LA, LA, Love You

There's something about L.A. that I love, and I can never put my finger on it. What I love even more though, is when the Leafs come to town and win a game. So, guess how great it felt last night. I'm at the point of exhaustion this morning. After a three hour drive down to the Staples Center (including a lovely side tour of South Central) and brutal fog on both the trip there and back, my head didn't hit the pillow until sometime after 1:30 AM. I had to work today, so I'm up after a hair over 4 hours sleep... Anyhoo, enough of the whining. Here are some incoherent ramblings about the game. The first period, and the second, were exercises in futility. Besides the Kings goal 50 something seconds into the game, there wasn't much happening. About that goal. I wanted to boo Vesa (he was within ear shot...) but his face looked so sad, that it made me sad. So I shouted my support. I told him to shake it off. He was better than that. Obviously, he heard me and it helped, because he did and he was. In the row behind me, and a few seats over, was the worlds most drunk heckler. Thouroughly entertaining. His hatred for all things foreign was beyond hysterical. That, and his "go to" heckel; calling Leafs fans "Aunt Jemima." I had to give the guy credit for that one. Made zero sense. His buddies had to shut him up eventually, and ended up carrying him out of the rink when the game was over. Farewell Mr. Jemima Heckler. Speaking of Leaf fans, we were everywhere. Some jersey spottings; Gilmour, Sundin, Lindros, Domi, Clark, Tucker, Potvin (both Kings and Leafs jerseys,) Barilko. The Barilko jersey guy was sitting right where Finger laid out a King and then got in a fight. Warmed my heart. I don't know how the game looked on the tube, but I must say that live, beyond Man-Grabs-Lemon, I didn't see a lot of speed. I did see a lot of hits though, from both sides. Dustin Brown is awesome. He'd be more awesome in a Leafs jersey. Burke should make that happen, somehow... One thing that I really liked, was seeing all the Kings jerseys in attendance. My last Leafs game, it was almost all Toronto fans. It was great to see a team as fun to watch as the Kings are, finally getting some love from their home crowd. Speaking of the home crowd, as I walked across the concourse towards the Staples Center before the game, I overheard a conversation between a few locals. They were wondering where the statue of "that guy, whats-his-name" was. Also, this sharp dressed man sitting two rows in front of me was either a porn star, or Ryan Hollweg. For some stupid reason, I never thought to try and get a picture of his face, but just imagine a handlebar moustace...

Also posted on the Left Coast Lock