Take a few minutes to think back about the past 4 years of being a Los Angeles Kings fan. And you tell me if you thought that they'd be playing in a Game 6 of a First Round playoff series. And you tell me if you ever thought Staples Center would sound like this:

Game 4 recap to come tomorrow. I can barely stand right now.

"Are they saying LUO-ongo or BOO-ongo?"
"Sigh... they are saying BOO-ongo."
"Shit."

Game 4 is tonight at Staples Center. It's just a little past 12:00pm here in Los Angeles and all I want to do is go downtown and stare at Staples until they open the doors. Some of my good friends are fans of teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Indianapolis Colts. I don't know how they make it through the post-season each and every year. It's only Game 4 and I'm nearing a heart attack.

Before Game 3 the other day, the Kings Marketing Department played a message from Bob Miller, the play by play voice of the Los Angeles Kings since 1973, just 6 years after the Kings came into the NHL. So to say he's seen it all is close to being 100% true. He is the Ambassador of the Kings... and when I watched this video again this morning... I totally got choked up.

There is some great blog coverage going on during this series, so I want to make sure you check it all out.

Dear Los Angeles Kings Marketing Department,

I'm sorry for everything I've said over the past 3 years. What you put together last night at the Los Angeles Kings first home playoff game in 8 years was simply perfect. I apologize for being such an asshole, especially this past season. Go Kings Go!

Sincerely,
The Royal Half

Sure, I might have seen Kings playoff hockey in person on Saturday in Vancouver. But seeing the Kings first playoff game in Los Angeles in 8 years is something that Kings fans have been waiting for… well... for 8 years. And when I first arrived at the arena I have to admit, I was a little concerned that the Kings Marketing Department wasn't going to rise to the challenge.

All right. Balloons!

I'll take "Things that look wrong for $1000", Alex.

And inside the arena, there was a soft attempt at adding some spice... using bunting!

That or a Harry Potter convention at Staples the night before got really crazy.

But then, Half Season Ticket Holder Buddy and I made our way up to our seats… for the first time past April 15th in 8 years… and I saw the sign.

And I knew this was gonna be awesome... but I had no idea it'd be THIS awesome.

Holy Shit that was awesome.

Kings 5, Canucks 3

See how the first Kings playoff game in 8 years unfolded.... after the jump!

Us sports fans can be a little wacky sometimes. If someone takes a 2 day cross-country trip to go a friends wedding or their sisters high school graduation... people don't think twice. But if you want to travel up to Vancouver for Game 2 of the Los Angeles Kings versus the Vancouver Canucks in their first round series... and go to the game with a complete stranger that you've only talked to via various blog, twitter and email conversations... then all of a sudden I'M the crazy one?

THE ROYAL HALF GOES TO VANCOUVER!

And that's exactly what I did this past Saturday as I boarded a plane in Los Angeles, had a quick layover in Phoenix (Frequent Flier Mile Ticket, you know?) and landed in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. My Blogger Buddy™ Benched Whale had graciously accepted my offer of attending the game together and having her show me around town. Then... a few enlightened moments later... she be-friended me on Facebook to make sure I wasn't some creepy, 55 year old dude. (Luckily, I'm only a 33 year old creepy dude. A veteran leader, if you will.) Feeling confident that I didn't look like I was going to do anything crazy to her over the course of the weekend, we solidified our plans. I bought decent seats to Game 2 off of Stub Hub and I was on my way.

To read all about my crazy adventure as the sole Los Angeles Kings fan in a blue and green sea of Canucks fans... check it out after the jump!

In a few hours, I will be boarding a plane and heading north to Vancouver, British Columbia to watch Game 2 of the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks with Blogger Buddy™, Benched Whale. If Saturday's game is half as good as the other Game 2's tonight... then it will be the greatest game of all time. I haven't been this excited about a playoff hockey game... since last night's Game 1.

If you don't already follow The Royal Half on Twitter... now would be as good a time as any to start. I'll be trying to share my experience as a Kings fan in a foreign land as best as I can... or at least better than I did before. You can find The Royal Half Twitter here. Fuck it, if you really want to go all out... then join The Royal Half Facebook page.

Will someone explain to me how in the heck Handzus is an emotional low?

Somehow I feel like this isn't the first time a man in a green suit has had his balls in Jack Johnson's face.

Well, that game was totally awesome. The Los Angeles Kings came out strong in during the first period in their first playoff game in 8 years... played a bit uneven for the remainder of the game... and if it wasn't for an amazing save by one of the world's best goalies... all we'd be talking about today is the Kings stunning win over the Vancouver Canucks.

