Matt Murray has been a Kings fan since the late '80s, when Wayne Gretzky grabbed headlines by defecting to the West Coast. Since then, he has been a card-carrying bandwagon member as the club soared in popularity with their sole Stanley Cup appearance to their position near the bottom of the Pacific. But things are looking brighter, as he is anxious to witness the rise of the new Kings.
Luc news from around the world (wide web)
So today is the day that Luc Robitaille's jersey gets hoisted to the rafters of Staples Center. Technically, it's not really in the "rafters", but rather on the wall. But that doesn't sound very impressive. "Tonight, the Los Angeles Kings honored the greatest left winger of all time by putting his jersey... on the wall." Walls are for paintings, clocks, dart boards. Jerseys should hang in the middle of the arena. But this is a holdover from the Fabulous Forum, which doesn't make too much sense. There's nothing but room in the middle of Staples, minus the huge scoreboard.
But I digress. Luc's retirement ceremony has allowed sportswriters to wax poetic about the man, myth and legend. Here's a few that I found interesting:
First, Wes Goldstein from CBSSportsline.com wrote a nice piece on Luc's career, starting with how he got his nickname "Lucky."
"Tiger Williams started calling me that after (his first game)," recalled "Lucky Luc," who will have his No. 20 retired by the Kings on Saturday. "I was a kid, living in the biggest house at Marcel's (Dionne), driving his Mercedes and then I score a goal right away, so he thought I was lucky."
Sports Illustrated did a nice photo gallery spanning Luc's career over on SI.com, the hardest image is one of Luc hoisting the Stanley Cup... as a Red Wing.
At KingsRadio.net, over two hours of audio interviews with Luc and others talking about No. 20 can be heard. Jimmy Carson, Tom Webster, Pat Brisson, and Detroit play-by-play announcer Ken Kal are included. Also, Luc's most recent interview on KLAC with Money and Petros just yesterday.
TSN.ca has a nice write-up of Luc. In it, Luc recalls on some of the first celebrities he met:
"Chad Lowe came to see us after a game with his brother Rob," said Robitaille. "And Melissa Gilbert was with them. I was a big fan of Little House on the Prairie. She came in the dressing room with those guys, and she saw every guy walking around naked in the dressing room and I'll never forget, she stepped backward about five feet so fast. "We were like, 'Hey, that's the girl from Little House on the Prairie."
Someone uploaded a Luc retrospective over on YouTube.com from Fox Sports last season. Another notable entry was this photo flashback of Luc's career. Two nice bits of video that are a nice reminder of just how great Luc was.
