Almost no event could be held at Dodger Stadium without the irrepressible presence of Tom Lasorda, the Los Angeles Dodgers ambassador. Lasorda said, beforehand: "We had the Pope here. We had the Beatles here. Now we have hockey here."
The League's vice president, facilities operations, Dan Craig, didn't have to worry about the ice surface being affected by unseasonably high temperatures in late January or the multiple rainstorms that have been hitting the Los Angeles area this January.
Temperature was 63 degrees at puck drop.
At that time, I was covering the Kings as the beat reporter for the Los Angeles Times. The Ducks won 3-0, handing the Kings their fifth straight loss. Anaheim goaltender Jonas Hiller made 36 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and the 20th of his NHL career.
The Times headline online: "It's all goose eggs for Kings as Ducks pitch shutout at Dodger Stadium."
There was also was a reference at the end of the story to the elaborate pregame ceremony.
"Who knows? The names Gretzky, Scully, [Kings broadcaster Bob] Miller and KISS may never have appeared together in the same sentence, or the same story, for that matter.
"… Scully invoked Dodgers past and present, saying: "From Koufax to Kershaw."
"And on this night he could have added: From Gretzky to Getzlaf."