Page 6 April 2, 2015 TORRANCE TRIBUNE Up to Their Old Tricks By Adam Serrao There are only 82 games in a complete NHL regular season, which usually comes to an end at some point in early April. The Los Angeles Kings’ schedule is no different from any other team in the league, as our reigning Stanley Cup champions from L.A. are scheduled to close down regular season play with a matchup against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, April 11. The only question that has seemingly been on the mind of Kings fans all season long has been: “Will the Kings make it back to the playoffs?” Currently in a tight battle with the Calgary Flames, the final six games of the year will certainly be telling for our Kings. If you know anything about head coach Darryl Sutter and his troops, however, it seems as if they’ve got the rest of the league right where they want them. With the end of the regular season in plain sight, the Los Angeles Kings are simply back up to their old tricks again. It has certainly been a long season for hockey fans in L.A., who were kind of hoping to be relieved of the constant walking on pins and needles this year. If there were pins and needles, though, then there would be no Kings. No matter if they’re the Stanley Cup champs or not, it has become increasingly clear that the only way to get these guys interested in playing at their best is to take something away from them. Well now, with fewer than 10 games remaining in the season, Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and the rest of them have realized that they run the risk of losing their very own Stanley Cup trophy. That doesn’t sit very well with the boys in the black, silver, and white. So, they’ve taken to the ice to do something about it. The Kings latest late-season surge has come, due in large part, to some key, standout performances by different players on the team. Take for instance the play of Kopitar. The Kings star Center has upped his play recently after seemingly just skating through the season up until this point. In two recent games against the New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers, Kopitar collected five points and a plus-four rating. Not only did the Kings win both games that Kopitar starred in, but they went on to sweep their New York road trip as they brought their winning streak to four games and moved ahead of Calgary in the playoff race. In his past five games, “Kopi” has collected eight points as his recent production could not have come at a better time for this team. It seems that the key to the Kings success lies in Kopitar’s play. When he is a more aggressive player on the ice, the Kings seemingly can’t lose. When Kopitar, for whatever reason, decides to take a back seat and not shoot as much though, the Kings suffer down the stretch in games. The Kings top center scored the game-winning goal with less than five minutes remaining on the clock in last week’s game against the Islanders - a win that allowed his team to jump ahead of Calgary for third place in the Pacific Division standings. How can you mention the Kings without mentioning Mike Richards. After being sent down to the AHL, Richards has come back to the team and made all the difference that he has possibly been able to make outside of the score sheet. A familiar face that the rest of the guys know how to play with, Richards has clearly strengthened his team up the middle. With a renewed confidence seemingly intact, the Kings center has also found a renewed ability to find and set-up his teammates in clutch situations. Richards has not only been good for the offense, but brings an active stick to the defensive alignment of the group while also giving the team more depth from off of the bench. The play of Kopitar and presence of Richards combined have allowed the Kings to take control of games now, rather than to just see how they will wind up. The Kings of the past week or so are slowly beginning to look like the Kings that no one wanted to take the ice with. No team has a chance in the NHL playoffs without depth. The aforementioned Kopitar and Richards along with key additions like Andrej Sekera have certainly assured the Kings of having that. Formerly of the Carolina Hurricanes, Sekera took his time getting adjusted to his new surroundings with the Kings, but now finds himself almost taking over the offense at times. Great passing ability combined with a shoot-first mentality makes Sekera a perfect fit on this Kings team. With the new surge of talent displayed around him, even rookie Nick Shore scored his first goal of the year. “It feels good any time you score a goal,” Shore said. “But most importantly we came out with a win.” With only a few games left in the season and a very slim margin for error, the Kings are going to need all of the wins that they can possibly get. With a tough schedule ahead of them and down the stretch, fans are hoping that this bunch didn’t wait too long to turn on the thrusters. With their key additions and contributions from components of the team who have been there and done it before, the Kings have suddenly turned themselves into a team that is deep and doesn’t rely on oneline only. It may have taken about 75 games to get there, but these Los Angeles Kings are finally playing like a team again and looking like the players that we have all come to know and love. If they do wind up making it to the playoffs - watch out NHL. • “For West, North, South and Torrance High - it is now time to take to their stage underneath the shining sun and show their fans what they’ve got.” Burkley & Brandlin LLP A T T O R N E Y S A T L AW Living Trusts/Wills, Probate, Employment Law, Personal Injury Trust and Estates Litigation, Business Litigation, Civil Litigation 310-540-6000 *AV Rated (Highest) Martindale - Hubbell / **Certified Specialist Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law, State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization MAXINE’S CAFÉ & GRILLE Appetizers, Salads, Burgers, Sandwiches, Pizzas. Made Fresh Daily! OPEN SOON FOR BREAKFAST! LIVE MUSIC Thursday & Friday KARAOKE Wednesday & Saturday Evenings Hours for Open Lanes