Pro Sports Media

On The Road With The Los Angeles Kings

I write this blog entry with a full stomach as just moments ago I ate lunch on the Kings’ charter flight to Dallas…Sirloin steak and au gratin potatoes.  Traveling with an NHL team is about as good as it gets. 

Three games into the season and things are starting to develop for this team.  Anze Kopitar has picked up his game where he left it last season – he’s a dynamic player that genuinely loves to play the game and he’s only 20-years-old.  Michael Cammalleri, a former member of the Manchester Monarchs circa 2002-05, is also off to a great start as the 25-year-old ranks among the league leaders with four goals. 

It will be interesting to see how this team gets out of the gates in October after opening the season with a pair of games at the O2 arena in London.  Yes, that’s a long way to go for two games…but the opportunity to bond as a young club could really pay off for this team that has nine players who are 25-years-old or younger on its roster.

Notes from a guest NHL marketer...

It’s November 7 and the temperature in Los Angeles is 90 degrees. The team is on the road and so things are unusually quiet in the office.  So what should I do on a beautiful day like this?

Go to the beach? 

Lay out in the sun? 

Take a nap? 

Read a book?

How about going for a skate?

With the team on the road for a game in Colorado later tonight, today is the perfect day to take advantage of the wonderful sheet of ice located just downstairs from my office here at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, the practice home of the Los Angeles Kings.

So after taking care of a few things in the office, I head downstairs to the locker room, put on my skates, grab my stick and gloves, and go out to the ice for an hour-long workout.   

Back in the office after going for a skate, and my attention turns to the week ahead. It’s slow - by hockey standards - right now, but that will change quickly when the team returns home after tonight’s game. The Kings on Thursday night will begin a five-game homestand at Staples Center, and that mean’s long days for everybody involved with the team. 
    
The Pittsburgh Penguins just recently wrapped up a west coast road trip with games against the Kings, the San Jose Sharks, the Phoenix Coyotes and the Anaheim Ducks. The Kings and the Penguins did not meet last year, so last Wednesday night was our first opportunity here in LA to see Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin up close and at Staples Center.

The tandem was as good and as entertaining as advertised, and the sellout crowd at Staples Center was treated to an entertaining, end-to-end game full of scoring chances. The Penguins won the game in overtime, with Crosby collecting three assists and Malkin scoring two goals, including the game-winner.

The game also featured a strong performance from the Kings’ Dustin Brown, who collected two points (1-1=2), had six hits and finished with a plus-2 rating.

The Penguins are probably the marquee team in the league right now with all of their young stars.  They are also a good example of an organization that has built itself into a playoff contender by being patient and developing from within with draft picks. In Wednesday night’s game, the Penguins lineup included each of the club’s last six first-round draft picks.

It’s still early, but something else is becoming very clear, the Pacific Division is loaded with three teams that have a great chance to win the Stanley Cup this year. As of today, six NHL teams have 10 or more wins, and three of the teams reside in our division. The Anaheim Ducks (11-0-4), the Dallas Stars (11-3-0) and the San Jose Sharks (10-5-0) are off to great starts.

The fourth place Kings host one of those tough teams - the Sharks - on Thursday night.

MK

Mike Kalinowski is a Manager of Communications for the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings.  His resume includes 10 seasons of pro hockey experience.

The Stanley Cup - Notes from an NHL Marketer

If you’re a hockey fan like me, you’ve been thoroughly entertained over the last two months while watching NHL teams go after the ultimate team prize in sports…the Stanley Cup. 

Watching has made me realize just how much this intense struggle to win the world’s most famous trophy was missed last year during the lock out. 

Hopefully both sides - the NHL and the NHL Players Association - have learned a lesson and we, the fans, will never have to go without our Stanley Cup Playoffs again. 

Speaking of the Stanley Cup, media outlets in the United States continue to point toward low television ratings as a major reason why the NHL should be ignored by the casual sports fan. 

Granted, watching hockey on television isn’t even close to what kind of a feeling you’ll get when you see the sport (and it’s speed, emotion and grit) in person.

Yes the ratings have been low, and that can easily be explained by the following:

• Last year’s lockout
• A new cable (OLN) and over-the-air (NBC) broadcast partner
• The teams competing for the Stanley Cup (Carolina and Edmonton) are from small television markets
• One of the markets is North of the U.S. border

I choose to concentrate on the positive, rather than the negative when it comes to the sport that I like best. 

Yes, OLN broadcasts have been hard to find because the network is not as readily available as the former cable carrier (ESPN) to the average viewer, but that will change with time as both the network and the NHL grow together post-lockout. 

Also, unlike ESPN, the NHL received top billing on OLN during the playoffs…something that ESPN was never able to do because of all of it’s other commitments to other sports.

Is the sport I like best less important because of television ratings?  I think not.  Do the ratings matter?  Not to true hockey fans.  Have hockey venues in the U.S. and Canada been jam-packed with rabid hockey fans throughout the march to the Stanley Cup Finals?  Yes. 

In the end, full buildings and fan loyalty mean the most to me.   

Mike Kalinowski is a Manager of Communications for the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings.  His resume includes 10 seasons of pro hockey experience.