RICH HAMMOND

Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor.
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A fitting end

Sometimes, reality is just far more amazing than fiction could ever be. Those who have been to regular-season finales recall that the Kings give away a car to a fan during the second intermission. Fans -- I believe five of them -- line up, select a key one-by-one and attempt to start the truck. So, they did, just now. And they failed. All of them. They each took a key, and none of them started the truck. I'm going to assume this was a mistake, and not an AEG cost-cutting measure. Actually, it seems as though some dummy didn't know how to turn a key properly. Needless to say, the whole disaster got booed more than Dan Cloutier, and the embarrassed folks on the ice sort of looked at each other and shuffled off the ice. They said they'd figure it out off the ice.

This year's slogan: ``The Kings: Even The Fans Can't Win.''

13 Comments

Rich Hammond said:

They just announced some dude as the winner of the truck. Maybe they had a series of coin flips.

Anonymous said:

Slogan: Kings Fans - Suckers to the End!

Quattro said:

LOL

metalmaster said:

Starting Cloutier on Fan
Appreciation day is a slap in the face to all fans and shows to me that this organization has no balls.
He should have been cut loose the day after he
blasted the organization.
Although i think Burke is a joke of a GM he would have never tolerated such
insubordination. Just my
opinion.

Marc Nathan said:

It was six of them (fans) and it was hysterical. After the first five missed, the last girl was jumping up and down, and David Courtney said "OK _____, (forget her name) let's make it official." She took the key, got in the truck and had the same alleged results as the first five. Courtney, obviously a bit taken aback, reminded the fans that one of the keys had to work or else they would not have been able to get the truck to center ice to begin with.

A painfully humorous moment for a painfully NOT-humorous franchise.

Marc Nathan said:

P.S. Another painfully humorous moment occurred way up at the top of one of the 300 sections, where large placards with individual letters spelled out C R A W F O R D S U C K S for a few minutes. Didn't last but a few minutes in the 3rd period, but a number of us looked up to the heavens and smiled.

ChrisH said:

Manon Rheaume in net for the lightning tonight?? :)

Kevco said:

The slogan of "we play for LA" should have been changed to "we pray for LA" by December.
Maybe they thought is best to keep the truck to drive Cloutier out of town in!
Ersberg earned the final start of year, dam you Crawford!

Anonymous said:

Hey, glitches aside, at least they eventually gave away the truck. The Sharks "give away" is to have someone try to make an nearly impossible shot from center ice into a little hole in the net to win a truck...no one has ever succeeded as far as I know.

joe said:

there were six people and six keys. They announced to the sixth person before she even picked her key that she had won and she was all jumping up and down. I wonder if she gets a free car anyways ? haha yeah right.

Adam said:

My buddy Matty once got to shoot on goal at the forum for plane tickets or something. He ended up not making it, and while we laughed at him up in the stands, he gave the ol' "up yours" arm gesture to us and got it on the jumbotron. I am not sure why he didn't get kicked out for that one.

Anonymous said:

You should also mentioned that it was the last game for referee Mick McGeough as he is retiring. He received a nice ovation from the players on both benches, some boos from the "fans" and a few handshakes after the game.

metalmaster said:

Put a goal light on truck
and let Cloutier drive off
in it.....for good with the
light on of course
Take MC with him
Cloutier motto
I Stay in LA.......or else
I throw management and my
teamates under the bus

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