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Monday's scene in Hermosa Beach. Daily Breeze photos by Steve McCrank / online gallery
The Stanley Cup takes off next week for its trans-Atlantic tour of the homes of each member of the Los Angeles Kings. The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto will deliver the trophy on July 3 to Slava Yoynov in Chelyabinsk, Russia, then get it to Andrei Loktionov in Moscow for the 4th. Next Friday, on July 6, the Stanley Cup will be in Slovenia for a celebration around the Kings' top scoring star, Anze Kopitar. Even before the Stanley Cup got there, Kopitar's homecoming last week was a festive occasion — he's one of just two Slovenians in the NHL and the first to be a star in North America. In any language, you can tell they are excited.
It turns out that Angelenos are pretty thrilled to have the Stanley Cup show up in their neighborhood too. That was quite a crowd on Monday at the pier in Hermosa Beach, where center Jarret Stoll brought the Cup out to share. The Cup received a police escort down the Strand, captured on myriad of YouTube videos. Here's the Channel 5 report.
On Tuesday night, Kings announcer Bob Miller held his party with the Cup at Braemar Country Club in Tarzana. His invitees included not just his UPS deliveryman, but his former UPS man, blogger Rich Hammond reports (with photos.) The Cup was on Venice Beach earlier, and has been to Dodger Stadium, on the Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel shows, and a bunch of other places.
On Thursday, the Kings say that captain Dustin Brown will take the Stanley Cup to Children's Hospital for a visit. That's at 2:30 p.m. It was Brown's young sons, you may remember, who bubbled their chocolate milk in the Cup in the days after the Kings won the championship. He also has been escorting it to the locales of various sponsors and is scheduled to be at the Sports Chalet on Olympic Boulevard in West Los Angeles on Friday.
After Russia and Slovenia, the Cup will be delivered in turn to players and staff at their homes in thirteen states and five Canadian provinces. Here's a story about the upcoming summer at CBCSports in Canada.
Previously on LA Observed:
Ex-Kings broadcasters admit to some tears this week
Plaschke finally gets it
Stanley Cup glow continues in LA
Anschutz steps out of the shadows for the Stanley Cup *
Hockey is a family affair
Bob Miller lifts the Stanley Cup
Video: Kings captain Dustin Brown receives the Stanley Cup
And one more time, THE video:
