This Day 9 Years Ago

[johnjm22]

I can't believe it was 9 years ago today that the Kings won their 1st Stanley Cup.

When it happened I took screenshots of the major sports new outlets:

NHL.COM

TSN

YAHOO

ESPN

LA TIMES

Where were you that day? What do you remember about it?

It felt kind of surreal to me.

Click to read more...

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Surreal was definitely the word.

The feeling of inevitability started turning to a little bit of anxiety as we went to game six, but it came back when we went up 4-1...those last 10 minutes or so when you could see the guys hugging on the bench and it all starting to set in had me in tears for the entire thing.

I love that we got it two different ways when the 2014 OT win was an explosion of emotion. 2012 was like a weird slow boil and it was hard to shake the feeling of 40 years of futility prepping us for the worst but it became completely overwhelming when it actually happened.

 

[kingsboy11]

I was talking with my dad about it earlier today about how you draw up in your own mind about how the Kings are going to win their first cup and I guarantee every single one of us did not expect that cup run to end up the way it did just dominating every single series and especially with how the previous season went when they blew it against the Sharks . 2014 was probably more like we all thought it was going to take to win for the first time.

I think after they swept the Blues is really when I started to believe that they could really do it

 

[BigKing]

Section 306, represent!

Don't tell my wife but I've never been happier ever in my life. 2014 provided "f*** you" energy but 2012 was the best because it was so unbelievable. Grown men you've been sitting with for years of futility crying in joy.

I had just moved to LB by myself a few month's earlier in 2012. Met my wife in July and started working at my current employer. Won my first fantasy football title later that year and the Kings never lost another game the rest of 2012. Best year of my life.

 

[King'sPawn]

I was stuck at work and missed the first period, because I was driving home. I listened on the radio while driving. My girlfriend at the time was watching for me, and she called while I was driving. She was like "OMG the Kings are up 1-0" and I, in a more curt tone than I intended, said "I know! I'm TRYING to listen!"

Then she started giving me the play-by-play. She mentioned the Stoll hit, the Scuderi board, etc.

 

[Master Yoda]

My son was born 3 days earlier. Watched game 5 from a hospital bed. Got back home for game 6, but was nervous until they scored the empty netter.
Baby was sleeping so trying to keep quiet, I think I was watching on TV and listening to Nick on my earphone.
With maybe a minute or so left in the game, Nick said something like "the Kings are going to win the Stanley Cup".
Got teary eyed just hearing him say that.

Like kingsboy, I started to believe it could really happen after the St.Louis series.

 

[KINGS17]

I was in a PR seats baby! Let out a huge sigh of relief when Lewis scored the empty net goal. The Kings had a 3-goal lead, and the game was in the bag, but it was the Kings, so never felt like it was completely locked down until that moment.

 

[johnjm22]

LA TIMES COVER THE NEXT DAY:

From the WC Finals:

 

[BigBrown]

As silly as it is, it was one of the happiest moments of my life.

 

[KINGS17]

As silly as it is, it was one of the happiest moments of my life.

 

[onlyalad]

Section 306, represent!

Don't tell my wife but I've never been happier ever in my life. 2014 provided "f*** you" energy but 2012 was the best because it was so unbelievable. Grown men you've been sitting with for years of futility crying in joy.

I had just moved to LB by myself a few month's earlier in 2012. Met my wife in July and started working at my current employer. Won my first fantasy football title later that year and the Kings never lost another game the rest of 2012. Best year of my life.

I watched from home. My wife sent me a picture today of me a minute after they won. She said biggest smile I ever had, including our wedding day.

 

[BigKing]

I watched from home. My wife sent me a picture today of me a minute after they won. She said biggest smile I ever had, including our wedding day.

I cried and laughed uncontrollably while driving to work the next day listening to sports talk radio.

We all said we could die happy back then but we were given the greatest Cup run ever just two years later. I want them to win the Cup every year, of course, but all I'm asking for at this point is to just be entertaining again.

 

[Lt Dan]

I am an incredibly superstitious guy.

