Terms of Endearment

09.30.2013 Hockey, Terms of Endearment

Terms of Endearment #11

Top six player – (n.) a consistently excellent offensive player. In general, teams have four lines of players suited up for games with three offensive players on each line. The top two lines are generally considered the most effective.

Here is the projected line-up for the LA kings for the October 3, 2013 game against Minnesota as seen by MayorsManor.com. With the exception of Matt Frattin, a new guy we haven’t seen much of yet, those are the guys you’ll see most of the season. But lines are fluid. Things change even within a period. It’s always fun to see who is put on the ice with whom.

Dustin Brown – Anze Kopitar – Justin Williams
Matt Frattin – Mike Richards – Jeff Carter
Dwight King – Jarret Stoll – Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford – Colin Fraser – Jordan Nolan

Robyn Regehr – Drew Doughty
Willie Mitchell – Slava Voynov
Jake Muzzin – Matt Greene

Jonathan Quick
Ben Scrivens

Three healthy scratches:
– Dan Carcillo, Keaton Ellerby, Alec Martinez

Previous Terms of Endearment: 1) carryover, 2) shift, 3) blueliner, 4) dust-up, 5) drop pass, 6) shortie, 7) deke, 8) empty netter, 9) light the lamp, 10) leaner

05.19.2013 Hockey, Hockey Book, Los Angeles Kings, Silliness, Terms of Endearment

Terms of Endearment #10

Leaner – (n.) Filling a trash can or similar container with water, leaning it up against the door of a teammate’s hotel room, knocking, and running for the hills.

Hockey players can be nothing more than little boys with facial hair. This is something I really adore, if you want to know the truth. In this hockey series I’m writing, you will see many examples of this. Some might look at this type of behavior as immature. Sure it is. No argument there. But I also think it’s funny as hell. I love practical jokes.

So do Los Angeles Kings players, Dustin Penner and Mike Richards. Dustin is a very funny man. He has no problem laughing at himself, as is evident from the following Twitter conversation he had with Richards.

Penner posted this picture and tweeted: Do not try and steam clean your dress shirt w/out making sure the shower/tub combo drain is open. #housekeeping.

Richards: @DustinPenner25 ever hear of an iron?

Penner: @MRichie_10 Stay out of this Rick! This is between me and the tub. Also don’t open your door #leaner

Richards: @DustinPenner25 I actually just walked out of my room and the water has made its way in front of my door. Leaner not needed.

I. Love. This.

I hope readers like it too because this is exactly the kind of manly stuff I’m trying to show in my books. I hope it shows the friendship and camaraderie between the teammates, their senses of humor, their humility, their sense of fun.

05.06.2013 Terms of Endearment

Terms of Endearment #9

Light the lamp – (v.) To score a goal.

There’s a red light that goes on when a goal is scored. Sometimes it rotates, like the light on top of an ambulance.

Photo by Burns! (cc)

03.14.2013 Hockey, Terms of Endearment

Terms of Endearment #8

Empty-netter – (n.) a goal scored when the goalie is on the bench.

You non-hockey fans out there might be thinking, what the heck? When is the goalie not there in front of the net, blocking the puck like Wonder Woman does bullets?

Sometimes when a team is losing at the end of the third period, in a last ditch effort, the coach pulls the goalie, which allows them to put one more man on the ice to score a goal for a six on five advantage. However, sometimes they lose control of the puck and the team in the lead scores.

When the Kings get an empty netter, sometimes I feel fierce, “In your face!!!” And sometimes, I feel a little bad for the losers. Most of the time, I’m just glad they won. I would love to see them win the Stanley Cup again.