February 2012 Games and News

[SoCalcaniac]

Looks like JJ bought himself a clue and he's saying all the right things. It's well known in the LAK scene, that there has been this love/hate/love relationship with Johnson & the Kings brass/previous coach and I guess to some extent Uncle Darryl.

We have friends who have been Kings STHers for going on 15 yrs now, and in LA there's this interesting hockey community, because being honest, when you have everything at your disposal 'to do' in the city of Angels, hockey truly is far down the ladder, so they all kinda stick together. My friends say it's almost similar to the feel they have had when they've come out here, but the Kings faithful are prob smaller in number- but same type of familial feel- but scattered from Wilshire district, the Valley, Palos Verdes and beyond. Anyway, word from socal street is this is what "they" (fan base) have wanted. Lombardi the GM, is under serious pressure to fix it out there when they were touted to be going places. Johnson never really endeared himself to the fans, and there was some kind of weird relationship with the top folks; (crazy stat that flew out there last night- JJ is a -90 in his career as an LAK) so from the texts I got last night, and throughout the day so far, people are thrilled Carter & Richards are back together and they see the move positively. We'll see, but I don't see how it will hurt. They definitely have chemistry.

On the whole party boy thing, I'm told Richards has been spotted out (usually with teammates) in a few of the young Hollywood spots- usually dining, Katsuya apparently is a favorite; not only for him but several LAK players, or out for live music. L.A. being hell-ay, there's this subset of the celeb culture that streams over to "other" such as other celebs not in movies or TV. So you have a TMZ like thing with bloggers/followers of Dodgers/Angels, Lakers/Clippers and Duck/Kings taking pix and posting whereabouts. It's kind of entertaining. HOPEFULLY Carter and Richards have had some lessons learned moments, and that's all behind them... but if it's not, ruh-oh. The roomie thing will be interesting- I remember way back when they did a profile of the two of them gosh- maybe that was after the lockout and they were roomies in this swank PHI townhouse & they seemed comfy.... lol.