In celebration of their second Stanley Cup in three years, the Los Angeles Kings will parade through the city on Monday. And if the last two Cup parties are any indication, the team’s following rally should be appointment viewing.
Beginning at 12 p.m. PST at the corner of 5th and Figueroa streets, the celebration will follow the city’s traditional championship parade route down Figueroa to Staples Center and L.A. Live. Players and their families, coaches, staff, broadcasters, alumni, mascot Bailey, the all-important Ice Crew and select VIPs will carry the Cup on double-decker busses, Toyota Tundras and “other specially decorated vehicles,” per the press release, as fans line the streets. The parade is expected to last 30 to 45 minutes.
“The response that we got a couple years ago was enormous,” Conn Smythe winner Justin Williams told Hockey Central at Noon Monday. “I can’t wait for this one today.”
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Inside Staples Center — where the Kings defeated the New York Rangers 3-2 in double overtime Friday night to win the final in five games — a championship rally will begin at 1 p.m. PT.
During the Kings’ 2012 championship rally, goaltender and Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Quick was the life of the party, dropping a few F-bombs during his speech and tipping back an adult beverage with L.A. city council president Herb Wessun.
“I’ll tell you something that a normal elected official wouldn’t admit to,” Wesson said during his 2012 speech. “I drank a beer with Quickie in the float!”
The Chicago Blackhawks’ Corey Crawford carried the mantle of Most Entertaining Championship Rally Speech in 2013, so the pressure shifts back on Quick to keep the streak of explicit goaltenders going. Problem is, according to ESPN’s Arash Markazi, Quick will not be handed the microphone Monday.