Summertime hockey in Los Angeles

It's the middle of July, but who said hockey fans aren't passionate about their sport no matter when, where or who's playing?

The Los Angeles Kings, despite the fact that there may not even be a hockey season next year, managed to have a full house at their practice arena, the Health South Center in El Segundo, California, on July 23 to watch Kings prospects play.

Most of the players were either from U.S. high schools, Canadian junior hockey clubs, the Kings farm club in Manchester(New Hampshire), college hockey, (there were a few players from those hockey powerhouses, University of North Dakota, Denver University, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Boston College or that strong college hockey powerhouse, University of Nebraska-Omaha!) or in the case of goaltending prospect, Yutaka Fukufuji, the Japanese National team.

(With all the Japanese media watching him play, everyone was quite impressed. You would have thought we were watching the second coming of Hideki Matsui or Hideo Nomo.)

Four hundred free tickets were given out on Thursday at the Health South box office and within minutes, the game was sold out.

To show you that some things never change, when the referees skated onto the ice, fans showed their appreciate the usual way -- by booing. Some things never change.

Fans were either wearing their Kings jerseys or college hockey jerseys and I must have counted two Boston College jerseys.

I guess they must have forgotten that it was 90 degrees outside. Those attending the game didn't get the chance to see 16-year-old hockey sensation, Sidney Crosby, who is rumored to be in the Quebec Junior Hockey League what Lebron James was to high school basketball -- basically a phenomenon.

Kings fans also didn't get to see Dustin Brown, who played with the Kings part of last year, but they did see Denis Grebeskov, who like Brown, racked up the frequent flyer miles between Manchester and Los Angeles.

The teams were split into squads -- the white team and the black team.

Even though the "white" squad won 8-4, Kings coach Andy Murray, who was an interested spectator along with other Kings' brass, was very impressed with the future of the Los Angeles Kings.

While it was only an exhibition game, you could feel that these players were serious about making it into the league.

What would hockey be without a little pushing and shoving?

There was plenty of that, but no brawls and no chippiness.

One spectator was heard to say, "these guys show more passion than the pros do!"

With the exception of the Dodgers and the Angels, sports fans here in Los Angeles haven't had that much to get excited about in the last couple of weeks.

It was great to see hockey fans enjoying summertime hockey in Southern California.