Quacked

(PHOTO: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

What is a Ducks fan to do when the playoffs are a distant memory for his team? Opine on the fortunes of other teams, of course!

The Los Angeles Kings are knocking on the door of a Stanley Cup finals appearance after summarily taking the first three games of their series against the Phoenix Coyotes. It was only in game four that the desert dogs (is that really the best nickname they’ve been given in 16 years?) showed any signs of life and got up off the mat.

(PHOTO: Zia Nizami/KRT Photos)

Anaheim Ducks fans: we need to get over ourselves. The Los Angeles Kings are a very good team, and pretty soon we won’t be able to laugh derisively while we point at them with a Cup-ringed finger.

Now, hold your rotten fruit and vitriol before you earnestly launch them in my direction — the Kings becoming hockey’s kings might not be the end of the world.

Consider for a moment the situation as we have watched it unfold on the ice via our television screens. When the Kings backed into the playoffs, few took them seriously. In fact, other than the Washington Capitals, perhaps no other team had so conspicuously failed to live up to lofty predictions this season. And much like the Capitals are now doing, the Kings are surpassing even the wildest pre-playoff expectations that had been beset by more than six months of inconsistent scoring and other sundry underachievement.