Simmonds gives back
Here's something cool out of the Kings' trip to Washington, D.C., today. Wayne Simmonds, along with Willie O'Ree, the NHL's first black player, and the Caps' Donald Brashear and Nicklas Backstrom, was scheduled to visit the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club in Southeast D.C. The club includes the oldest minority youth hockey program in the U.S. "I always want to give back and I think it's a good thing that we're doing it," Simmonds told the Kings' web site. "It's always good to support the cause and help out the little kids."
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J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra@inlandnewspapers.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews
.com.
Vincent Bonsignore is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. E-mail Vinny at vincent.bonsignore
@dailynews.com.
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how can you not start to love this guy...?
he's got the makings of a future adam deadmarsh sans concussions (let's hope)...great down the boards upon zone entry, tricky and elusive and great off ice character, dean should lock him up long-term immediately...i think he's going to be a productive top-six forward in the next couple of years...you can see he's learning to play the nhl game each and every game and almost improving all aspects of his game on a daily basis...
really think dean found a winner in wayne...!
I love Wayne Simmonds.
The Kid is Gold.
--Sergei Prozacutov
one man's Deadmarsh is another man's Kozak... we'll see :)
Thanks, Rich. A little local color from a DC-based Kings fan: The Fort Dupont Ice Rink is in a less than stellar section of the city. But, the guys who run the rink and the program take very special care of that place. DC, as you may know, is generally pretty warm (not by LA standards) and fairly humid. These are bad conditions for making good ice. Most of the ice around here (including the Verizon Center) frankly sucks. Not Fort Dupont. They take such great care of that place that it easily has better ice than most of the suburban rinks, including the state of the art Caps practice facility and the Vz Center.
The fact that its used for a 85%+ minority youth program makes it even better. The Caps always take a special interest in that program, the Donald especially.
Nothing greater or more honorable than giving back.
Wish you continued success young man.
Marc Nathan said:
one man's Deadmarsh is another man's Kozak... we'll see :)
Thanks - I think
I'd love to see AEG start up something in Los Angeles like this program.
We've got thousands of kids who could use a helping hand in discovering positive and productive activities, and, possibly, careers.
I'd love to see Lombardi go after Minnesota prospect Robbie Earl who is a Los Angeles native and whom I hear good things about.
I'd love to see more disadvantaged LA youth taking to the ice for fun and, eventually, making it to the NHL or WJC's.
Its also great marketing.
Ditto the above - Simmonds been a fun young player to watch, and now I like him even more.
Wayne Simmonds reminds me of two other Kings.
Both men of grit and heart.
With any luck, one day, he'll be on the same list of Kings:
Tony Granato
Ian Laperriere
&
Wayne Simmonds
Damn good list that.
You mean you expect them to do something related to hockey in L.A.? Why should they start now after 15 years of doing nothing?
And that has been the Kings' strength, right?
I thought Backstrom was Swedish?
@littleballofhate,
He is Swedish. But, like I said, the program's pretty well supported by the team. The African-American/Canadian players have certainly been more involved historically, but several other of the players over the years have also been there.