March 22, 2007 -- LOS ANGELES -- Coverage of hockey and the National Hockey League has been mostly an afterthought in the local mainstream newspapers since the Los Angeles Kings joined the NHL in the league's 1967 expansion.

Since that time, Southern California hockey fans have bemoaned the lack of coverage given to the Kings, and later, the Anaheim Ducks.

After a spike in coverage during the years that Wayne Gretzky played for the Kings, finally putting them on the front page of the sports section, coverage of Southern California's NHL teams has waned in a big way.

Since Gretzky left the Kings in 1995, coverage in the local print media has declined so much that today, none of the local newspapers send a beat writer on the road with the Kings.

The Los Angeles Times also stopped sending a beat writer on the road with the Ducks this season until it was clear that they would be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender--apparently, the Times could no longer justify ignoring half of their games.

In the case of the Kings, they are not a good team this season, no question. Indeed, they have competed more for a high first round draft pick than they have for a playoff berth. And a team has to be really bad to do that in the NHL, where sixteen out of thirty teams qualify for post-season action and a chance to win the Stanley Cup each year.

Over the past few seasons, the local beat writers who cover the Kings have done a fine job overall--when they are given space in their respective newspapers. But overall, ever since the Kings arrived in the Los Angeles area, the powers that be who run the local newspapers have only begrudgingly given the Kings, and later, the Ducks, much attention at all.

Sure, hockey is not as popular as the other major professional sports, and they do have to sell newspapers. But even with that, many believe that Southern California's NHL teams still get the proverbial short end of the stick in terms of coverage.

That being said, on rare occasions, one wishes that the media would continue to ignore hockey. One of those occasions came on March 18 when the Orange County Register published "For The Young Kings, The Next Season Is Now," by Marcia C. Smith.

The story was a commentary piece on the state of the Kings. But looking it at objectively, it was little more than a hack job taking potshots at them.

All one had to do was read the second paragraph of the story to tell where Smith was going with her diatribe.

"That leaves 10 more games to lose, three more weeks to feel embarrassed about their name and another postseason to wonder why this 40-year-old franchise has fallen so far behind the young Ducks," Smith wrote.

I am quite certain that the Kings' players would have some choice words for Smith about that.

On balance, the Kings are indeed a near-cellar dweller while the Ducks are a Stanley Cup contender. But to claim that the Kings should be embarrassed about putting on the jersey is asinine, at best.

We will refrain from poring over Smith's story point-by-point, because it was painfully clear that her research was sloppy, careless and incomplete (and that is being kind). As a result, there are so many blatant errors, and so much poorly-thought-out analysis that we could write a short novel about it.

Even worse, the fact that the story was published in its current form raises questions about the editors at the Register's sports department. Indeed, how could a story that is so full of obvious errors and overall sloppy journalism be published?

This incident raises questions about the journalistic integrity of the Register's sports department. And it certainly provides a powerful indication that Smith has a long, long way to go before she can be recognized as a legitimate, credible sports journalist.

In the meantime, Smith should do everyone, especially herself, a big favor and avoid NHL rinks at all costs.

DETERMINED WEAVER IMPRESSES

Of course, that is an exaggeration, but Weaver, 28, was spending every game in a suit and tie instead of a jersey and skates because he was stuck behind Rob Blake, Aaron Miller and Brent Sopel as defensemen who played the right side of the ice.

And the few times Weaver played, he did nothing to catch the eye of the coaching staff, and continued to barely see any action at all.

But in early January, Weaver was assigned to the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League (Kings primary minor league affiliate) on a conditioning assignment, and he made the most of his two weeks there, scoring a goal and adding three assists for four points in seven games.

Weaver then returned to the Kings as a changed hockey player.

"When you're not playing, you start thinking," said Weaver. "You want to stay positive, but you've got to get your head in the right place. Going down to Manchester really helped me gain that confidence back."

"Confidence is a big thing," added Weaver. "When the coaching staff believes in you, it's amazing how much it helps. Going down to Manchester for two weeks of conditioning helped me a lot. I started enjoying the game again."

But even before heading down to Manchester, Weaver was determined to stay in the game.

"When I wasn't playing, they just said keep on battling in practice, and that's what I did," said Weaver. "I did the little things and doing the extra work rather than getting off the ice like everyone else who was playing.I would always stay out there after for a bit to work on stuff defensively, and its helped me tremendously."

Weaver cracked the Kings lineup again on February 6 at Tampa Bay, where he not only played well, but he scored the first goal of his NHL career.

"It's about time," Weaver told the Associated Press. "I'm just going to enjoy [the goal] for a couple of hours, then forget about it and concentrate on the next game."

Since then, Weaver has been in the lineup for every game, and has seen his ice time increase after the Kings traded away defenseman Mattias Norstrom and Brent Sopel at the trade deadline.

"More than anything, it's been opportunity for Mike," said Kings head coach Marc Crawford. "Earlier in the year, we were playing other people. This hasn't been a porous defense."

"We had Norstrom all year, we had Miller, we had Blake," added Crawford. "Those are pretty tough guys to displace on the right side. Then you look down the rest of the list of the people we've had here, that's a pretty good group. So it was tough for him to crack."

But Crawford acknowledged that Weaver has made a strong impression, and that perhaps the coaching staff was mistaken in not playing him more earlier in the season.

"Mike bided his time, he went down for a stint in Manchester, and I thought he really found himself again in Manchester," Crawford explained. "Then, when he got his opportunity, that night we put him in In Tampa Bay, he came in, scored a goal, assisted on another one. When you do things like that, you jump out at your coaching staff."

"We're human, too, maybe we have made a few decisions that haven't been the right decisions this year," Crawford elaborated. "But we know that we rely a lot on the character of our team, and Mike Weaver is a character player."

Weaver got another chance to shine on March 17 when the Columbus Blue Jackets came into town. He scored his second goal of the season and his NHL career to help lead the Kings to a 5-3 win.

But don't think that Weaver will change his game to look for more chances to get involved in the offense.

"I've just been trying to keep things simple," said Weaver. "These points are great. I love them, but I'd rather block a shot, or be out there on the penalty-kill."

Gann Matsuda is a Los Angeles native and has followed the Los Angeles Kings since 1973. His days covering the Kings began in the mid-80's when he wrote game stories and news and notes pieces on various online services (GEnie, National Videotex Network and eWorld), before moving to e-mail lists and the World Wide Web. He has been the news editor for the Online Kingdom (http://www.kingshockey.com) since 1995, and has also covered professional hockey players of Japanese descent for the Rafu Shimpo (Los Angeles Japanese Daily News) since  2001.

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