I started watching the games at a sports bar where I watched Game 1. I watched every game there until we lost game 4. Then is became my road game spot and I watched the home games at home.
When the Kings eventually lost Game 5 of the SCF on the road, I was freaked out. I figured out that me and one of my best friends had never seen the Kings lose. So I invited him over. This sports bar was Mexican themed, so I went to the other end of the pendulum and we ate Thai Food.
It ended well.


2014 is a way crazier story for another time....

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Awesome job saving screenshots from all of those sites.

I wonder if the GDT from then is still viewable. These boards have purged so much content, Id be surprised if it was.

 

[Herby]

It was the weirdest run ever. Being an 8th seed and just destroying everyone with such ease.

I was at my condo I had just bought in downtown Chicago. I should have never left that place, I bought it in the fall of 2011 and sold it in the spring of 2015. The Kings were 11-1 in playoff series in that place.

My neighbors probably hated me with all the yelling at the TV mostly late at night those 3 years.

I cried and laughed uncontrollably while driving to work the next day listening to sports talk radio.

We all said we could die happy back then but we were given the greatest Cup run ever just two years later. I want them to win the Cup every year, of course, but all I'm asking for at this point is to just be entertaining again.

Knowing the clowns on the radio in LA I'm surprised they weren't discussing, "Can the Kings Stanley Cup win motivate the Lakers next season"

I cried too, we are about the same age so we lived through all that shit as kids and into adulthood. The stupid losses to the depleted Oilers every year, the McSorely stick incident, the incompetent management of the mid 90's, Berg/Jokinen/Storr/Zultek, Blake's BS, The Game 7 losses to the Avs back to back years, Allison/Deadmarsh, the dark days at the end of the DT era. All of that was forgotten that night.

2012 was amazing and impressive in its own right, but what the Kings did in 2014 was probably the most impressive Stanley Cup run in history. To come back from 0-3 vs. SJ and winning those three Game 7's on the road, two vs. in-state rivals, one vs. the best team of the era was incredible. I ended up spending a little more than $3k through the secondary market to go to those 4 games in Chicago. It was the highest level of hockey played since the Avs/Wings back in the day. Money well spent.

I think after they swept the Blues is really when I started to believe that they could really do it

I went to both games in St. Louis in 2012 (for about $300 total lol) and I told my now ex-wife as we drove back to Chicago that I thought this might be the Kings year, they had zero holes on the roster at that point and had just destroyed the two best teams in the west over the previous 7 games. That was my only experience of attending any games in the 2012 run, I came very close to saying F it and flying to NJ for Game 5 (Happy I didn't).

 

[bland]

I have had some doozies of posts, even some that generated death threats in PMs from a few Slovenians on LGK, but I don't think anything was ever hated as much as when I said that the Kings were going to win the Cup after Stoll's OT winner in Vancouver. That was a nervous time for our collective family, but dammit, I remember us prematurely toasting the Cup win during gescom and kat19s baby shower in Game 1 of the St Louis series with a whole bunch of old school LGKers. We were all so certain - and cocky as hell. So much faith in Mike Richards getting us over the line.

As far as Game 6, will never forget it, watching with my Dad who passed on in 2016 in their living room, standing for the last minute and my mom saying "I wish you would just sit down" over and over and over, and in that last 10 seconds telling her "Mom, shut the **** up" and my pop saying "Yeah Susie, shut the **** up"!

Hockey was always the only thing that really bonded my Dad and I, no matter how bad things were, the Kings were always there for us. Growing up in San Pedro in the 70s there wasn't a soul around who followed the game, but I would spend all my allowance money on hockey cards trying to get a JP Kelly, not knowing that it never existed. Kelly scored a late tying goal against Minny right in front of us in a game we were able to sneak down to sit next to the goal judge.

Can't thank Lombardi enough for letting my old man see the Cup hoisted in his lifetime.

 

[Herby]

They both made a lot of mistakes in their jobs with the Kings but lets not minimize what Taylor and Al Murray did. What happened at that hotel in Ottawa in the summer of 2005 forever changed this franchise. The Kings added two of the most important players in franchise history in one draft.

