Don’t Expect Much Improvement In TV News Coverage Of Los Angeles Kings Over Long Term

COMMENTARY: The Los Angeles Kings are more popular than ever on local television news broadcasts, which should be music to the ears, and candy for the eyes, of long-suffering hockey fans in the area. But the local television news outlets are, evidently, horribly unprepared to cover the game. The result is unfathomable mistakes, and shoddy reporting. Even worse, Los Angeles area hockey fans should not get their hopes up for much improvement down the road.


Coverage of the Los Angeles Kings’ 2012 playoff run by local TV media has been plagued by careless mistakes, so the team decided to help them with the basics.
(click to view entire image).
Photo: Los Angeles Kings

LOS ANGELES — Back in 1999, when the Los Angeles Kings played their first-ever game at Staples Center, a 2-2 tie with the Boston Bruins on October 20, 1999, I remember getting there very early so that I would have time to take the grand tour, so to speak.

After walking past the Chairman’s Room on the Event Level, I turned into the tunnel leading to the ice surface, nearest the Kings dressing room, and as I turned, I saw KNBC-TV’s (Channel 4 here in the Los Angeles area) Fred Roggin doing a live spot on one of their evening news broadcasts.

At first blush, one might think, “hey, it’s great to see Staples Center and the Kings getting some positive media coverage on local television for a change.”

Alas, that was not my first, or even my second thought. Rather, my first and only reaction was, “we’ll never see him here again, unless the Kings win the Stanley Cup someday.”

To be fair, I have not attended every single game since that night, so perhaps Roggin has been at Staples Center to cover a Kings game since then. However, I can say that I have been a member of the Kings credentialed media since 1997, with the exception of a couple of seasons, and I have never seen him at a game. Read more of this post

Rookie Left Wing Dwight King Has Been Quite The Surprise For Los Angeles Kings

FROZEN ROYALTY EXCLUSIVE: Left wing prospect Dwight King, who turned heads for all the wrong reasons during a brief stint with the Los Angeles Kings last season, is doing so once again this season, but with dramatically different results.


Los Angeles Kings left wing Dwight King is turning
heads with some surprisingly solid play.
Photo: David Sheehan

EL SEGUNDO, CA — Left wing prospect Dwight King was recalled by the Los Angeles Kings on November 16, 2010, and made his National Hockey League debut the next night against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

But after a less-than-remarkable six-game stint with the Kings last season, one in which he generally looked lost, and like he did not belong on NHL ice, he found himself back with the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League, the Kings’ primary minor league affiliate, where he would remain for the rest of the season.

After that poor showing with the Kings, which was not entirely unexpected for a prospect who was a fourth round draft pick (109th overall, 2007 NHL Entry Draft) who was never thought to be a highly-skilled sniper or playmaker, King was written off by many as a prospect who would likely never be more than that…a prospect. Read more of this post

Down On The Farm With LA Kings Blue Line Prospects Deslauriers, Hickey and Muzzin

Nicolas Deslauriers
Photo: Scott Slingsby

LOS ANGELES — While the National Hockey League pauses its season to put on its annual All-Star festivities this weekend, what’s a hockey writer to do if the NHL All-Star weekend is not their cup of tea, especially since the game itself has become a complete bore, barely resembling the game we normally enjoy?

Sure, I could have watched the All-Star draft (yawn), and I will watch tonight’s skills competition, the only redeeming spectacle during All-Star weekend. But with some extra time on my hands, why not see how the kids down on the farm are doing?

Indeed, the time has come to take a look at some of the Los Angeles Kings’ young prospects, and, in this installment, the focus will be on the blue line corps. Read more of this post

Brian Kennedy’s My Country Is Hockey Is A Revealing, Insightful, Must-Read Book

Photo: Argenta Press

MONTEREY PARK, CA — Here in the United States, especially for those of us who did not grow up in the Northeast, or in states like Minnesota, where kids have the opportunity to play hockey on a frozen pond, or where road hockey games have been popular for many, many years, that innocent and pure part of the game remains a mystery.

Author and scholar Brian Kennedy, Ph.D., a native of Montreal, an Associate Professor of English at Pasadena City College, and a freelance hockey writer who covers the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks for Inside Hockey, previously wrote two books, Growing Up Hockey: The Life and Times of Everyone Who Ever Loved The Game, and Living The Hockey Dream: Interviews and Personal Stories From NHL Superstars and Other Lovers of The Game, in which he gave readers a good look into how hockey is so deeply rooted in Canadian culture and in the psyche of Canadians.

But in his new book, My Country Is Hockey: How Hockey Explains Canadian Culture, History, Politics, Heroes, French-English Rivalry and Who We Are As Canadians, Kennedy goes for the jugular in that regard, taking great pains to point out how hockey is inextricably intertwined with just about all things Canadian, heavily influencing Canadian thought, behavior, politics, and so much more, while also looking at how the purity and simple joy of the game is being lost. Read more of this post

Frozen Royalty Photos: Los Angeles Kings Tip-A-King 2011

Photo: David Sheehan/Frozen Royalty

CULVER CITY, CA — After a storm passed through the Los Angeles area on Friday and part of Saturday, the skies were bright and mostly clear on Sunday, November 13, when the Los Angeles Kings held their annual fundraiser, benefitting the Kings Care Foundation, providing “…educational and recreational opportunities for children throughout Greater Los Angeles,” along with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and the LA Kings Bloodmobile.

Tip-A-King 2011, was held at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California.

Enthusiastic fans of all ages and backgrounds roamed the Sony Pictures Studios lot, site of the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios, meeting Kings players, coaches, alumni and broacasters, getting autographs, and more. Read more of this post

More Than Just A Banana Peel Was Hurled At Philadelphia Flyers Forward Wayne Simmonds

LOS ANGELES — With National Hockey League training camps having started this week, this is a time when North American hockey fans in particular should be celebrating the fact that the 2011-12 NHL season is just two weeks away.

Philadelphia Flyers right wing
Wayne Simmonds
Photo: National Hockey League

We should also be celebrating the extraordinary career of one of the all-time greats, center Mike Modano, who will officially announce his retirement at a press conference later today.

NHL fans could also be celebrating new interpretations of rules governing hits from behind and contact with the head, along with pioneering efforts by NHL Senior Vice President of Player Safety and Hockey Operations Brendan Shanahan, to educate players, coaches, general managers, and fans alike through the use of video to explain his decisions in supplementary discipline cases, such as in the recent hitting from behind incident involving Calgary Flames forward Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, and a separate incident involving Philadelphia Flyers forward Jody Shelley. Read more of this post

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