Kings vs. Blues, Round 1 Game 4

Hey there hockey fans!  So, I'm not going to lie to you, and I understand that this may make me sound like one of those fair-weather LA fans who only cares about her team when said team is winning, but I promise, that is not me!  However, I am not a huge follower of hockey the way I am with baseball and football.  We try to go to a couple of games every season, but it is pretty rare that I will sit down in front of the TV and watch a full game of hockey.  That is, until we get to playoff time.  Last season, watching the Kings during the playoffs was so exciting, it gave me a whole new appreciation for hockey.  I still didn't pay a ton of attention to this season (especially given the fact that it was about half as long as it should have been), but I've been looking forward to the playoffs!

On Saturday I was switching back and forth between the Dodgers/Giants game and Game 3 of the series between the Kings and the Blues, and as usual, I was not only watching two programs on TV, but was also checking in on Twitter and Instagram (click the links if you want to follow me!).  The Kings tweeted about tickets for the Game 4 and I was so excited that there were even tickets left, I immediately logged onto Stub Hub and scored two tickets for a totally reasonable price!  The hubs was obviously uber psyched as well and we headed out to the game yesterday evening.

LA Live was packed, obv, so we headed straight into the game and found these awesome playoff rally towels waiting for us on our seats.

The atmosphere that Staples Center and their sports teams is able to cultivate is really something else.  I don't know if it's the closed quarters or what, but there is definitely nothing like the feeling when the lights dim before the game starts.

Of course, the game last night didn't start out all that great for Kings fans.  Within two minutes, the Blues had scored their first goal, and just a couple of minutes later had scored their second.  The crowd was pretty quiet after that (and if you know LA crowds, it's pretty rare that we do "quiet").  Nothing to fear though, because by the end of the first period, we had tied it all up with goals from Jeff Carter and Dustin Penner.  The Blues scored their third goal in the second period, which was a scoreless twenty minutes for the Kings.

Luckily, during the second intermission, we got to see this adorable couple get engaged on the big screens at center ice!  I love watching sports engagements and this was my first hockey one, so it brightened up the night a bit!

Things only got better from there.  The Kings came out in the final period of the game and put two more goals on the board, one from Anze Kopitar and one from Justin Williams.  Goalie Jonathan Quick held tough, despite the Blues pulling their goalie in the last minute of the game, and LA walked away with the win!  This cutie patutie, Mike Richards, had two assists and was named the Star of the game.

 Source

The series is now tied up at two games a piece.  The teams square off in Game 5 tomorrow night in St. Louis, and then return home to LA for Game 6 Friday night.  I'll be back in the stands of Staples Center rooting on the Kings on Friday and I can't wait to see them kick some Blues butt!