Hello all ice hockey and especially Kings fans here!
At first a short introduction of myself: I'm from germany, over 30 years old, a hockey/NHL fan since the end of 1995, reading a lot of NHL articles on NHL.com at first plus the last 6 years a lot (and only) on this HF board and watching some live games via stream where NHL/LA players or prospects involved.
And all begun with the 96er NHL PC game from EA Sports and some episodes of NHL Powerweek on the local sports channel (DSF) and sub international news channel (NBC). I had no real special favorite team until the beginning of 2011/12 season respectively during and after the playing time of Super Mario & Jagr area i was favoriting the Pens a little bit and the Flyers (Legion of Doom hehe).
The switch from the PC to the console EA NHL version in the year 2011 was a absolute culture shock (especially the GM mode and managing of AHL/prospects + game/play feeling/optic ... it helped a lot to understand the whole francise thing, salary cap area, importance of developing players and make good trades/signings and so on) and reload my interests for the NHL, which was so so over the study and first work years.
Then at the start of the 2011/12 season there was a very rar live opportunity to see not only one but two NHL teams plus a regular season game in Berlin, Germany ... the Buffalo Sabres (team with german ice hockey idols Ehrhoff and Hecht) against the Los Angeles Kings. So, i take my chance and buy a ticket on Ebay. At game day i went from the train station to the stadium by foot 2 hours before the game start and there it happened: It came out of the nowhere ... some hundred meters away from the stadium a big bus parked on a empty street cross ... and 50 meters away from it ... i saw and realised what was in the bus - the whole LA Kings team and i stopped walking during identifying the single players and some of them looked at me too and say "hello" with there handy + laughing ... the rest is history ... they lost the game, but Drew was the most impressive thing on the ice because he skated like the wind ... since this day i fell "in love" with the Kings and evolved into a true/big fan over the rollercoster regular season 11/12 ... f.e. a few weeks later on christmas i brought some fan articles over Ebay and only play hobby GM in dynasty mode with the Kings until now (and for the rest of my life for sure *g*).
I watched at least every game summary if i didn't see the King game live per stream (biggest problem is the time difference, but sometimes ... *g*) that regular season which was amazing/thrilling ... and until the Carter trade i was thinking we didn't make the playoffs ... and then the run to the finals where we win it all 2012 ... it was so much fun and intensive ... WOW!
Okay, these are my 2 cents for the beginning ;D And to the current roster situation and possible good things to do later more in the right time from time to time as an "outside look / perspective" from a european fan.
I also plan at least one bigger holiday trip to LA in the next few years ... and hopefully there is a Hughes/Kakko or Podkolzin/Turcotte + Byram + Knight too in the lineup ... i know i know ... a pipe dream .. but maybe with some creative trade magic and the right trade partners in the fitting draft spot ... who knows ... if a Gretzky was traded nothing is really impossible ... ^^
Then, cheers to you all on a later saturday evening in good old germany with a bottle of Desperados beer with Mojito flavour ... very tasty
