Before the current hockey season, the Los Angeles Kings had totaled 35 seasons in which Wayne Gretzky played no part. From 1967 up until Aug. 9, 1988, and from Feb. 27, 1996 through April 2011 season, the Kings amassed five playoff series wins, and no trips past the second round.
But in this breakthrough, franchise-redefining playoff run that will continue into the Stanley Cup Finals after Tuesday night's series clincher against Phoenix, the Kings have exorcized all of the burdensome intangibles that always seemed to creep up at the most inopportune times.
And in doing so, they have produced the organization's most meaningful moment that didn't include No. 99.
At the same time — with the Lakers and Clippers eliminated from the NBA playoffs — for the first time since 1993 the Kings will have the practically undivided attention of Southern California sports fans.
In a city that has seen titles won by Jerry West and Magic Johnson, by Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser, by Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, by David Beckham and Reggie Bush and both Lew Alcindor and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, now Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter and most certainly Jonathan Quick will get their chance to have their names remembered in a similar capacity.
It's something Gretzky never was able to accomplish, nor was he allowed a second chance.
"It means everything," Drew Doughty said. "You grow up your whole life wanting to be in that Stanley Cup Final, and to make it there, how very hard it is. You just hear from the older guys who have played, guys like [Willie] Mitchell, who've played 13 years in the league and he hasn't been there yet. And to get there for him and older guys like that is a great feeling."
Though local interest has increased throughout the playoffs, it has been a more casual attention as the Lakers, Clippers, and the Dodgers' league-best record have continued to drive the sports discussion in a generally baseball- and basketball-crazy city.
For the first time since 1993 – the last time the Kings reached the Stanley Cup Finals, when they lost in five games to the Canadiens — all three indoor teams made the playoffs in the same season, thus not allowing the under-recognized Kings or Clippers their own private moment away from the heavy shadows cast by the discussion-driving Lakers.
But by the time the Stanley Cup Finals open next Wednesday at an arena in the Greater New York area, all talk of the Lakers' bench production or what jersey Pau Gasol will be wearing next season will fade to a whisper, and the Kings will be front and center, earning consistent boldface headlines in local newspapers and heavy coverage online and on television by local and regional news sources.
"We'll probably have to get a bigger bandwagon," Dustin Penner — who scored the series-clincher in overtime on Tuesday night — said.
Hopefully local TV and radio stations were taking notes during Tuesday's Game 5 thriller.
Due to occasionally clunky news coverage by several local television stations that apparently became very eager to show off their stock Sacramento Kings footage, Los Angeles' sharp P.R. and marketing department devised a cheat sheet designed to poke fun at the recent bungling of the team's logo, while team mascot, Bailey, took to Twitter to air its grievances with one station.
Their new perch is much higher than that from where they spoke during the NBA lockout, 23 first-half games in which they went 11-8-4 and weren't exactly trending toward their current surroundings. There was some belief that, in the absence of the NBA, the Kings failed to make a charge in a crowded sports landscape. But as we all know, it's not October and November hockey that can captivate new fans, it's when hockey is played in May and June.
"It's great for the city, great for hockey, especially in Southern California," Penner said. "I think we have a pretty rabid fan base, and I think you'll see more of that now."
There's no doubt the diehards have always been there for this team – 4,000 fans were estimated to have greeted the team at the airport early Wednesday morning to welcome the team back to Los Angeles. And considering the 55 sellouts in their last 57 regular season home games, the Kings appear particularly sound operationally.
More than reinforcing that hockey can thrive in Los Angeles, they're showing that even without a transformational superstar such as Gretzky, there still can be a great demand for tickets and city-wide captivation.
One player asked to play a leading role in taking the team to the next level has been Richards, whose first year as a King has produced a Western Conference championship and a return trip to the Stanley Cup FInals, where he and Carter's Philadelphia Flyers lost a six-game series to Colin Fraser and the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010.
"I mean, you obviously go into the season with expectations to do well and have success," Richards said to Patrick O'Neal of FOX Sports West after Tuesday's win. "You're really not sure what to expect with your first year, but obviously enjoying the run, we have a good team here, and obviously we're doing something special right now, but it's going to be tough. It's not going to be easy.
"We have four more wins that we've got to get, and seven games to do it."
When asked about the larger picture, coach Darryl Sutter preferred to keep it inside his own dressing room.
"I'm proud of the players. That's the biggest thing for me," he said.
"It's a hell of an accomplishment for the players. That's what it's about. They're the guys that sweat and bleed. That's what it's about. I know from being a player. I'm proud of them guys."
