Fade to Black

Gimmicks are fleeting, but traditions must have deep meaning to survive as they’re handed down from one generation to the next.

The Kings have been in existence 33 seasons and never have won the Stanley Cup, so they can’t draw inspiration from their exploits during the Original Six era. Kate Smith never sang “God Bless America” before King games and whipped the home crowd into a frenzy, as she did in becoming the Philadelphia Flyers’ lucky playoff charm in the 1970s. And the Detroit Red Wings have a lock on the curious custom of octopus-tossing, which began in 1952--when it took only eight victories to win the Cup--and is alive and slimy today.

All of which stymied King executives when they considered ways to create a tradition that would rally fans at the team’s home playoff opener against the Red Wings tonight at Staples Center.

Face it: The Kings have created few playoff memories to build on besides the 1982 Miracle on Manchester. They could have given fans replicas of the illegally curved stick Marty McSorley was caught with during Game 2 of the 1993 Cup finals, but that’s a moment they’d rather not relive.

“We didn’t have a lot of playoff history going into this,” said Kurt Schwartzkopf, director of marketing and promotions for the Kings and Staples Center.

So they looked to recent history and the “Black out the Blues” theme they created for the Kings’ 1998 first-round series against the St. Louis Blues. They asked fans to wear black to the Forum and gave out black towels, complete with a sponsor’s logo, to be waved on cue.

This spring, the theme is “Blackout 2000: Back in black,” and fans again have been asked to wear black to go with the black towels they will get tonight.

But in L.A., where everyone wears black, it might be difficult to separate the merely fashionable from the fanatic.

“That’s the point,” Schwartzkopf said. “Even if people don’t know about it they still can take part in it. You just show up and fit right in. The first time we did it, that was the joke.

“Dressing in black is kind of like getting in a game-day uniform. . . . My experience two years ago, and that of everyone in the organization, was even though we ended up losing, they had never been in an arena that loud. It was fun.”

The “blackout” is a play on the Phoenix Coyotes’ “whiteout,” a tradition they brought with them when they moved from Winnipeg. Fans wear white and are given white towels to wave, creating a stunning blizzard effect. Those who dare to wear other colors are hunted down by the “Whiteout Patrol” and given white shirts to blend in.

According to Rich Nairn, the Coyotes’ vice president for media relations and a Winnipeg transplant, the whiteout began in the mid-1980s when the Winnipeg Jets played the Calgary Flames in a first-round series.

“Calgary tried to do ‘A Sea of Red,’ and it failed miserably. When the team came home, the idea was to counteract that ‘Sea of Red,’ and we did a theme of ‘Good Guys Wear White,’ ” Nairn said. “Winnipeg fans were some of the most passionate in the league, and they really loved it.

“It was just bizarre. Fans showed up in wedding dresses and painted their faces and had white pompon wigs. It just kept building and building each year. We didn’t have a lot of playoff success, but when we did, it caught on like a fever. When the team moved to Phoenix, our president, Shawn Hunter, kept it going. It really is incredible to witness in person.”

The Mighty Ducks copied the idea in 1997, when they faced the Coyotes in the first round and created “Fowl Towels” for white-clad fans to wave. Even Michael Eisner, chairman of the Walt Disney Co., conformed after being chided by then-coach Ron Wilson for not wearing white at the opener.

Towels figure in a Vancouver Canuck playoff tradition. It was born in the 1982 finals, when then-Canuck coach Roger Neilson, protesting a call, draped a towel over a stick and waved it from the bench. Fans waved whatever was near to signal support. The towels reappeared when the Canucks faced the New York Rangers in the ’94 finals, but the result was the same: Vancouver lost.

Towels and white shirts are easier to come by than octopuses. But octopus-tossing has its charm, because it was devised by fans as a celebration, not a marketing ploy.

The first documented octopus toss occurred at the old Detroit Olympia on April 15, 1952. In the six-team NHL, it took only eight playoff victories to win the Cup, and the Red Wings had swept their first-round series and built a 3-0 lead over the Montreal Canadiens. Brothers Pete and Jerry Cusimano, who owned a local fish store, were struck by the symbolism--eight tentacles, eight wins--and smuggled a boiled octopus into the arena and tossed it onto the ice before the game. The Red Wings won and fans have kept the tradition alive in every playoff year since. The Red Wings now use a giant purple octopus as part of their pregame playoff festivities.

Smith became the Flyers’ unofficial mascot when they saw a correlation between her singing and their wins. Fans roared when they heard Smith or her recorded voice, often leading to encores.

“It was great until she performed twice,” said former Flyer Bill Clement, an ESPN hockey analyst. “Our adrenaline was flowing and we’re ready to start the game, but as far as she’s concerned, they were there to see her. I remember skating around saying, ‘Somebody get her off the ice. Give her the hook.’ She looked at it as a performance.

“It became overkill after a while.”

Although tonight’s “blackout” may have somber overtones because the Kings trail Detroit, 2-0, Schwartzkopf hopes the tradition will take root.

“We hope we’re giving people something to have fun with,” he said. “That’s the point of tradition, to create something that’s fun.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS

KINGS vs. DETROIT

Red Wings lead best-of-seven series, 2-0

Tonight’s Game 3

7, Fox Sports Net, ESPN2

*

BACK IN GOAL

Stephane Fiset gets vote of confidence. Page 9