The Los Angeles Kings will have to wait at least a few more hours before they know whom they will face in the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals, but while head coach Darryl Sutter and his team prepare on the ice - holding practice Friday for the first time since clinching the Western Conference title on Tuesday against the Phoenix Coyotes - the team's marketing and PR staff is preparing for the Kings' trip to the East Coast with a Twitter battle against a man who made his name there.
TBS talk show host Conan O'Brien took to Twitter on Friday morning to amuse his 5.7 million followers with a joke at the expense of the Kings and Coyotes.
The @LAKings are playing the @PhoenixCoyotes? I wonder which city that shouldn't have a hockey team will win.
— Conan O'Brien (@ConanOBrien) May 25, 2012
Of course, O'Brien was a little late to the party, given that the series had been over for three days by the time the late-night TV star made his joke, and while the Coyotes have had more than their share of difficulties in Phoenix, where the team has gone without a permanent owner since 2009, the Kings have maintained a devoted following, and the excitement of Wayne Gretzky's move to Los Angeles in 1988 created a level of excitement around the sport that has led to several NHL players hailing from Southern California, including Predators defenseman Jonathon Blum, Islanders prospect Rhett Rakhshani and journeyman Brett Sterling, who played four games for the St. Louis Blues his season after playing in the past for the Atlanta Thrashers and Pittsburgh Penguins. Rather than take serious offense, however, the Kings responded with the sense of humor that has been abundant on the team's Twitter account (@LAKings) throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
@conanobrien Clearly, that joke wasn't meant for prime time. — LA Kings (@LAKings) May 25, 2012
It's another winning move by the Kings, who so far this postseason have already made fun of Nickelback, weathered the LA media's various missteps with good humor, and delivered tickets to The Office star Rainn Wilson in a bowl of green Jell-O.
Of course, given that O'Brien spent some two decades living in New York as a writer for Saturday Night Live and then as the host of Late Night with Conan O'Brien on NBC, chances are he'd be siding with the East Coast team anyway. In any event, the Kings seem more than happy to have some fun at his expense.
