Hockey Posts Are Coming And We’re Rocking And Rolling!

What a day. Two big things to mention.

First of all, while I’ve mentioned it from time to time, I do try not to really go overboard with my hockey fanaticism here. I understand that many people aren’t hockey fans, or even sports fans, and I mainly want to use this forum to talk about astronomy, space travel, photography, writing,  freakin’ idiots, music, books, movies, pets, critters, and on and on and on. I talk about sports sometimes, but I try to keep it to a dull roar.

That may be hard to do in the next week to two weeks — you may consider this to be an official warning. I’ll flag the posts, so if you couldn’t care less about hockey, there may be a day or two here or there that you can just skip reading.

Tonight, my beloved LA Kings won Game Seven of the National Hockey League’s Western Conference Finals, putting them into the Stanley Cup finals for the second time in three years. It was a hell of a game, finishing off a hell of a series, which in turn followed amazing series against the Anaheim Ducks and the San Jose Sharks. All three series went to seven games, thus making the Kings the first team in league history to get to the finals by winning three series that all went to seven games.

Earlier, the first series with the Sharks was also historic. We lost the first three games and were forced to win four in a row to advance, facing elimination with every game. We did it, becoming only the third team to ever pull that off. (Something like 90+ teams have tried before, and failed.)

Then the second series with the Ducks was the first time that two Los Angeles teams faced each other in the playoffs. The Angels and Dodgers haven’t done it, the Rams and Raiders never did it, and the Lakers and Clippers have never done it. In that series the Ducks pulled out to a three games to two lead, forcing the Kings to face two more elimination games, which they won.

Now we faced the Chicago Blackhawks, who eliminated us in the conference finals last year, going on to win the Stanley Cup. In this year’s rematch, the Kings went up three games to one, only to have the Blackhawks storm back and force a game seven. It was a close, close series, two very evenly matched teams, and a bounce or tip of the puck here or there could have made the difference either way. Tonight, of course, after an incredibly tense game where the Blackhawks went ahead 2-0, 3-2, and 4-3, only to see the Kings find a way to tie the game and force overtime.

There was a lot of screaming and yelling and blowing of the Vuvuzela Of Victory all night. When we won I blew the VOV long and loud enough to just about pass out.

It was fantastic!

I won’t be blathering on about the Kings every night, don’t worry — but I’ll be mentioning them and might have a longer piece here or there. (You’ve been warned.)

As if that wasn’t enough excitement, with about four minutes left in the third period, a 4-4 tie, edge-of-the-seat time — the seat started shaking from side to side, along with the rest of the house. We got a magnitude 4.2 earthquake with the epicenter near the intersection of the 405 Freeway and Mullholland Drive, right in the middle of the Sepulveda Pass, about ten or eleven miles away.

If that location sounds familiar, it’s because it’s almost the exact same place as the epicenter of the March 17th magnitude 4.4 earthquake we had. They’re saying that tonight’s shaker is not an aftershock of that March temblor, not quite in the same place and much shallower.

Let me tell you, when you’re already pretty wound up and barely breathing and on the edge of your seat, having the room rattle and shake for four or five seconds will not help calm you down!

Plus, as they always tell you, 5% of all earthquakes are actually “foreshocks” of bigger quakes in the next 24 to 48 hours. There wasn’t any major damage from tonight’s quake, and no injuries at all — but is there a magnitude 5.2 or magnitude 5.7 quake lurking for tonight or tomorrow morning? There’s a 95% chance that there isn’t, but a bigger quake could cause damage or injuries is still not that long of a bet.

Let’s hope it’s a quiet, non-shaken night. Ditto for tomorrow. The only earth-shaking event I want in Los Angeles is the celebration when we win the second Stanley Cup in LA Kings’ history.

In five games. Not seven. I don’t know if my blood pressure can take a fourth seven-game series.

Go, Kings! GO!!