Kings Schedule Review

-The Kings are at home for most of the first half of the season and are basically on the road the last 2 months. They have a 4-game home stand right at the beginning of the season, then 2 games against St. Louis and Nashville, and then a 7-game home stand. Is this done to make sure the Kings get home revenue before they're completely out of the playoff race in January? Probably!

-The Kings open the season with a home-and-home against the San Jose Sharks, meaning the home opener will bring Rob Blake back to Los Angeles. I've been practicing my boos and you should too. I recommend a little lemon tea with a hint of honey after booing practice to soothe the throat. And remember, boo from your diaphragm, not your throat. You could damage the chords if you're not careful.

-If you're reading this from Toronto, feel free to come to Los Angeles on December 1st to watch the Maple Leafs play the Kings. The average temperature should be around, oh, 65 degrees? Or you can just watch on TV and wonder why the people in the crowd aren't wearing jackets.

-The Kings got the Capitals, Flyers, and Devils twice from the Eastern Conference. Does that seem weird to anyone else, that the Kings finished 2nd to last the season prior and now they get the Southeast division champ and two playoff teams from the Atlantic? It's not that big a deal, but you'd think they'd get the Islanders and the Lightning or something.

-The worst week of the year is going to Feb. 22nd-Feb.28th. The Kings have a road trip that week that sees them play the Wild on Tuesday, the Flyers on Wednesday, and then the Red Wings on Friday to finish things off. That sucks, especially because they have to fly to Minnesota, then fly to Pennsylvania, then fly all the way back to Michigan. Then they get one glorious day off and then play Chicago and Columbus on alternating days. If the Kings aren't out of the playoff picture by February, this trip should just about do it.

-Sneaky awesome game: Monday, February 16th. The Kings won't be very good so they'll probably have some sort of promotion. They're playing the Thrashers, which means you can see Ilya Kovalchuk and Toby Enstrom live. And, the Thrashers will suck so the Kings might actually win. These are all the ingredients of a successful home game. Just don't buy tickets for a while so I can get mine first.

Overall, this change in the schedule should help the Kings. Their division is probably going to be the best division in hockey once again, so the Kings are going to need to perform against the Eastern Conference if they're going to have any chance of finishing above last place. The biggest thing I noticed when I was looking at this schedule? Man, I wish hockey was back.