant just stared at those words for a few minutes, as if to have it sink in. As if, to verify for himself this was no dream or he had stepped into a bizarro-reality wormhole somewhere. But...it was real.
As the frequent Staples Center visitor has noticed, there is ia bronze likeness of former Kings player Wayne Gretzky, a man who, though still worthy of his "Great One" nickname, failed to make this night happen 19 years ago, and besides, never actually played inside the Staples Center (to be fair, neither did Magic Johnson, who is similarly immortalized. Gretzky was basically just a draw.
One would wonder which is the next Kings player to be immortalized like that. Jonathan Quick? Dustin Brown?
Of course, this victory was a team effort by all accounts. Still, that image of Gretzky looking across the street has a different meaning now. He was looking towards a future, a (albeit near-seizure-inducing) future brighter than what he was able to see. Because no matter how great you are, eventually there will be someone (or more) that will shine even brighter.
But Gretzky looks happy anyway, and that's all that really matters, right?
The Militant wasn't kidding when he opened his last post, a paean to The Los Angeles Kings Fan, with a "May Or May Not" in terms of predicting a Stanley Cup clinch on Wednesday.
For 45 years (and today marks 45 years to the day the Los Angeles Kings hockey team was born, at the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft) you have proudly worn your purple and gold (or silver and black), hoping to taste that sweet glory of victory.
For the past 45 years other Los Angeles teams have basked in championship glory: The Lakers, the Dodgers, the one-time Raiders (whom the current Kings color scheme borrows from), even the Galaxy, the Sparks and the freaking Los Angeles Xtreme have won titles for their respective sports (The Clippers might soon be the only ones assed-out in this department...).
And oh for shame, you have even stood on the sidelines when your regional rival, the Anaheim Ducks, won the Stanley Cup (We need not remember that...).
Speaking of the Lakers, your team has been the forgotten, ignored little brother, and have lived in its shadow for all of those 45 years. From the Sports Arena to the (Fabulous/Great Western) Forum and now to the Staples Center, it's always been Lakers this, Lakers that. Granted many of you are Lakers fans as well, but even when you cheer at a home game and look up at the rafters, you're constantly reminded that the Lakers have 16 Championship banners, and the Kings still have none (Never forget though, for it was the Kings who donned the Purple and Gold first!)
The Militant, being a hardcore Dodger, Laker and team of his unspecified local Pac-12 University fan, will say this once and for all, with no qualms whatsoever:
Los Angeles Kings fans are the most hardcore fans of any of our local teams.
(Maybe until just recently) people who wear Kings gear wear it with total pride. It's quite possible for someone who rocks a Kobe 24 jersey around town to not know how many Championship rings his shirt's namesake has won, or someone wearing a blue "LA" cap to know the difference between a Kershaw and a Koufax.
Championships are great, but they do (and this is true of every team) load up The Bandwagon…which is good, since that's how fan bases grow. There's nothing wrong with jumping on a bandwagon…it's the jumping off of it that makes you suck. The loyal fan never jumps off, and never plans to.
Another advantage over other local sports fans: Los Angeles Kings Fans are the best at using transit to their games.
The Militant started noticing it in the fall of 2001, just but a few months after the Red Line was completed to The Valley. He spotted one of his operatives, in full Kings gear, sitting on the train. And he wasn't alone. There were more than a handful of them on the train, headed to Staples. And this was just a regular season game. Lakers fans? Maybe during the playoffs you might take transit, but most of you find a way to park Downtown. As for Clippers fans...are you even around during the regular season? The Dodger Stadium Shuttle might have had high ridership, but most of that is out of spite for The Team's Former Owner Whose Name Will No Longer Be Mentioned, rather than a genuine concern to reduce traffic and pollution. The Kings fans, it's like they didn't need to be told.
This is a team of destiny. A goaltender named "Quick." A defenceman named "Martinez," who, despite being of European Spanish heritage and hailing from Michigan, is as Latino and local as you can get in the NHL for the Los Angeles fan base. And for goodness sakes, there's a guy on the team named "King."