Monday - Thursday ...............9AM to Midnight Friday & Saturday ........................9AM to 2AM Sunday.............. ....................8AM to Midnight 24600 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance 310.326.5120 pvbowl.com Baseball Season Begins By Adam Serrao What was the cold of our brief Southern Californian winter has now subsided. The blades of grass are now shimmer in the springtime air as the baseball players from our four high schools here in Torrance get ready for what will be a long and trying Pioneer League season. As the click-clacking of their cleats clang against the cold hard cement and bubble gum bursts from their lips, it becomes increasingly evident that it is now baseball season. For those who love the game, there is no better time of year. For West, North, South and Torrance High - it is now time to take to their stage underneath the shining sun and show their fans what they’ve got. The West High Warriors perhaps have the most to prove to their fans this season. Fresh out of a first place finish in the Bay League last season, head coach Juan Cueva will now enter his team into a Pioneer League overflowing with city and league rivals. Typically as it goes, however, those real juicy matchups don’t begin until league play commences - which starts, this year, around the middle of April. Until then, the Warriors will have to put up with their old foes from the Bay League. For West High, that is exactly how their season got started this year and they did not enjoy it, to say the least. Back-to-back losses versus their past foes, Mira Costa, had Warrior fans thinking it was going to be a long season this year. After a 9-1 loss and a 14-1 loss, West was down in the dumps following a 23-2 series thumping. Never fear, those were only the first two games of the season and coach Cueva was simply feeling his team out. Following the second of both losses, West took to a sixgame winning streak including a walk-off win that gave the team the El Segundo Baseball tournament title. Catcher Nathan Santiago was the hero and figures to be the main man for the Warriors all season long this year. “I knew they were going to be a kind of rowdy team,” Santiago said of his opponents, the Bellflower Buccaneers. “They got a run in the first inning, but we responded well.” Following that first inning run, Santiago and West rallied for two in their half of the first and one in the second before the walk-off came in the bottom of the seventh. “Winning this tournament was a good start for us,” Santiago continued. “We’re a little bit of an inexperienced team and this was a good jump start for us. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going.” The Warriors will look to do just that as they now head into the O.C. Lions tournament and the Redondo Tournament before beginning league play against the Leuzinger Olympians. Aside from their rocky two-game start, the Warriors (7-3) look to be one of the better teams in the Pioneer League already. If that’s what Santiago calls inexperienced, we’ll just have to wait to see how they look come the end of April. South High Another team shooting for the Pioneer League crown this season is the South High Spartans. The Spartans have been nibbling at West High’s toes in the early season standings and are coming off of a four game winning streak in which they beat the Kennedy Fighting Irish from La Palma in back-to-back games. South, too, started their year off with a depressing 3-0 defeat at the hands of Narbonne in game one of the El Segundo Tournament. The team rallied, however, and came through with nice wins over both Redondo Union (2- 0) and Palos Verdes Peninsula (11-0) to up their early season record to 6-3, just behind the Warriors. The Spartans are coming off of a season last year in which they dominated league play (9-1) and finished just behind Torrance High in the overall Pioneer League standings. After finishing the regular season on a three game winning streak, the Spartans tore through playoff competition; winning four in a row until they met their old foes from Torrance High once again in the CIF Division 4 championship game. Torrance eliminated South by beating them 11-0. Better believe that head coach Grady Sain and the rest of his squad are back this year with their eyes squarely focused on the Tartars and getting revenge. Torrance High The Torrance Tartars have started the year off slowly this year, but then again, they do just about every year. Head coach Ollie Turner knows that the real fun doesn’t begin until mid-April and spends the beginning of the season evaluating the needs of his team. After an extremely impressive season last year in which his team continuously crushed the dreams of South High and finished as Pioneer League and CIF Division 4 champs, Turner and the Tartars are back again to repeat this year. A 2-9 record, including seven losses in a row now, may be a slower start than Turner and we all anticipated, but the season has only just begun. Look for the Tartars to do some more damage this season as they continue on the path of finding themselves early on this year. North High The North High Saxons are the team that is most under the radar this season. Seemingly following in the footsteps of every ball club from Torrance so far this year, North, too, began things slowly. Losses to P.V. Peninsula, Mayfair, and Mary Star dug the Saxons a hole to dig out from early on, but they have done just that in the recent past. A five game winning streak and an 8-6 win over Hart in their last game has put the Saxons right back on the map and in third place in the Pioneer League standings with a 6-4 record in the early going. After the Saxons finished in fifth place last season (2-8, 10-18) and out of playoff contention, they will look to rebound and make an impact on this year’s Pioneer League standings. Captains Devin Nakagawa and Jonathan Narimatsu will lead the way for North along with talented junior outfielder, Alex Gomez as the Saxons will make it a priority to fend off their city rivals and make some noise in the playoffs this season. •
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