Roadies to max
For Kings, 1993 isn’t the issue
NEWARK, N.J.— Any long-standing fan can tell you the Kings have been in this position before, that they won the opener of the Stanley Cup Final in 1993 to set a precedent that stood alone until they beat the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday, and that would be correct. It also would be irrelevant. The Kings won their first Cup Final game against the Montreal Canadiens 19 years ago, but that’s not these Kings nor this era. To most members of the current team, the 1993 Final is as distant a part of history as the Civil War. They know it happened and that it was important, but they’re likely to be a little fuzzy on the details.
“I remember it because I’m 33 and I remember watching the games and it was a fun time for watching hockey for me, but I don’t
think it really matters,” defenseman Rob Scuderi said after the team practiced Friday.
“Everyone always brings up past teams or, ‘This team is 5-0 in Game 7s over their history,’ but no one else is on those teams. None of us were there.”
Longevity is rare among players but common among fans, especially Kings supporters. Thousands boast about having seen their first game at the Forum with their parents or siblings. There are two who live in Hawaii yet still have season tickets and travel to Los Angeles for long homestands each season. There are die-hards from the Canadian province of Alberta who rearranged their schedules to attend the first two games at Staples Center next week.
That’s the continuity every team needs, the loyalists who will be there through thick and thin. For the Kings, that often meant thin and thinner, until the last few seasons.
Many of the same faces are visible in the stands from year to year and the name of the team is the same, but the players wearing those colors change from year to year. So although the Kings as a franchise have been to the Final before, this team is doing it for the first time, and doing amarvelous job of it.
Fans who became conditioned to expect the worst and are, even now, fearful that the roof will cave in might be thinking of a certain illegally curved stick and its impact on Game 2 and the course of the series against Montreal. Not to worry.
This group doesn’t have the superstars the 1993 team did, but it has a strong resolve and unshakable mental toughness. To them, their fine work in the previous playoff rounds is ancient history, let alone what happened in 1993.
All that matters to them is winning Game 2 on Saturday at the Prudential Center, not because the 1993 team couldn’t do it but because it would bring them one win closer to the goal they never relinquished during even the toughest of slumps this season.
“It’s a part of the organizational history, but at the same time I think when we got brought in here we tried to start something new. We tried to start a new chapter for this organization,” defenseman Matt Greene said of comparisons to the 1993 playoff run.
“You’re definitely proud of what they did before you, but you want to write your own page in the history books of this organization and that’s what we’re trying to do right now.”
If 1993 was a reference point for several generations of Kings fans, this team is poised to become a happier highlight for this generation and, maybe, others to come.
Center Jarret Stoll said he remembers the 1993 playoffs and sees one link to those Kings.
“It’s totally two different times, two different eras. Different hockey. Everything is kind of different,” he said. “But of the fan base that we have, a large part is because of that ’93 run. We’ve got to acknowledge that and respect that because we have a great fan base.”
And those fans deserve a new high point to brag about.
“We want to make our own history and make our own noise and excitement and get the city of L.A. rocking and rolling and excited about hockey,” Stoll said. “Hopefully we’re doing that. We’ve got a long ways to go. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to be where we want to be but we’re getting there.”