on and on, to the beat of our noisy hearts

since the los angeles kings are affectionately known as “flyers west” and the flyers are no longer in the playoffs, i’m covering the kings for flyers faithful for the duration of their playoff run. i thought that kings fans may be interested in my different pieces, so here they are:

journey to cup finals is a team effort (5/24)

kings in familiar territory (5/21)

carter comes alive (5/17)

when mike richards got traded to the kings, i’m sure there were plenty of doubters out in LA. kings fans had internet rumors to base their opinions on, and the opinions of those hockey fans who focused more on richards’ “extracurriculars” - most of which weren’t even accurate. his injuries prevented fans from seeing all of the things he could do, how talented he was, and how smart of a hockey player he was. but there were numerous flashes of greatness, and now, in the playoffs, he’s the mike richards flyers fans - well, some of us - know and love. his leadership, his smarts, his skills, they’re all prevalent in this series. los angeles is getting to see the real mike richards. i miss the hell out of him, but i’m thrilled he’s doing so well out there, and i hope the kings fans are enjoying the ride.

how are you going to say that mike richards didn’t do anything for your team? he led them to the finals in 2010 when they had no business being in the playoffs in the first place. he battled all through last season with a wrist injury. so many of his former teammates have backed him up and talked about how strong of a leader he was, despite the fact that he wasn’t always vocal. all of the flyers’ beat writers had issues with him, though not a single beat writer out in LA has. everyone out there loves him. the team recognizes what he brings to the table and they’re constantly praising his talents and his leadership, despite the fact that he doesn’t wear a letter on his chest. as for jeff carter, if you want to believe that the team’s leading goal-scorer for the last three years did nothing or them, well, you’re a fucking fool. you may not have liked his style or the fact that he partied (nevermind the fact that you NEVER saw any pictures of richards or carter partying last season, and you would have if it had happened, considering all of the social media people use nowadays), but saying that he contributed nothing makes you look like an idiot. you don’t need to miss them. you don’t need to care about them. but you’re so fucking misinformed if you can’t understand what they did for the flyers in their time here.

ps: if you’re only getting your information from the biased beat writers (panotch, carchidi, seravalli) and not from someone who actually does a good job (ie bill meltzer), you’re not getting the right information. and if you’re believing the rumors that have no foundation behind them, same thing. oh, mike richards is a drug addict? have you ever seen him do drugs? no, you haven’t. oh, he has no heart? were you there in the locker room? nope, you weren’t. again, you don’t have to like either one of them, but for the love of god, have an intelligent reason for it.

pps: in my personal opinion, the kings are lucky to have both players. richie’s a gritty, determined player and a leader in every sense of the word. carter is a proven goal scorer and his defensive game has gotten much better over these last few years. they’ll be good out there. i just hope kings fans give them a chance as opposed to going off of what they’ve heard from philly.

“Sutter alluded to Richards’ quiet leadership when he said, “I’m sure a lot of it is natural. The game is such that leadership is defined a lot of times by star players or (being in the) public eye or popular players or guys that are well-spoken. 

“But at the end of the day, it’s about actual performance in big situations. That’s really how it’s always measured. Everything else is just sort of smoke.”