Los Angeles Post Mortem
I woke up this morning here in sunny rainy San Diego asking myself - what the hell did I just see out of my Buffalo Sabres over the past 48 hours?
It Wednesday’s game at Anaheim was disappointing, last night’s rout at the Staples Center to the hapless Los Angeles Kings and their newly minted ECHL goalie Johnathan Quick was downright ugly. It was 4-0 after one, Thibault was pulled and Ryan Miller was back in the net, that made no difference as L.A. kept piling on the goals - shorthanded, even strength and on the power play. It was 7-0 before Drew Stafford finally tapped one in to break up the shutout, giving the healthy Buffalo contingent in the stands something to cheer about.
After the game you could hear a pin drop in the Buffalo dressing room as players silently shuffled about and grabbed some pizza and a beverage off a table in the center of the room. I talked with Stafford and he didn’t have any firm answers. “All I know is that San Jose is a very good team right now and we have to be ready to play them and we will be.” I sort of challenged him a bit, saying that as a reporter hearing these tired cliches like “we didn’t skate” gets old after a while, and asked him at what point does a team rally around themselves, outside the eye of the press, the fans, and outsiders. “I know what you mean” he replied, “and all I can say is that there are ebbs and flows to every season and to every game, and right now we have to recapture the success we’ve enjoyed the past couple weeks.”
While Coach Lindy Ruff looked disconsolate during his post game comments, he at least attempted to put the finger on what had gone wrong in these past two games. Continuing on Stafford’s take, he said “Look at Carolina. We killed them last week in our building, then they turn around and go and beat the Rangers. These things happen all the time.”
I asked Ruff if a shakeup might be in the offing, and perhaps another call up for Clarke MacArthur, who gave the team a lift after his last callup. “Well he won’t be joining us tomorrow” Ruff said, then added, “But he has given this team a spark in the past and we could use that.”
A few miscellaneous musings on LA, Anaheim and hockey in SoCal…
-Los Angeles is the better of the two venues all around, in my opinion. More tradition, better arena, nicer facilities. Kevin Sylvester was doing the intermission hosting on the MSG telecast, and in Anaheim they stuck him in some broom closet. Ditto the press dining room which was tiny, while the “Chick Hearn Media Room” at Staples was expansive and nicely decorated. The visitors locker room at Staples had a separate shower/changing area, while at the Honda center, I could practically feel the mist off the water spray as guys were showering and Pete and I were trying to do interviews.
-”I Love L.A. - We LOVE it!”… they play this song every time the Kings score and it is so appropriate. For me this song will always remind me of the first Naked Gun movie, Leslie Nielsen the home plate umpire at a California Angels game. I can watch that film a hundred times and never get tired of it!
-The Kings do a nice job with their event presentation. A real organ, which is nice. Audio clips are nostalgic 70s and 80s stuff, and they don’t go over the top with game night hosts and t-shirt tosses and all that nonsense. Since our last visit in 2000, they did drop the South Park Eric Cartman clip, the one where Cartman was wearing the home jersey and chanting “Go Kings Go!”
By contrast, the Clippers on Sunday had some D.J. who looked like he was on a work release program from some supermax penitentiary, spinning vinyl of the most ghastly gangsta rap.
-Shout out to all who made this USRT adventure another memorable one - Running into Pete’s coworker Al right after hopping off of the plane made for a good start to the week, Katy and Bill French for putting us up at their home in San Diego for 5 of our 7 nights, the Tsunekawa and DiMento families for the wonderful outing, Ray Orepeza for the USC parking pass (thank you thank you thank you for that!) and for hosting us for the nicest breakfast on the tour, and Sabres media relations honcho Chris Bandura who is truly the bestest PR dude in all of hockey.
Our return flight to Buffalo is one for this afternoon, and we’re hoping another USRT to California will be in the offing sometime in the near future… as long as it is NOT for the relocated Buffalo Bills!
