Champions? The Kings? Champions? Really?

So, it has finally happened. My dad and I have been waiting a long, long time to be in this photo. The Los Angeles Kings are the 2012 Stanley Cup Champions! Boy, that's got a nice ring to it doesn't it? I will be honest I still don't believe it. Every night I go to sleep, I wonder if I will just wake up and realize this was all some crazy, elongated dream. I remember waiting in the airport for my flight to LAX, while coming home from college to catch the finals. I was talking to my new friend Mike, a fellow Kings fan I ran into in the terminal, and I said, "I still can't believe we are in the finals, maybe it will hit me once the puck is dropped during game 3 at staples." Well, it didn't. After that I started saying, "Maybe it will hit me when they bring out the cup."

There's no denying that the feeling of disbelief was imminent for me throughout the finals. Sure, the run to the cup was spectacular, but this feeling of disbelief probably originates from the fact that I am so used to seeing the Kings season end in tragedy, or disappointment. It almost doesn't feel like the Kings are the champions, because the season can't be over if Kings fans aren't going home disappointed....or can it be?

Regardless of whether or not it has hit me in its full effect that we are the Stanley Cup Champions, that moment of seeing the cup being brought out to the ice at Staples Center... there is no word in the English language that could accurately describe my emotion. I wish I could live in that moment for the rest of my life. The emotions just poured out of me in the most overwhelming way. I was smiling, crying, and screaming "WE GOT THE CUP!" all at the same time.

I have been going to Kings games with my dad since I was a young boy, and I remember the first game I went to in 1997-98 between the Kings and the Coyotes in which the Kings lost. This memory sticks out to me because I remember the disbelief I had that my team could lose. I recall that I cried after that game too, in the backseat on the way home. The good guys can be defeated? Really!?

Well, now the good guys, our boys in black have prevailed. Kings fans, the curse is over, the Kings are the 2012 Stanley Cup Champions.

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