 

[LAKings88]

My wife planned a vacation to Hawaii for games 3-6. Course she never thought LA would be in the finals that year. Plane ride home was during game six. Dvred it, turned my phone on when we landed not thinking and it blew up with congrats from all my friends. Watched it on DVR crying the whole time.

 

[Herby]

I have had some doozies of posts, even some that generated death threats in PMs from a few Slovenians on LGK, but I don't think anything was ever hated as much as when I said that the Kings were going to win the Cup after Stoll's OT winner in Vancouver. That was a nervous time for our collective family, but dammit, I remember us prematurely toasting the Cup win during gescom and kat19s baby shower in Game 1 of the St Louis series with a whole bunch of old school LGKers. We were all so certain - and cocky as hell. So much faith in Mike Richards getting us over the line.

As far as Game 6, will never forget it, watching with my Dad who passed on in 2016 in their living room, standing for the last minute and my mom saying "I wish you would just sit down" over and over and over, and in that last 10 seconds telling her "Mom, shut the **** up" and my pop saying "Yeah Susie, shut the **** up"!

Hockey was always the only thing that really bonded my Dad and I, no matter how bad things were, the Kings were always there for us. Growing up in San Pedro in the 70s there wasn't a soul around who followed the game, but I would spend all my allowance money on hockey cards trying to get a JP Kelly, not knowing that it never existed. Kelly scored a late tying goal against Minny right in front of us in a game we were able to sneak down to sit next to the goal judge.

Can't thank Lombardi enough for letting my old man see the Cup hoisted in his lifetime.

That is a great story about your father. None of my family are Kings fans but I have shared similar moments in my life with my father over UM sports and golf (we both cried when Phil won the PGA a couple weeks ago), it makes moment like this all the more special. And even though my dad isn't a Kings fan I'll never forget getting a package a couple days later with a 2012 champs shirt and hat and a copy of the LA Times from Tuesday the 12th along with a nice letter. I wore the shirt basically everywhere I went the rest of that summer and framed the LA Times and put it on my wall, when I bought a house it was the first thing I put up in my sports man cave.

 

[johnjm22]

They both made a lot of mistakes in their jobs with the Kings but lets not minimize what Taylor and Al Murray did. What happened at that hotel in Ottawa in the summer of 2005 forever changed this franchise. The Kings added two of the most important players in franchise history in one draft.

Murray has been the director of scouting for Tampa Bay for the last decade. Apparently they've had some success drafting over there.

Yet Murray was constantly vilified when he was here.

 

[johnjm22]

Prior to the series starting I bought a lower bowl ticket for game 4. $700 bucks.

I didn't expect it to be an elimination game. When the Kings went up 3-0 in the series, the ticket broker I purchased from offered to buy the ticket back for $1000. I said no way.

It was such a strange experience being at a Kings game with the SC in the building. The crowd seemed uneasy the whole game. Obviously it turned out to be a disappointing night, but still an experience I'll never forget.

 

[DAkings20]

 

[Herby]

Murray has been the director of scouting for Tampa Bay for the last decade. Apparently they've had some success drafting over there.

Yet Murray was constantly vilified when he was here.

He was pretty awful scouting for the Kings, especially the 2003 draft.

But I think a case can be made that the 2005 draft was the most important day in club history other than the cup wins. Kopitar and Quick even on this board are criminally underrated.

 

[ru4reals]

Still can't believe to this day. Never thought I'd see my Kings hoist the cup in my lifetime. Still watch the clips and get teary eyed. Will never forget it.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Besides feeling elated, the first person I thought about when the final buzzer sounded was Bob Miller. He should have been calling this game on national TV for everyone tuning in to witness live.

You could’ve also made a case for so many Kings who were worthy candidates for the Conn Smythe, but the numbers Quick posted were historical.

I still have a number of magazines/books, collectibles, shirts, and all the games from that run saved.

I’m surprised the Kings haven’t said a peep on any of their platforms. They better plan on doing something significant next year on the 10 year anniversary.