Do the opposite
How to keep the "Flop on Figueroa" from happening again

By Brian Kennedy |  Hockeytalk.biz

APRIL 20, 2011 -- In our heads, we all know that what happened to the Kings Tuesday night was a result of players making poor decisions.  But most fans also believe that what they do off the ice influences what happens in hockey games.  And not just those in the arena.

The Kings led 4-0 after 20:44 Tuesday night.  Shortly thereafter came the "Flop on Figueroa."

That’s why it’s imperative that all who love the Kings get involved in “Do the Opposite Day” on Thursday.  It’s one thing that might just make a difference, and make it impossible for something like the Flop on Figueroa (or whatever you’re referring to Tuesday as) to happen again.

Those of you who have followed the team a long time know what I’m talking about, because you’ve got your good-luck charms all worked out.  When the Kings were in thick against Colorado in 2001, I worked out a complicated ritual of taking a walk and tossing a coin in a fountain.  The day I didn’t do it, they lost game seven.  I wrote about this in my book Growing Up Hockey.  Say what you will about what the team did on the ice, I felt it was my fault that they didn’t eliminate the Avs.  Maybe you have a similar story.

Having turned into a hockey writer over the past six years, I thought that I had left behind my superstitions.  It’s all about rationality, and science, and all that, I have told myself on numerous occasions.  Now I realize that’s not true, and I take responsibility for the Kings loss on Tuesday. 

Here’s why: I have been covering this team for six years, and I’ve never eaten the press box meal.  Why?  My schedule usually doesn’t allow me the time.  I often try to get upstairs early to get ready for the game.  Tuesday, I asked my wife what I should do before the game.  Down in Anaheim the last couple of games, I’ve had the dinner with the guys (and gals) who also write.

“Eat with your friends,” she said.  I should have known better, but I did it anyway.  I tried to make up for the change in pattern by wearing my best suit, black of course. 

I knew something bad was going to happen when I saw Davis Gaines singing the national anthem facing the opposite way.  I even leaned over to the person next to me in the press box and said something about it.  He just shrugged.

But look what happened!

“Wait,” you’re thinking.  “I too did things on Tuesday that turned LA’s luck against them.” 

“True,” I respond.  But we can do better.  That’s why I’m urging—no, begging—you to switch up all your routines on Thursday.  If you ate eggs for breakfast, have cereal.  If you wore a suit to work, go casual.  If you left for the game at 5:30, leave earlier, or later.  It really doesn’t matter.  Just do everything the opposite of how you did it Tuesday.  Put your shoes on left foot first, unless that’s what you always do.  Have lunch somewhere different.  If you watch the game on TV, put the set on the opposite wall to what it usually is.

Let’s get the hockey gods so mixed up that they can’t make things turn out the way they did Tuesday again.  It might not work, and we will still have to count on the guys on the ice to do their part.  That means getting scoring from the top and bottom of the lineup and playing defense the way they have all  year.  But if they do their part, and the fans have done theirs, then something’s gotta change.

If we just carry on with business as usual, though, then we’ll always wonder, if things don’t go well, what might have been.

Brian Kennedy is the author of Growing Up Hockey (Folklore 2007) and Living the Hockey Dream (Folklore 2009).