So instead we are talking about a Game One loss.

Kings 2, Canucks 3 (OT)

Check out the full Royal Half Recap of Game One.... after the jump!!!

I have to admit, it's still very strange to still be talking about the Los Angeles Kings after the regular season and Draft Lottery. But here we are, 8 years after the Kings lost to the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the playoffs. It's been a long, strange trip for me and Half Season Ticket Holder Buddy... mainly because we signed up for our Half Season Seats 8 years ago and are just going to see Kings playoff hockey for the first time. Dean Lombardi was brought in to change the culture of this team from a place that aging hockey players finish out their careers while living on the beach... to an young, powerful team that is built to last. Helene Elliott has an epic article in todays LA Times Sports Section (you know the Kings are in the playoffs when they make the front page of the Sports section!) about how Dean Lombardi has shaped this playoff team... but how there is still far to go. As Kings fans, we are used to losing. It's the poison in our system. We are used to bad trades, burned out prospects and laughable goaltending. But for one bright, beautiful sunny California spring day... there is hope. There is excitement. There is playoff hockey in Los Angeles.

Now, I'm not a predictions kinda guy. I tend to leave that stuff up to the experts. But I do think that on paper... these teams are pretty evenly matched. But the real battle here isn't Vancouver vs Los Angeles... it isn't USA vs Canada... it isn't Smythe Division foe vs Smythe Division foe... no... this is a battle of 2 teams... that have had a heck of a lot of jerseys during their time in the league.

Do not attempt to adjust the color of your computer monitor.

Check out what the heck I'm talking about.... after the jump!!!

During the 1988-89 NHL season, a player came to the Los Angeles Kings that would set the town on fire during the playoffs. No, I'm not talking about Wayne Gretzky, I'm talking about Christopher T. Kontos. The re-vamped Kings were entering into their first playoff series during the Gretzky era… against Wayne's former team, the Edmonton Oilers. The series went a hard-fought 7 games and the Kings rallied from being down 3-1 to take the series. But the real story of this playoff series was the emergence of Chris Kontos, who scored an amazing 8 goals in the 7 games against the Oilers... 6 of them on the Power Play, an NHL record that still stands today. The Kings would go on to be swept by the eventual Stanley Cup winning Calgary Flames in the next round, but Kontos would finish his amazing playoff run with 9 goals in 11 games. Don't believe me? Well, there is video to prove it!

I was 12 years old when Kontos went on his record playoff scoring run and I've never been able to forget it. It made such an impression on me that I even adopted Kontos' name as my nerd-hockey-blogger moniker. So imagine the excitement one day when I received an email from Chris Kontos, saying that I kept popping up in his Google Alerts... and he really liked the blog. So with the Los Angeles Kings ready to make their return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after an 8 year drought, I wanted to get the inside story of that memorable 1989 playoff series from one of the all-time Los Angeles Kings playoff performers. Check out the interview after the jump!

The Los Angeles Kings had some impressive road trips this NHL season... but none more impressive than the one my playoff tickets took to get to me today.

Calgary to Memphis to LA? 
There's gotta be better ways to save money, LA Kings.

But no matter how far they traveled... the tickets are here. And the Kings Marketing Department are quite the optimists... included are tickets to all 4 rounds of the playoffs, that's right... even the Stanley Cup Finals.

8 years in the making.

The only thing crazier than the road trip my Kings playoff tickets took is the road trip I'm about to take. That's right, The Royal Half is heading to Canada for Game 2 of the 1st round series between the Kings and Canucks. Your one-stop-source for all news Canucks, Benched Whale, will be showing me how the Canadians do hockey. I have a feeling there will be a lot less Heidi Androl and a lot more beer. Keep checking out the Whale for all the pre-series breakdowns and matchups for the upcoming series. Playoff hockey... can you feel it?

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The awesome Flyers blog, Flyers Goal Scored By, asked me to chime in on how a former Flyer was doing for the Kings this year. He first rejected my essay on Jeremy Roenick but later he let me wax poetic about Randy Jones. You can check it out here.

For hockey fans across North America and the World... yesterday was as good as it gets. Teams were battling to get in the playoffs... the teams that were already in battled for playoff position... and even a goal scoring race came down to the wire. And to top it all off... the NHL.com Pun Machine™ went into full-on overdrive as 4 of the 5 slots on the frontpage were chock full of puns.

Normally, NHL.com only does one pun per front page. This is too much. I'm overwhelmed. Bring on the playoffs!