Since winning the Stanley Cup on Friday, the Kings celebrated on the beach and at a few players’ houses over the weekend. Monday marked the Cup’s first appearance on business since that fateful day.
Kings News
Puck Daddy
Alec Martinez, Justin Williams make margaritas inside Stanley Cup on ‘Jimmy Kimmel’ (Video) The two heroes visited the late night host and drank margaritas out of the Cup. Bonus: Includes a video of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio singing “I Love LA” after losing a bet to LA Mayor Eric Garcetti. Also: Click here to see their entrance.
Road to the Cup video at Kings Rally The 20 minute video with some player reactions that was played at Monday’s rally. It’s very well done, IMO.
CBS Los Angeles
Kings To Be Honored At Dodger Stadium, During Beach Cities Parade If you live in the South Bay and couldn’t make it to Monday’s rally and parade, well tomorrow is your chance to do so. The Kings will be at Dodger Stadium tonight and there are plenty of tickets left so if you want to see the Cup and see the Dodgers fail at winning (because that’s their schtick right now, apparently), I recommend a trip out to Chavez Ravine.
Eye Candy Air
The masters behind the artwork for Jonathan Quick, Martin Jones, J.F. Berube and now Patrik Bartosak show off their latest design for the Kings’ most recent goalie draftee. Click here to see it. It looks kinda like a cross between Berube’s and Jones’s masks but I think it’s pretty sick looking.
Fox Sports West
The best of Darryl Sutter The music in this video… Amazing.
ESPN
Kings fans appreciate special times Most of the long-time, die-hard fans realize that the past was the bad old days but they’re so happy and grateful that they’re experiencing some of the best years in franchise history.
LA Kings Insider
VIDEOS: THE PARADE AS SEEN FROM ATOP A BUS Jon Rosen’s perspective on the media bus of what the parade was like.
PARADE, RALLY PHOTOS A collection of pictures as compiled by Rosen.
LA Times
After second title, Dean Lombardi set to work on Kings’ roster again Lisa Dillman speculates (at length) what the beloved GM will do this summer. Lombardi has just under two weeks to decide if he wants to buyout Mike Richards.
The most important thing is, of course, locking up Marian Gaborik.
Grantland
The Kings Are the Not-Supposed-To Stanley Cup Champs A look at how the Kings defied all the odds and shouldn’t be the Champs they are.
In Other News
Puck Daddy
Why NHL’s new playoff format was amazingly successful (with one nagging complaint) The tl;dr version for Bob: It was awesome except for the fact that the Boston Bruins got completely screwed in the new formatting.
Only two outdoor hockey games for NHL in 2014-15 season? There’s a rumor floating around that the NHL is scaling back the amount of outdoor games to just two.
First one: Washington Capitals will host the Winter Classic.
Second one: A Stadium Series between the San Jose Sharks and possibly the Kings. It could be at Levi’s Stadium (soon-to-be home of the San Francisco 49ers), however AT&T Park (home of the San Francisco Giants) would provide a more showstopping atmosphere. Fear the Fin‘s The Neutral suggested it should be at AT&T Park. The debate in the comments was pretty interesting.
ESPN
Leino, Booth to be bought out Three players were placed on waivers this morning with the intention of using compliance buyouts on them, including Ville Leino from Buffalo and Aaron Rome from Dallas.
Habs Eyes On the Prize
Canadiens agree to terms on a two-year contract extension with forward Dale Weise Our friends at Habs Eyes On the Prize have the reaction to the contract here. Seems like a good thing.
Edmonton Journal
Would pending New York Rangers free agent Anton Stralman be a good fit on the Edmonton Oilers’ blue line? Short answer: Yes. There was a lot of hemming and hawing, explaining that the pending UFA would command a very large cap hit with a long term, but basically he’s what Edmonton desperately needs.