The “Los Angeles Kings” is a professional ice hockey team situated Los Angeles, California, United States. The team is part of the Pacific Division that plays in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). An expansion franchise from the league was granted to Jack Kent Cooke dated back on February 9, 1996 in Los Angeles.
At the time, the team was established along with the other 5 teams, who was given the opportunity to play as part of the 1967 NHL expansion. For over 32 years, the Kings used to play their home games at the Inglewood, California, which they termed “The Forum”. After 32 years, the team moved playing at the Staples Center situated Downtown, Los Angeles during the 1999-2000 season. Despite the team’s well done performance in the regular seasons during the years 1970s and 1980s, they were still unfortunate to be swept out in the playoffs.
The success in the regular seasons was associated with 4 of the team’s best players, namely Rogie Vachon (the strong goaltender), Dave Taylor, Charlie Simmer and Marcel Dionne (known as the Triple Crown Line). In fact, Dionne appeared to be a threat against the Edmonton Oilers during the 1982 playoffs termed as the Miracle on Manchester.
In the year 1988, a trade-off happened between the Kings and the Edmonton Oilers, this was done for a purpose of getting Oilers’ captain Wayne Gretzky. On Gretzky’s arrival, the team took a highlight on their career that has led them fame in Los Angeles. To add, Gretzky also took the lead in bringing the team to the Stanley Cup Finals in the year 1993.
After losing the Stanley Cup Finals against the Montreal Canadiens, the team had another bad rock when they encountered a financial shortcomings in 1995. To save the team, the franchise was sold to Philip Anschutz and Edward P. Roski.
Knowing that the team has gone in a deep fraught, they were still able to recover in the 2011-2012 NHL season under the new coaching of Darryl Sutter. The team had frequent winnings in the Stanley Cup for over 3 years, they won two Stanley Cups against the New Jersey Devils (2012) and New York Rangers (2014).
