The 50% Solution

Could this be the year that the zamboni karma runs over the LA- LA-Land hockey playoff dogma? The dogma being that there just isn’t enough hockey mojo in SoCal to have two winning teams concurrently.

L.A. has had two pro hockey teams twice. In 1972-73 we had the LA Sharks at the downtown Sports Arena and the L.A Kings at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood. It’s been 17 years since the advent of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. In those 19 total seasons of two team LA hockey, never have both teams made it to the playoffs in the same season. Yet only in 3 of those seasons, 94–96, did neither team qualify.

Less then a quarter of the way thru the 10-11 season with the Dean Lombardi built Terry Murray guided Kings playing like contenders and Teemu Salanne’s swan song Ducks finally eclipsing the .500 mark with 6 wins in a row, it is not inconceivable that they both make the playoffs and possibly even face each other in the 1^st round. This would be L.A. hockey fans’, media’s, coaches’ and marketers’ wet dream. The Kings thru hard work and discipline work their way into the West Conference top 3, while the Ducks could quack into the 6 to 8 spot. History weighs heavy against this watershed LA sports defining moment, an NHL playoff freeway/subway series reminiscent of the era defining Rangers-Devils-Islanders rivalries.

The Kings actually made the playoffs in their first two seasons. I became a fan & faux reporter and watched the Kings finish out of the playoffs for the next 4 years. In the 4^th year of that streak, the 72-73 season, the L.A. Sharks of WHA were born and promptly made the playoffs. The following season the the Kings were playoff bound while the L.A. Sharks finished out of the playoffs and were bound for Baltimore to become the Blades. Once the Sharks skated out-of-town, the Kings made the playoffs an unbelievable 8 years in a row, 3 times advancing to the 2^nd round. And quite surprisingly in the years when the Kings were the only major hockey show in town they visited the playoffs 15 out of 18 seasons, that’s a whopping 85% !

If you want further evidence of the limit of L.A’s Hockey karma consider this; The year after Marty McMelrose and Wayne Gretzky lost in the Finals to Patrick Roy & Jacque Demer’s ruler, 1) The Mighty Ducks were hatched 2) The Kings proceeded to miss the playoffs 4 years in a row, and 3) The Ducks made the playoffs in their, you guessed it, 4^th year. Then amazingly, 1996-2000 the two SoCal teams alternated making and missing the playoffs.

The 99-02 Andy Murray Kings made the playoffs 3 years in row while the Ducks floundered around the shallow end of the Pond. Andy Murray not only wore out his players, his welcome, but also somehow changed the hockey karma chameleon to Orange, as in County. The Kings watched from home as the 02-03 Ducks made it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals losing to left winglocking, clutch and grabbing NJ Devils, with Scott "Concussionist" Stevens and Marty “ more goose eggs then zeros in my paycheck “ Brodeur. The Ducks mighty trip to the finals sucked up so much SoCal hockey mojo that they couldn't reach .500 the following year while the Kings were so drained by the Ducks feat that they didn’t make the playoffs for the next SIX years.

In 05-06 the Ducks rebounded by luring Scott Neidermayer west to play in the Pond with little bro Rob. They went 3 rounds in the playoffs, losing to Edmonton & Chris Pronger, whom they then stole from the Oilers. Consequently, in 06-07, the Ducks became the Stanley Cup Champions, a season in which the Kings finished with only 68 points, their fewest in ten years.

Last season, 09-10, the Kings finally returned to the playoffs for the 1^st time in 6 years and so naturally the Ducks missed out. This season will end with a Ducks vs Kings home-on-home series. Will both teams be jockeying for playoff spots? Will there be enough hockey juice in SoCal for both teams to make it? Will the Kings knock the Ducks out of the playoffs? Will the final 2 games of the regular season foreshadow or even set up the rapture of a new mega-rivalry wherein the two L.A. teams meet in a 1^st round epic battle for the ages

History says, “Not gonna happen!” But karma says, “What comes around goes around.”

Captain Crunch

If you look up ”fireplug” in the hockey dictionary, there’s a picture of Gilles Marotte there. This guy was a fearless force. First of all he was 5' - 9", the same size as Butchie Goring  (35 lbs. heavier)!, They shared debut seasons with the L.A. Kings in 1970. He was a strong skater, with a heavy shot and threw thundering body checks all over the ice. Thus his nickname. The thing I remember most about him, however, was his crazy dangerous shot blocking technique. He wore no helmet, yet would challenge outside shooters by sliding towards them, full frontal crudity, on his knees (there’s somethin’ you don’t see much nowadays) seemingly daring the shooter to  hit him in the face… or nuts. I recall seeing several games that season from lower level seats and wanting to turn away or at least close my eyes, as Marotte would slide out towards the slapshot windup of his opponent. I seriously worried about seeing chunks of skull and brain flying out of the rink.
Marrote, a native of Montreal, was a high Boston Bruins draft pick. He was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks after just two seasons in B-town. Phil Esposito and Ken Hodge went the other way. (I bet some Blackhawk fans are crying in their blogs about that trade!). I don’t know why he was traded by Chicago to the Kings in a 6 player deal, but he became an L.A. fan favorite right away. Captain Crunch made the NHL All Star team in 1973 as a King. He had 6 goals & 39 assists that season, so next season he got traded to the playoff bound New York Rangers. He was just what the Rangers needed and helped crunch them deep into the Stanley Cup Playoffs losing  in the semis to the eventual cup winners, the Philadelphia Flyers. After he retired,  Marotte played in many hockey charity games until he succumbed to pancreatic cancer just after turning 60.

Krazy Kozak

My first ever hockey jersey was the original “royal-blue and gold” Los Angeles Kings dark #24,  in honor of my favorite player, my age and my hairstyle at the time.
I’m talking about the deceptively fast* Don Kozak of the Los Angeles Kings, who on April 17, 1977,  scored the fastest goal ever from the start of an NHL playoff game. He scored just six seconds after the opening face off in Game 4 of a Quarter-final Stanley Cup playoff series against the Boston Bruins. Real hockey fans always arrive early!  This was a mind boggling David & Goliath moment because the Kings had been walloped in Boston 8-3 & 6-2 and had lost Game 3 at home in the Fabulous Forum 7-6. The Kings ended up winning that game 7-4 over the Bruins and then amazingly won the next game in Boston 3-1.  By game six, back in Los Angeles, the Kings had lost their mojo and were eliminated by the Bruins 4-3, in a game that was not as close as the score.  Kozak had 4 goals, 1 assist and 17 penalty minutes in 9 playoff games in 1977.  Krazy Kozy peaked at 24 and 20 goal seasons and injected a lot of personality and bursts of frenetic energy into each game he played.

*his fluttering long blonde hair made him look lot faster then he really was.