I will keep my word and not gloat over the Kings beating the Blues
The Kings are happy and I am, too. But unlike the fans you see in the background I am restrained from making too public a display of my joy over the Kings' 4-0 series win over the St. Louis Blues.
For as long as I’ve been aware that Los Angeles had a hockey team I’ve rooted for that team. They’re not like the Dodgers to me. It’s not that co-dependent. Still, I root for the Kings. I regularly check the standings to see how they are doing, at least once a month. Then I ask my coworkers how they’re doing and what their chances are in the playoffs. I have coworker who loves the Vancouver Canucks. He goes to see them on occasion.
The Kings, on the other hand, have never been seen by me, except on television. No NHL team has been seen by me. There were those minor league hockey glory days I caught in Salt Lake City, but that’s it.
So now the Kings have defeated both the Canucks and the St. Louis Blues, the favorite team of all teams for my nephew. For him I committed to not gloat. So I won’t brag that the Kings have now defeated the Western Conference No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in order and are about to face the No. 3 seed, assuming the Phoenix Coyotes continue their dominance of the Nashville Predators. I will not boast that the Kings are 8-1 in the playoffs this year, that they likely have the best goalkeeper in the game.
I don't watch hockey a lot, but the guy in the white shirt was supposed to keep that little black thing out of there. Now he has to go home.
I am too much a man of my word to do any of that. For sure I don’t want my nephew to feel any worse about the fact that his team totally sucked against mine, which in all fairness to both of us should have been the other way around. I’m so casual about hockey that most years I can’t tell you who won the cup even if it happened the day before. The Kings are my team, sure. I’m not necessarily a fair-weather fan, because I root for them even when they are bad, which is pretty much the case every year except two that the team has existed. I remember when four out of five teams from a division would make the playoffs and usually it was the Kings who got left out. I still rooted for the Kings. I just couldn’t always be counted on to pay attention.
Reggie, on the other hand, lives for the Blues. He sports a Blues tattoo. I’d consider a permanent Dodger ink spot, but putting the Kings on my back would probably start more conversations than I’d be willing to have.
So for Reggie, I won’t celebrate publicly my excitement over the post-season success of the 2012 Los Angeles Kings, who could very well be the best team in hockey, who might kick royal butt on the Yotes and then some collection of chumps from the Eastern Conference to bring to Los Angeles the Stanley Cup for the first time (The Disney Ducks don’t count.) until Sunday afternoon. (There is a timer over in the right column to remind me when time’s up.)
Reggie asked for a week before I celebrate in front of him. I promised I would wait, so on my honor I declare that I will.
