Kings

Here is some cool stuff, only some of which is tangentially related to American football. ;D

LED Football?!

Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts (now on ESPN LA) points to a nostalgia-inducing awesome thing: LED Football for iPhone, which is, as he puts it,

A replica of the greatest game ever, Mattel Handheld Electronic Football.

It's also free for today only.

The more you know...

Speaking of tweeting and football, Bob Timmermann informs us,

Little known Super Bowl fact: Because New Orleans is playing in the game, the NFL rulebook will be replaced by the Napoleonic Code.

Yes, yes I am!

"Inside the Dodgers" asks the rhetorical yet vital question, "Are you ready for some baseball?":

It's the last official day of football season, so get it out of your system now and get ready to start watching America's pastime.

Good gracious, yes!

Streaking Kings

The LA Kings have reached a franchise-record nine-game wins in a row and are going for 10 against crosstown rivals the Anaheim Ducks tomorrow. They're currently in fourth place in the Western Conference.

Blaming the victims? ;)

bikecommutenews tweets,

Cyclists on busy roads a nuisance http://ow.ly/14NvT #bikenews

which prompted me to reply,

@bikecommutenews Yeah, to me, it seems like the *cars* are the nuisance on a busy road, not bicycles. :)

Noteworthy

Slashdot mentions a blog post by a computer science student who sticks with a pen and paper instead of a laptop for note-taking during class, "My Classmates Are Taking Their Notes Digitally, But I Can’t Fathom How They Keep Up"

I noticed today that as I frantically scribbled to keep up with my philosophy professor’s lecture, there was an audible hum of typing in the classroom. It was the first time I noticed that I could count more students using netbooks than notebooks to take notes in class.

Call me old-fashioned, but I like to take notes with a pen and paper. As I’ve discussed previously, the act of writing helps cement the lecture material in my mind better than passive listening does, and studies have shown that it’s not just me.[...] Still, I know that my old-fashioned ways are quickly going out of style.

The Ducks won game 4 last night and so are up 3-1 over the Senators; they could win the Cup on Wednesday. Wow.

Strange to think it's been four years since their battle with the Devils in the finals. That year (2003) it was New Jersey taking two games at home, then the Ducks returning the favor, and back and forth till the Devils won Game 7 on their ice. Just like then, I'm divided about the Ducks winning.

As a Kings fan, I'd sure rather the Ducks wouldn't win the Cup first, and with what I like to refer to as my Canadian-American heritage ;) I wouldn't mind seeing the Sens win.

At the same time, how cool would it be for a California team to win?

Strange to think about Kings hockey starting again whilst ramping up for the baseball playoffs, but here we are. And it looks like new GM Dean Lombardi has pulled off another good trade for the near and farther future, swapping players with the Carolina Hurricanes.

NHL.com: "Kings land Johnson for pair"

Unable to get defenseman Jack Johnson's signature on an entry-level contract after several overtures, the Carolina Hurricanes decided to go in a different direction Friday afternoon with their star-in-waiting.

Johnson, who is about to embark on his sophomore season with the University of Michigan hockey program, was the centerpiece of a four-player trade consummated with the Los Angeles Kings. Carolina sent Johnson, the third-overall selection in the 2005 Entry Draft, and veteran defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky to the Kings in exchange for young defenseman Tim Gleason and veteran forward Eric Belanger.

Allan Muir over at SI.com seems to think the Kings robbed the Hurricanes blind: "Blue chip for peanuts"

A few months back, Carolina's Jim Rutherford earned accolades as the NHL's Executive of the Year. This morning, he did his best to help Los Angeles GM Dean Lombardi follow in his footsteps.

Truth be told, the Kings aren't likely to reap the benefits this season of the deal that brought them promising defenseman Jack Johnson and veteran Oleg Tverdovsky for Tim Gleason and Eric Belanger. But, in time, this one has the potential to go down as a legacy maker. We're talking Cam Neely and Glen Wesley for Barry Pederson territory here.

Later, he says Johnson has the potential to be a dominant D-man in the mold of Rob Blake. Not too shabby.

The Kings season starts October 6th in Anaheim. Game on!

At last, star status for Kings' Miller

Understandably, Bob Miller wasn't really sure how he was supposed to react a couple years ago when he was told that he'd been selected to have a Hollywood Walk of Fame star cementing his legacy on Hollywood Boulevard.

"The first thing I did was go down there to see how many of the names on that sidewalk I recognized," the Kings' Hockey Hall of Fame play-by-play man said. "And there were a lot of 'em that I had no idea who they were."

Bob's star will be at 6763 Hollywood Blvd. We've been blessed here in Southern California with the best of the best broadcasters.

• Vin Scully, Dodgers -- 6675 Hollywood Blvd.
• Chick Hearn, Lakers -- 6755 Hollywood Blvd.

So this was anticipated yet still a surprise. Not a “Holy Mother of God, I just soiled myself!” surprise — more a, “Huh. Weird.” surprise. Rob Blake returns to the Kings.

With the Kings, Blake was a four-time all-star who helped the team to the 1993 Stanley Cup finals, and won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenceman in 1998. He was the team’s captain from 1996-2001 and one of its most popular players.

Blake was a target for fan hostility whenever he returned to play at Staples Center, but he hopes all will be forgiven.

“I hope it’s a warm reception,” he said. “I think things will be put behind us.”

We’ll see about that.

Read the rest of this article at blogging.la...

NBA championship just ending. World Cup in full effect. NHL Draft today with some great youthful direction by the new LA Kings leadership between picks and trades. Very soon, the Tour de France takes over the month of July. And all the while, the Dodgers are plugging away amid an optimistic struggle. And I hear tell there's an American football league starting training camps.

My brain may well explode. :)

Robert Luongo, the crazy-good goaltender that the LA Kings are pursuing, isn't happy about all the rumors. From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, "Panthers' Luongo 'upset, hurt' about talk of a trade"

Roberto Luongo said Wednesday he wants to keep playing for the Panthers, but is "upset, hurt and concerned" after General Manager Mike Keenan's recent disclosure that the team will explore trading the franchise goalie by this weekend's draft.

"Especially after I came out and said I'd like to stay here and I didn't want to go," Luongo said in a phone interview. "Now they're turning the tables on me. It's very upsetting."

The Kings aren't the only ones after him:

The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that the Kings have offered goalie Mathieu Garon for Luongo as they did in March, along with wingers Alexander Frolov and Dustin Brown. The Red Wings, Senators, Maple Leafs, Canucks and Rangers also are believed to be pursuing Luongo with offers through Saturday night's draft in Vancouver.

It would be quite a coup to get Luongo, although I keep hearing the stupid Longo Toyota radio jingle everytime I type his name. ;)