Kings Season Opener 2002

Less than an hour now till the pregame starts at Staples Center. I’m half-watching the Stars/Avs game in the second period at the moment, Dallas up 1-0. Mark Messier just scored his 660th goal in the Rangers game, too. Hockey is back. <contented sigh> :)

Kings Win Season Opener, Honor #99

Last night went from jerking tears to pumping fists. Gretzky and a whole passle of ex-Kings were on the ice for the retirement ceremony. Then the Kings go on to manhandle the Coyotes in a 4-1 victory that showed great promise for games to come. Someone mentioned a stat yesterday that the Kings have the longest current streak for season openers without a lost, something like 10 games won or tied in a row. Nice. Best moments last night:

• Bittersweet cries of ‘Luc!’ when Robitaille came out during the pregame ceremony.
• Gretz thanking everybody, especially ‘the people at the very top,’ pointing to the top rows of the arena.
• All the ‘Gretzkys’ taking shots on Felix during the warmup. All the Kings were wearing old-school #99 home jerseys, signed by Gretzky and each King, to be auctioned off for charity. Later, they switched to old-school individual jerseys.
• The statue of the Great One unveiled outside Staples. Can’t wait to see that in person.
• That first goal by Eric Belanger.
• Production from across the board. Belanger. Ziggy during that 2-man advantage thanks to ex-King Buchberger trying to start a fight with Norton (who wasn’t buying it, and reaped the rewards). Lappy getting a rocket past Burke. Mathieu Schneider the defenseman. Two assists from Allison on powerplay goals. W00t!

So I finally got a fix for my hockey jones. We were talking last night that it seemed much longer this summer since the playoffs ended than the previous couple of years. Oh, and I dig this quote from Kings coach Andy Murray, about if he was bothered about spoiling things by beating Gretzky’s team:

‘Not the tiniest bit,’ Murray said. ‘He’s everything, but his time ended at 7:54. It had to be our time after that.’