Kings Hope It’s Better Late Than Ever

At this point, it’s apparent the Kings have a lot more to worry about than when the next two games of their plank walk against the Detroit Red Wings will be played.

Still, you look at the starting times and dates for Games 2 and 3 in this first-round playoff series and you get the distinct impression that whoever signed off on this schedule was playing without a helmet.

Game 1, as the Kings and their fans would like to forget, was played Wednesday night at Joe Louis Arena. Kings down by three goals before the 14th minute, Kings gripped by a debilitating panic in Detroit, Kings wanting to get out of town ASAP.

Maybe they could have taken a Game 2 forfeit and headed for the airport?

Instead, they got to toss and turn in hotel beds for two more nights, Sergei Fedorov haunting their dreams, before Game 2 on Saturday, 1 p.m. Detroit time.

Then they fly back home, choke down some holiday ham with the family and head straight to Staples Center, where they will play Game 3 at 8:30 p.m. on Easter Sunday--or very nearly the day after Easter Sunday, Detroit time.

In Los Angeles, reporters covering Game 3 will know the first few words of their opening paragraphs before the first puck is dropped--At press time, the Kings trailed the Red Wings . . . --because first-edition newspaper deadlines will be approaching by the start of the third period.

In Detroit, Red Wing fans will fire up the Red Bull, followed by chasers of industrial-strength coffee, whatever gets them through the night to the final horn, which should sound around 2:15 in the morning, Detroit time.

There has to be a better way, and there most certainly is, but by the time NHL officials finished trying to placate King and Red Wing interests, appease television interests and work around Laker and Clipper schedules, this was the compromise they managed.

The Kings and Red Wings could have played Games 1 and 2 in Detroit on Wednesday and Thursday, then traveled to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Saturday. Except the Red Wings didn’t want to play three games in four days . . . and they preferred a Saturday afternoon home game to a Thursday night home game . . . and ABC wanted a 1 p.m. (EDT) start for that Saturday game, which would have meant a 10 a.m. opening faceoff at Staples Center and left a bleary-eyed home crowd to chant, “Put the breakfast bagel in the basket!”

The Kings and Red Wings could have played Games 1 and 2 in Detroit, taken Easter Sunday off and resumed the series in Los Angeles early next week. Except the Clippers have a home game Monday night and the Lakers have a home game Tuesday night.

The Kings and Red Wings could have played Game 3 in Los Angeles a few hours earlier on Sunday. Except the Lakers are scheduled to play the Portland Trail Blazers at home the same day, NBC wants the game for its 2:30 p.m. national telecast and Staples Center workers need at least two hours to reconfigure the arena from basketball to hockey.

Another option, seriously considered by the NHL, was for the Kings and Red Wings to play Game 1 in Detroit, Game 2 in Los Angeles, Games 3 and 4 in Detroit and Game 5, if necessary, in Los Angeles.

To put it into hockey terms, the Kings, now winless in their last 13 playoff games, would have had to play three of four games in Detroit, where the Red Wings haven’t lost since December.

“That would have been completely unfair to our team and our fans,” King President Tim Leiweke said. “We were looking at that, going, ‘Well, that’s not going to happen.’ Especially when Detroit is undefeated in its last [20] games at home.”

So the Kings settled for a late start at home Sunday and are trying to make the best of it.

“I think it works out fine,” Leiweke says. “It’s Easter Sunday and we’re starting an hour later than we normally would for a night game. It probably helps some people that do the family-dinner stuff.

“For our team, our coach is ecstatic, because it’s a 2-2 then a 1-1-1 [home and away series]. And in particular, we’re the younger of the two teams in the series and we don’t mind playing back to back. Especially when we get to come home for the second [game] of the back-to-back. And especially when [the Red Wings] are playing at 11:30 Detroit time on the end of the back-to-back.”

BETTER TOO EARLY THAN TOO LATE?

Game 3 will be televised nationally by ESPN2, and the late starting time certainly won’t help the NHL’s flagging television numbers. Ratings for the NHL during the regular season were at sub-XFL depths: 1.1 on ABC, 0.59 on ESPN, 0.25 on ESPN2.

“We’re playing the cards that we’re dealt, basically,” ESPN spokeswoman Diane Lamb says. “The way we’re looking at it, at ESPN, we love hockey and we have the flexibility to carry that game at 11:30. So, hopefully, our hockey fans out there appreciate that fact, that we are able to carry it.”

ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose says of a pre-playoffs planning meeting at the network: “Our programming guys were basically pulling their hair out, trying to figure out the L.A. schedule because of all the building conflicts. They were saying it was going to look like 20 miles of muddy road when it was done.”

Melrose, who coached the Kings to their last playoff victory, Game 1 of the 1993 Stanley Cup finals, suggests the Kings should have tried to play Game 3 on Saturday at 10 a.m.

“There’s no problem playing at that time,” he says. “But it’s just so different and so foreign to any other time you’ve ever played. Usually, you have your morning skate at 10.

“Maybe they should have tried it. Maybe people get up and go and have some breakfast and head right over to the rink and watch the game and--bang!--you’re out of there by 12:30, 1 o’clock. You’ve got the whole afternoon to yourself. Maybe the Kings should have tried it, I don’t know. I’m one for trying things that have never been tried before.”

During the 1993 playoffs, Melrose remembers the Kings had “a couple of noon starts, which was rare,” and remembers that the Kings “won them all.”

With a laugh, he adds, “As a matter of fact, we should have played the Stanley Cup finals at noon.”

NO CONSPIRACY THEORY

Shaquille O’Neal appeared on the “Tonight Show” Wednesday and was about to answer a question about his relationship with Laker teammate Kobe Bryant when the show cut to a 30-second commercial, then returned in time for host Jay Leno to cut to another commercial.

Was Shaq being censored?

“Just a mistake--we went to commercial a minute too early,” a spokesperson for the show said. “It only happened on the West Coast. The East Coast saw the entire interview.”

And what did Shaq say during the deleted 30 seconds?

Nothing more controversial than “he and Kobe can both score some points but they need each other,” according to the spokesperson. “There wasn’t any animosity at all.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for April 7.

Due to technical problems experienced by Nielsen, Sunday ratings were not available Thursday.

SATURDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Golf: Masters 2 7.1 18 Baseball: San Francisco at Dodgers 5 2.8 6 Pro football: XFL, San Francisco at Xtreme 4 2.7 6 Gymnastics: American Team Cup 4 2.4 6 Boxing: Thunderbox (tape) 9 1.6 4 Pro basketball: San Antonio at Clippers 9 1.4 3 Hockey: Dallas at San Jose 7 0.8 2

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Cable Network Rating Share Drag racing: NHRA qualifying at Las Vegas ESPN2 1.0 2 Horse racing: Santa Anita Derby ESPN 0.9 2 Baseball: Atlanta at Florida TBS 0.7 2 Horse racing: Santa Anita Live FSN2 0.6 1 Hockey: Kings at Calgary FSN 0.5 1 Auto racing: Long Beach Grand Prix qualifying ESPN2 0.4 1 College softball: Arizona at UCLA FSN 0.3 1 Track and field: Texas, LSU, USC (tape) FSN2 0.3 1 Soccer: MLS, Chicago at Columbus ESPN2 0.3 1 Soccer: MLS, San Jose at Galaxy FSN2 0.1 0

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Note: Each rating point represents 53,542 L.A. households. Cable ratings reflect the entire market, even though cable is in only 63% of L.A. households.