Playoff Fan Rally Sends The Kings Off In Style For Game 1

What energy, what a day!

The LA Kings held a Playoff Fan Rally on Saturday afternoon, as the team hit the ice for its first skate of the postseason. 

Fans were at Toyota Sports Performance Center as early as 7 AM. By 9 AM, there was a line from the front door, down the stairs leading into the building and wrapped all the way around the corner. The event was still an hour from starting and the place was already packed.

As the team took the ice for practice, they were greeted by a wave of support coming out of the Kings locker room.

As the players took the ice, one-by-one, they walked through the high-five tunnel taking them onto the ice, with lots of smiles from the fellas as they were embraced by the support of the Kings fans that came out to the rink.

As the team hit the ice, "Go Kings Go" chants filled the arena. 

The players and coaches took notice too. 

“It was pretty cool,” forward Phillip Danault said. “I wish it could be like that for every practice, that was awesome.”

Jim Hiller was so dialed in for his first postseason practice as an NHL Head Coach that he was just focused on what he felt was a really good, high-energy practice. He talked with Anze Kopitar about how energetic the team was and it was the captain who actually pointed out the energy in the building perhaps being a reason as to why. 

“We had a really good practice, I actually talked to Kopi about this, ‘man it was an energetic practice’, and he pointed out that the stands were full, I didn’t even think about it,” Hiller said. “Maybe that was the reason, I was hoping it was because we were just excited to get out there, but there were people in the stands, cheers when a couple of nice goals went in.”

Yesterday was a special day for the organization and a great experience for the team. Something to send the group off right as they fly North to Alberta.

Now, from here on out, it's all about business for this team.

The Kings have won Game 1 in Edmonton in each of the last two seasons and they're certainly looking to do so again here this year. This is a familiar opponent and a team that the Kings have faced at length here

"We're excited to go," Hiller added. "We feel strong. We feel like we've got everybody together, we feel strong. We want to raise our emotional level and let's go."

More on the team's focus and priorities heading into Game 1, on LAKingsInsider.com!