When you’re a Los Angeles Kings fan, summer’s can be a long drawn out affair filled with other hockey teams playing for the Stanley Cup, re-playing the entire Kings season on your Xbox in Rookie mode and just lamenting on that simple phrase: “what if…”. We know, it sucks. We feel it too. That’s why we have, for you, some simple things that you can do to occupy your summer and get ready for next season…in October.

1. Read a Book – If you’re a crazed hockey fan who lives it day-in, day-out, there are a ton of great books out there that you can read. Check out Playing With Fire by Theo Fleury (Amazon Affiliate link). Read about the sex-crazed, drug-addicted boozer who tore up the National Hockey League for years. I challenge you to sit down on a Sunday afternoon and put the book down (you won’t be able to). Another great one is Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer by Bruce Bodreau (Amazon Affiliate link). You remember Bruce: a former head coach of the Manchester Monarchs and recent Jack Adams Award winner for the Washington Capitals. It’s an incredibly insightful book about a guy who lives and breathes hockey. He’s probably reading something as well at this moment.

2. Get Acquainted with Your 2010 Draftees – I know, in years past it was easy. You only had to get to know five or six guys because the Los Angeles Kings have drafted in the top five for the last three years. Fortunately, the time has passed for us to draft a “savior”. As of right now, the Kings will draft either 19th or 20th overall. So get yourselves familiar with players like Stanislav Galiev, Riley Sheahan and Tyler Pitlick. And, no, Dean Lombardi is not trading up to number one overall just because the draft is in Los Angeles.

3. Visit Toyota Sports Center – When it’s hot and the sun is shining and you’ve survived a month without a mention of Kings hockey, you can often get the shakes. That’s why it can be refreshing to throw on some shorts (maybe a jersey) and head on over to the LA Kings practice facility. We did. You can go inside, watch the midget Kings and scout potential standouts for the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.

4. Detoxify Your Liver – If you watch our show, you know that in those red plastic cups we drink from resides enough hard liquor to kill most of the sober population. We suggest that cramp on your left side isn’t just a cramp, it’s your liver crying for help. We suggest now is the time to give it some help. Have a glass of water. Drink some cranberry juice. Switch to beer. But, for saftey’s sake, perhaps 11 shots of Jagermeister in the middle of the summer is not going to get you healthy for training camp. Curb it.

5. Or You Can Just Get a Life – It’s the summer. The Los Angeles Kings are scattered across the globe relaxing, golfing and not thinking about hockey. Maybe you should too. If you’re marking the days off of your calendar until training camp starts, you might have a problem.

Then again, KingsCast will be here all summer with new shows and blogs. Yeah, we pretty much suck too.

So what do you do to keep your mind off of Kings hockey?

Keith Korneluk a the co-host of Overtime by KingsCast. Friend him up on Facebook and follow him on Twitter. This pleases him.

With a winning streak of 9 games in a row, there’s plenty to celebrate in LA Kings nation. Together with special guest Alex Kinkopf of ‘Dancing in the Reign,’ we cover the Saturday game against Detroit, discuss missing pieces and present a brand new Fan of the Game. Our question to you, Where does Jonathan Quick rank amongst all time Kings goaltenders?

With the holiday season upon us, the Kings have given fans the gift of consistent winning…and bonus hockey. Even while battling the injury bug, the team continues to climb the standings into uncharted waters. If you could give a gift to your favorite Kings player, what would it be?

 

 Season 4, EP 2: Fall Forward [25:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

In this episode we’ll discuss the new mentality of the Kings fan, talk about Kings assistant athletic trainer Joe Caliguiri’s recent dismissal, take a glance around the 09/10 season of the NHL, and we’ll also take your questions from Twitter and Facebook. Remember, folks: it’s quality, not quantity!

Keith and Chris discuss the longest road trip of the season, talk about the Alexander Frolov situation, show some exclusive footage from the Stars game courtesy of our official Dallas correspondent and throw out the burning question of the day. Unpack your bags, KingsCast is back!

Hockey is back in Los Angeles! Keith and Chris head over to Staples Center for the 1st pre-season game of the season, discuss the participating players and give their thoughts on the LA Kings fan experience.

