Over the past few years, the Kings and Dodgers have formed quite a partnership, with each team hosting the other for at least one game per season. For the longest time, the home team was actually undefeated when their cross-town neighbors were in the house. And although that streak came to an end last year, it didn’t stop the Dodgers from adding another win in the series when they downed the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks 5-3 in 11 innings on Tuesday night.
The bond between the two teams even extends up to the General Managers’ offices, something Dodger executive Ned Colletti spoke with MayorsManor about back in March (linked here).
This week though, on the eve of NHL training camp getting underway in Los Angeles, it was three Kings roster players and a handful of alumni getting showered with attention at Chavez Ravine. Following some pre-game fun on the field, Dan Carcillo, Jeff Carter and Matt Greene took to the mound for the ceremonial first pitch.
The trio also took time to answer a few questions for MayorsManor…
– Carter on if he was a baseball fan growing up: “Not really. We have the Blue Jays up there in Toronto. I followed them a little bit, but I wasn’t a huge baseball fan until I went to Philly. I went to a lot of games there. It was right when they were on a little bit of a hot streak, a couple of World Series in a row. So, it was a lot of fun.”
– Carter on if he made any changes to his summer routine to prepare for the coming season: “I didn’t do anything different. Just got my workouts in, started skating the same time, pretty much. That’s about it. I kind of stick to my routine.”
– Carter on how much time he spent thinking about his possible linemates: “It’s totally out of my hands, so I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. I’m not going to sit there and wonder what’s going on. That’s their decision to make. I’m going to play hockey wherever I am.”
– Carter on if there was chemistry when he was paired with Tyler Toffoli: “Yeah, I enjoyed playing with him. He’s a smart hockey player, makes good, strong players and is good along the wall. He’s really good offensively and I think he complimented us pretty good.”
– Carter on the acquisition of Carcillo: “It’s awesome. Obviously we’ve been friends for a long time. He brings a lot of grit to our lineup. I think a lot of people don’t realize that he has a lot of skill, too. He can play on your top line, he can play on your fourth line. He’s one of those guys that can play anywhere.”
– Carter on if the Kings needed that extra sandpaper that Carcillo will bring: “Can’t have enough of it, right? I think he’s going to go real well with Cliffy and Nolly. Teams are going to know when they’re playing us.”
– Carter on what he knows about Matt Frattin: “Not much. Just met him when we got out here a few weeks ago. I’ve been skating with him. From what we’ve seen so far, just screwing around on the ice and what not, he seems like a real strong guy. I think Darryl [Sutter] was saying he likes to kind of muck it up a little bit and get in the corners. He has a heavy shot too. It seems like he does it all.”
– Greene on any concerns as he heads to the mound: “I don’t have a lot of confidence in my curve ball right now. Right before camp, too. I don’t know if I can nurse an elbow injury back.”
– Greene on Jarrett toll bringing his own glove to warm up with when he was asked to throw out the first pitch in 2011: “That wasn’t Stollie’s glove. He borrowed it from the club house. Are you kidding me.”
– Greene on not dressing up in full baseball uniform like he did last time: “Yeah, I’ve apologized to a few Dodgers for that, [the ones] I’ve seen since that point. I think I might overstepped the boundaries of winning the Cup a little bit there. I’ve tried to make amends for making a mockery of that. I don’t regret it though.”
– Greene reminiscing about that night, and how he stuck around in the dugout even after the game began: “Well I thought they were going to kick me out. I kept asking [Clayton] Kershaw if it was OK. He said ‘Dude, if nobody has kicked you out yet, I think you’re fine.’ And then I realized, I thought I was going to miss the bus to the team party. So, I had to get out of there. But luckily they waited for me and I cruised and said thanks to a couple of guys out the door. That was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done, in terms of getting a chance to do other things when I’m not playing hockey.”
– Greene on if Drew Doughty is any good at baseball, especially considering his annual summer softball tournament: “He could be. I haven’t seen evidence yet. I haven’t seen him swing a bat yet. A lot of guys have glorious tales of playing in high school and middle school and when push comes to shove, it doesn’t go too good. So, I’ll just put this out right away that I was not a star player.”
– Carcillo on his experience in LA over the past few weeks: “Great. It’s nice to come to a team where best buddies Mike and Jeff are obviously here. We had a good relationship in Philly, so that kind of continued to the year when we weren’t playing together. But all the guys are really, really cool. It’s a good group of guys. You can see why they won, they have great leadership from Dean all the way down to the coaches and to the players. Everyone’s on the same page, so it’s nice.”
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John, do you know if any if the preseason games will be streamed live?
Thanks in advance
The Sept 27 game in Las Vegas vs. the Rangers will be televised in LA on FSW and nationally on the NHL Network. Saturday’s Vegas game vs. the Avs may also end up being televised, but the plans are still TBD.
As for streams of the earlier pre-season games, nothing has been announced yet.
Will we ever see dodger dogs at staples? At least on dodger night?
Doubt it.
Thx John