Frozen Royalty: Jay Wells: A Stalwart On The Blue Line

Gann Matsuda of Frozen Royalty had a chance to talk with former Kings defenseman Jay Wells at Hockey Fest. It’s a great read from a great Los Angeles alum.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — As they reminisce about their team, hockey fans generally remember the skilled, offensively gifted players, the star netminders, or the heavyweight enforcers.

They also remember players who are memorable for the wrong reasons. But rarely do they remember the guys in the trenches, the unsung heroes who do a lot of the dirty work, making things possible for the skilled players, but go mostly unnoticed.

Jay Wells
Photo: Los Angeles Kings
The same applies to the Los Angeles Kings, as their fans easily remember stars like Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, Marcel Dionne, Rogie Vachon and Rob Blake.

They also remember the players who were memorable for their sheer ineptitude, like Troy Crowder and Barry Potomski, among others.

Among the Kings defensemen who stood out for their solid play were Rob Blake, Paul Coffey, Steve Duchesne, Garry Galley, Mark Hardy, Charlie Huddy, Dave Lewis, Marty McSorley, Larry Murphy, Mattias Norstrom, Mathieu Schneider, Lubomir Visnovsky and Alexei Zhitnik.

On the negative side of the ledger, Kings fans also had to endure blue liners who soiled the ice, figuratively speaking, each time they set foot on it, such as Rob Cowie, Brent Thompson, Denis Tsygurov and Oleg Tverdovsky.

To those who I have just caused great pain by mentioning those players, my deepest apologies. Trust me, it was equally painful to write about them.

Read the rest on Frozen Royalty.