I must say our gladiators came out swinging again. We pushed hard and got up on the board first. We were looking better and it was only game two. However, we couldn’t hold it. By the end we just fell short. I was not too overwhelmed with anxiety and suicidal tendencies though, but my buddy’s girlfriend, a new Kings fan of last year’s post season and this beginning season, told me how frustrated and hard it was for her to watch.

I didn’t explain to her that it is still the beginning of the season and that there would be plenty of time to come back as we are simply getting our sea legs under us again. I refrained from giving her a lengthy history of the hardships I have faced seeing much worse defeats at much more important times, think 1993, which would cripple lesser men and that I was only a child at these devastating times. I could not truly express what it took to acquire the tragedy-hardened-skin, scared snarl of defiance, and other tells of a true aged Kings fan. Rather, I told her this: