Page 4 February 22, 2018
Kings Make History in Buffalo,
but Will They Even Make the Playoffs This Year?
By Adam Serrao
With no disrespect to the people of Buffalo,
who could possibly want to travel there in
the month of February? Not many are brave
enough to battle the 20-degree weather, even
if you’re used to playing a professional sport
on a slab of ice. The Los Angeles Kings
were forced into Buffalo last Saturday and
instead of simply laying down their sticks,
did something that they hadn’t done in the
last 15 years. They won. Now, with just over
20 games remaining in the regular season, the
only question left to be answered is whether
or not the team will play well enough to make
it into this year’s postseason.
Anze Kopitar and rookie Michael Amadio
each scored twice for the Kings last weekend
when the team acquired its first victory in
Buffalo since Feb. 21, 2003. Maybe Amadio is
the good luck charm that changed L.A.’s fate
once and for all. Or maybe it was the play of
goalie Jonathan Quick, who made 33 saves
for Los Angeles on the way to a 4-2 victory
against the Sabres at KeyBank Stadium. “I
don’t think we were worried about the 15-year
drought in here,” Kopitar explained after the
game. “We had a three-game slide that we
certainly wanted to stop. I thought today we
came ready to play.”
The Kings can get excited about that victory
all that they want to, but it’s important to
remember that it came on the heels of a
three-game losing streak for Los Angeles.
That same losing streak saw the Kings lose
to two different elite teams who go by the
names of the Tampa Bay Lightning and
the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now is the time
of the regular season when Los Angeles
must decide what team that it wants to be.
Does it want to be the team that loses to
other good teams and drops to fifth place
in the Pacific Division standings? Or does
it want to be the team that looked almost
unbeatable over a stretch of over 10 straight
games in October?
While the Vegas Golden Knights may have
first place wrapped up in the division, the
end of the regular season is going to come
down to inter-division play for L.A. As of
last weekend, the Kings were in an absolute
all-out brawl for playoff positioning with
their enemies from Calgary, Anaheim and
San Jose. On one hand, that’s good news,
because who doesn’t like to watch two huge
rivals stick it to each other on the ice and
drop some gloves while they’re at it? On
the other hand, the Kings’ recent record
against other teams in their division could
spell trouble for a team that’s looking for
a boost in points over the last month or
so of play.
Los Angeles was horrible against all other
opponents from the Pacific Division last
season and not much has changed this year.
As of last weekend, the Kings were 7-9-3
within their own division while putting up
a very respectable 21-10-2 record against
the rest of the league. Certainly, back-toback
games to begin next week against the
Golden Knights don’t necessarily fail to put a
nauseous feeling inside of every Kings fan’s
stomach. Things won’t really begin to heat
up, however, until the end of March when
Los Angeles gets to show its stuff against
the likes of Edmonton, Calgary, Arizona
and Anaheim in consecutive games that
will certainly prove to proclaim the Kings’
postseason fate once and for all.
Help could be on its way too. If Jeff Carter
can return from a skate injury that has kept
him sidelined since the middle of October,
the Kings will almost certainly begin to
look as good as they ever have this season.
Carter’s return could prove to assist a team
that continues to struggle to score goals and
ranks 21st out of 31 teams in the league
in that category. His reemergence has the
ability to help the Kings finally begin to put
some pucks into the back of the net. Also,
head coach John Stevens must ask himself
the question of how much is too much of
Quick. The Kings goalie has looked nothing
short of lackluster since before the All-Star
break, while his backup Darcy Kuemper has
done a more than serviceable job.
It’s getting late in the season and it has
certainly become clear that the Los Angeles
Kings have a lot of work to do if they wish
to not only get into the playoffs, but get
there and succeed. That being said, Los
Angeles has always had a taste for suspense.
Even in the Stanley Cup years, the Kings
seemingly enjoyed keeping their fans hanging
on to watch each and every game intently.
This year, it seems that if the Kings want
to enjoy more success like in 2012 and
2014, they won’t just need to make history
in Buffalo. This Los Angeles team needs
to score more goals, defend the net better
and, most importantly, beat their divisional
rivals who always seem to inherently have
a thirst for the Kings’ throne. •
– Aserrao6@yahoo.com | @UpandAdam6
Politically Speaking
One Man’s Opinion Another Man’s Opinion
Congress Finds a New
Target to Attack
By Cristian Vasquez
In all honesty I never thought that Congress
would come out one day and pass legislation
attacking people with disabilities, but the day
has come. The House of Representatives passed
the ADA Education and Reform Act with a
225-192 vote. In essence, this act would require
people with disabilities to provide a written
notice that a business does not provide adequate
access to persons covered under the
American With Disabilities Act. Through this
law, for which there is no version of in the
Senate yet, a business would have 60 days
to respond to a written complaint, as well as
another 60 days to actually begin improving
their location to accommodate people protected
under the ADA.
For 28 years, the ADA has ensured that the
public is protected from discrimination “on
the basis of disability in the full and equal
enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities,
privileges, advantages, or accommodations of
any place of public accommodation” -- Title
III/Specific Construction of the ADA. Why
then, does the House of Representatives find it
necessary to make this modification? Current
and potentially new business owners already
know some of the basic requirements (access
ramps, modified restrooms, etc…) set by the
ADA, so they do not need a written notice.
Requiring people with disabilities to give a
written notice shifts a business responsibility
from the owner to the public for no good
reason. Supporters of the bill argue that this
will keep money-seeking lawyers from filing
frivolous lawsuits against local businesses for
ADA violations, hence saving the business
money. Well, you know what else would save
the business money? If they just complied
with the ADA requirements. They’ve been
in place since 1990. How much more of
a warning do you need? Are these accommodations
expensive? Yes, they are, but we
are at a point where these accommodations
are part of the business expense. They aren’t
surprise requirements.
The amendment also requires that a model
program to “promote alternative dispute resolution
mechanisms to resolve such claims” be
created in order to have a method to determine
“relevant facts related to such barriers.” All
this was done with the “goal” of resolving
an accessibility issue before resorting to
litigation. So not only do these amendments
give business owners a way out of complying
with ADA requirements, but they place the
unnecessary burden of proving that a business
is not complying on the people who
are supposed to be protected by the ADA.
If they are lucky, people with disabilities
will see modifications begin happening 120
days after their complain. That’s if the model
program doesn’t kick in to continue stalling.
There is no need for this amendment. The
ADA requirements have been in place long
enough. Maybe some corporate donors become
a little more generous and are looking forward
to future projects where they can skip meeting
these ADA requirements. Or maybe Congress
has just really does not care about people. It’s
anyone’s guess. Fortunately, you don’t have
to guess who voted for this amendment and
can see the full list at https://www.govtrack.
us/congress/votes/115-2018/h80. •
Mass Murder in Parkland, Florida: How
the Heck Do We Keep Our Kids Safe?
By Duane Plank
So last Wednesday probably started as
a typical school day in Parkland, Florida.
Groggy students and parents awoke, ran to
their phones to check what they had missed
on social media (nothing, you addictees), then
maybe had a bit of breakfast, and finally raced
off to school and work.
Parents dropped the kids off at school,
cuz God forbid a kid would actually…walk
to school.
It was Valentine’s Day, so some of those
young folks may have exchanged the little
cards or trinkets that the people trying to sell
stuff -- so help me, Hallmark -- shame us into
buying on those special days.
Anyway, you drop your kid off in that
Richie Rich neighborhood and another hohum
midweek day commences.
And then you hear about an “active shooter”
at your child’s high school. And your child
doesn’t come home. Ever. Can’t fathom that, as
a parent. A few years ago, there was carnage
in Isla Vista -- a party town bordering UC
Santa Barbara, where my son graduated. Was
frantic to hear from him. As a kid, he was
not necessarily going to check in with Mom
and Dad. Fortunately, he was not involved.
He was okay.
Before he was assassinated, President John
F. Kennedy posited that if someone wanted to
take him down, there was basically no cover
and that he wasn’t going to worry about it.
Said JFK: “If someone wants to shoot me
from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop
it, so why worry about it?”
Unfortunately for America, his words
were prescient.
There is no way to stop a man or woman
who doesn’t care if they themselves die
from slaughtering innocents. Tighten this up,
tighten that up, take away the guns. Won’t
matter. How is the security at your place of
employment? Bet you have no clue -- and if
you asked whomever is allegedly in charge of
that, they will obfuscate, or mumble platitudes.
Lie. Or are probably distractedly looking at
their electronic device as they allow darn near
anyone with a backpack to enter the workplace.
I have no solutions to the carnage that keeps
occurring in our schools. If I did, I would
forward them to the obviously overmatched
folks working at the FBI who have wasted
a ton of your dollars looking for collusion
in an election that was over more than 16
months ago.
Apparently Special Counsel Bob Mueller,
after spending a ton of our money, now said a
bunch of Ruskies tried to influence our election.
Yet we, as Americans, have been trying to
influence elections in other countries forever.
So the other team does the same thing. We
used to assassinate foreign dictators before
they and their murderers could get to us. We
should still have that policy in place. May
have mitigated 9/11.
Saw a commercial recently and nearly teared
up. Not sure which branch of the military
was represented, but the crux of the powerful
message: “To get to you, they have to get
through us.” Maybe some of those brave folks
need to be deployed in-country to protect us
from lunatics like the Florida murderer -- a
deranged soul with a big rifle. •