St. Louis Has L.A. Fans Singing The Holiday Blues

Life In HockeywoodDec 6, 2009

Game 30: Blues 5, Kings 4 (shootout)

I told my wife on Saturday that she's a lucky woman. Not because she married a great-looking guy (I'm not bad), not because I'm rich (we're not poor), or because I have a great personality (I do, but she already knows all my jokes).

No, she's lucky because I don't like football. On Saturday, we went to the Belmont Shore Christmas Parade (The Daughter was marching for the first time with her Camp Fire Group, the Red Parrots. Go Parrots! SQUAWK!). So, I had to take a pass at the afternoon game between the Kings and Blues.

But we watched it on TV, which she originally bristled at. After I pointed out that she could have it a lot worse, and that I could be sitting on the couch, with a can of Pringles and a sixer of Newcastle watching college ball...every Saturday, she relented. There's not a lot of these 1 p.m. games that I watch, so I was given a pass.

The game itself was a tremendously maddening affair not to see live, as the energy in the building was high. Luc was honored in a pregame ceremony, where he gave thanks once again to the fans. He was awarded for $25,000 by AEG for Echoes of Hope, giving everyone a chance to celebrate No. 20 one more time.

And borrowing that energy, Brad Richardson scored a short-hander early in the first period. Too bad the Kings suffered a power failure later in the period. The Blues successfully shifted momentum and were able to take the lead early in the second.

Midway through the second, something clicked, causing the Kings to start to wake up. They pumped 18 shots at Chris Mason in the period, and started outplaying the Blues to turn the tables. Scott Parse scored to tie the game. Early in the third, they completed that momentum shift back, when Jarret Stoll scored to give the Kings the lead.

Then, just before L.A. could slide into "protect the lead" mode, Paul Kariya scored to allow St. Louis to tie the game. Then Kariya struck again, this time on the power play, to lift the Blues late in the third.

Things sounded bleak to me, as I was now driving toward Second Street in Long Beach to put my chairs down for the evening's parade. I was sporting five layers of clothes, topped with my Luc Robitaille jersey. Maybe it was the jersey (doubtful), maybe it was the desire of the crowd (perhaps), but the Kings got a goal from Alexander Frolov with under a minute left to tie the game.

I sat in my car during the entire overtime period, watching as families marched past with folding chairs and blankets. "So, I'll be sitting further down the street," I thought "The Kings are gonna win this." The Kings continued their late-game surge, added 6 shots to their game total 40 shots. But no dice.

More families were traipsing past, some with wagons and benches. But there I sat, feeling good as I heard Anze Kopitar, Jack Johnson, and Wayne Simmonds were getting the call. But Anze's backhand attempt was halted, and I groaned. He's got to get jumpstarted sometime. Andy McDonald scored and I gritted my teeth. When Johnson's wrister was snapped out of the air, I knew the Kings were going to lose. I immediately slammed the door when Brad Boyes scored, and headed down to the parade.

I didn't feel that bad, though. The Kings showed more of that secondary scoring that was lacking earlier in the season. Plus, I got a ton of compliments from people at the parade on the jersey, along with a lot of head-shaking from fellow fans, frustrated by the loss. It's nice to know there are other Kings fans around.

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