In the last week before Pre-Season, Keith and Chris talk about what’s going on in the NHL, including Dan Cloutier, the Phoenix Coyotes, Paul Kelly, Derek Armstrong, Kings Rookie Camp and the KingsCast Frozen Fury event.

ESPN Films has released the viewing schedule for the first 7 films of it’s “30 in 30″ documentary film series, which celebrates the networks 30th anniversary by profiling various news stories from the past 30 years. Directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Hancock), “Kings Ransom” takes a look at the monumental impact the Wayne Gretzky-to-LA trade had on the sport of hockey in the United States and Canada from the seldom taken perspective of the Great One himself. ”Kings Ransom” will open the series on October 6, 2009 at 8pm EST.  Should be an interesting watch for not only Kings fans but hockey fans in general who remember first hand that earth shattering day. (unless of course you’re an Oilers fan) Here’s a clip from “Kings Ransom.”

The “30 in 30″ series will air Tuesday nights at 8pm EST on ESPN with upcoming films made by acclaimed directors Frank Marshall, Barry Levinson, Spike Jonze, John Singleton and many more. Sounds awesome!

On the 3rd and final day of the LA Kings Hockey Fest 09, Keith, Chris and Connie continue their coverage of the event with exclusive interviews of Dean Lombardi, Ron Hextall and Terry Murray, chat with more Los Angeles Kings fans, check out the new NHL 2010 game and stage their own autograph session.

Hockey Fest Day 3 – Staying on Target

The countdown to the pre-season has begun and your hosts of the KingsCast Hockey Podcast are prepping Season 4 of the show. That’s right, Kings fans, Matt “the Sound Guy” is dusting off the sound board, defragging hard drives and getting ready for us to rock the mic. We’ll have a brand new podcast for you hungry Los Angeles Kings fans sometime during training camp and the pre-season.

So, for the fans that have just joined us and the fans who have been with us since our first (and worst) season, it’s time for a refresher. And, with that, I give you my Top 5 favorite KingsCasts:

1. Luc Robitaille Special – (Season 1) It’s a rare thing to see a jersey retirement live but Chris and I got to see Luc Robitaille’s jersey retired in 2008 at Staples Center. Here we pay tribute to Lucky Luc, re-cap the games discuss the trade of Craig Conroy. Every time I hear our “Play Hard” chant in the beginning of the episode I just have to smile. There’s a few curse words in this one so, as much as you’d like to, don’t blast this at work!

2. 3rd Annual Season Finale – (Season 3) This is the episode where we started doing the show live. It was also the first time we had three of us on the show together. Here we talk about the ever-important off-season, conduct our end of season Awards show and debate whether or not we should keep the 5th overall pick in the draft.

3. Back in Black (and Purple – (Season 3) What’s really interesting here is that this episode was recorded in two places: Boca Raton, FL and Los Angeles, CA. That’s right, we did a few of these shows this way in Season 3 and it wasn’t easy. It’s painful to remember “the most important Kings off-season in recent history” resulted in us signing nobody. Rob Blake left the Los Angeles Kings for greener pastures in San Jose. Marc Crawford was fired. We were not anticipating a great season for Kings Hockey.

4. Season 2 Finale – (Season 2) It was then end of another terrible season of Kings Hockey under the Marc Crawford regime. Chris and I were a little upset that the Kings didn’t win the draft lottery. We believed that “Dean Lombardi was secretly hoping for us to lose the lottery”. Boy I’m glad we did. Where would we be without Drew Doughty? Also in this episode is one of our favorite segments entitled “See Ya”. Classic.

5. 1st Annual Christmas Special – (Season 1) You know we’re out for blood when we figure out a way to combine Eazy-E and Harry Connick, Jr. The Los Angeles Kings were playing some of their worst hockey ever. Dan Cloutier was in full effect, “manning” the goal crease for LA. By the sound of this episode, we could be Duck fans making fun of the Kings. Not so. Notice the terrible audio quality as we used to record the show in the kitchen. That said, this was a fun episode to make.

Which was your favorite?