But most of all, though this squadron might boast a Kopitar Hero and a Brown that wears the captain's crown, there seems to be a noticeable deficit of egos and an abundance of strength, heart and chemistry. This is a team.
You Los Angeles Kings Fans are hardcore. You followed the actions of ancient prophets like Vachon, Dionne, Taylor, Robataille, Gretzky. But only until now are you being led to The Promised Land.
The Militant's fanaticism for the Dodgers is well-documented, he digs the Lakers of course, and is a loyal fan of the football team of the unspecified local Pac-10 university of which he is an alumnus of. But the Militant also roots for the Kings.
On Friday, an operative sent the Militant a text message saying that he got free tickets to Saturday's Kings game against the Dallas Stars, and the Militant, in search of a post-Dodger season sports high to get into, told the operative he was down. So the Militant carpooled with him and two other operatives to Staples Center, and continuing the "free" theme of the night, scored a curbside parking space and walked two blocks to the downtown arena.
Forgive the Militant, for it has been eight years since his last Kings game - an exhibition game against the Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks of Anaheim during Staples' inaugural season (which he also got free tickets for). The Kings won 1-0 in that one, which was an interesting first hockey experience for the proto-Militant back then, as he was puzzled when everyone started to leave the game after the "Third Quarter."
On Saturday night, the Militant and his operatives sat in the nosebleed seats oriented towards center rink, which wasn't that bad of a view. Still being relatively new to the hockey world, it was a different experience for the baseball-oriented Militant, who recognized the olfactory familiarity of Farmer John hot dogs wafting throughout the venue, yet felt the uniquely unfamiliar sensation of cold air emanating from the rink below. Equally unfamiliar was the hockey vocabulary or penalty boxes and power plays, not to mention players whose names were not "Gretzky" or "Robataille." The sight of the swift, bee-swarm movements of the players and the auditory slapping of sticks and slamming of bodies on plexiglas rounded out the sensory experience.
It also didn't help that for the first two quarte...er...periods, and much of the third, the Kings were scoreless, trailing the Stars and their seemingly impenetrable goalie, Marty Turco, by four points. The Kings made lame, incompetent shot attempts to the chagrin of the impatient home crowd. The Militant's operative asked him at the end of the 2nd period, "Dude, you wanna leave now?"
But win or lose (or shutout, even) the Militant wanted to stay, just for the experience. Besides, he never leaves a Dodger game early, so why be any different for any other local team?
What happened next was unbelievable.
With 7:14 left in the 3rd period, left wing Dustin Brown scored the Kings' first goal, and the Staples crowd went nuts, with the sound of a loud diesel locomotive horn and snippets of Randy Newman's "I Love L.A.," Zombie Nation's sports anthem "Kernkraft 400" and Gary Glitter's uber-sports anthem, "Rock & Roll, Part 2" heralding the scoring play throughout the arena. The Militant and his operatives jokingly cheered for four more goals to win the game.
Then came the second goal.
And the third.
And the fourth.
And the fifth. All five were scored within a span of five minutes and seven seconds. To say that the Kings were on a roll was the understatement of the night.
The Stars came back to tie the game at five apiece, but the Kings relied on sudden death overtime to settle the score. Then center Anze Kopitar made the winning goal (his second of the game) 2:34 into OT.
The crowd of some 18,000 fans erupted into a deafening roar and didn't want to leave. There was already talk of this being the most amazing Kings comeback victory since 1982's Miracle on Manchester. The Militant dubs this one the "Fantasy On Figueroa," or the Kings' equivalent of the 2006 Dodgers' "9/18" game (aka the back to back to back to back home run victory against the Padres). The streets of Downtown's South Park (and spilling into the Financial District via subway -bound fans) were alive with hollering crowds and cars honking horns, as if the Kings won the Stanley Cup or something. Imagine an already-completed LA Live abuzz with this electricity.
The Militant got to see a great hockey game and an even greater comeback victory, all for the price of free. The Militant will be sure to pay for his ticket for the next game, hopefully someday soon. Go Kings Go!
