The Kings are enjoying in Edmonton this weekend with an opportunity to comb the Oilers and win their first playoff collection since their Stanley Cup championship run in 2014.
Hopefully the Kings didn’t neglect any of the necessities whereas packing for such a giant journey.
“Pack your harmonicas,” the Kings’ X account posted following the crew’s 6-2 win over the Oilers on Wednesday night time at Crypto.com Enviornment. “We’re taking this show on the road.”
That’s proper, harmonicas. Simply two video games into the 2025 playoffs, the free-reed musical instrument has change into the Kings’ unofficial postseason good luck allure — because of some memorable pregame performances of “The Star-Spangled Banner” performed by a bunch representing the Koreatown Senior and Neighborhood Heart.
Situated about 2½ miles west of the Kings’ house area, the middle provides 47 packages attended by about 1,500 individuals every week, based on public relations supervisor Gloria Y. Kim. A harmonica class was launched seven years in the past, and the group began training the U.S. nationwide anthem in 2021.
On June 7, 2023, a number of class members performed the anthem to start out a Los Angeles Metropolis Council assembly at Metropolis Corridor.
In January, Kim stated, the middle was contacted by the Kings, who had been planning for his or her Ok-City Night time to be held March 23 when the crew hosted the Boston Bruins. Kwanil Park, the middle’s govt director, recommended that the harmonica group reprise its efficiency of “The Star-Spangled Banner” earlier than the sport.
The Kings favored the thought, Kim stated. So 13 girls and one man from the harmonica class, wearing conventional Korean hanbok, appeared on the sport and performed the anthem “to an overwhelmingly positive response.”
The harmonica class was invited again for Sport 1 in opposition to the Oilers on Monday, Kim stated. This time the group was composed solely of ladies, once more dressed of their conventional garb.
Members of the Koreatown Senior & Neighborhood Heart’s weekly harmonica class carry out the nationwide anthem earlier than the Kings’ playoff sport in opposition to the Edmonton Oilers on Monday at Crypto.com Enviornment.
(Koreatown Senior and Neighborhood Heart)
“It was a truly moving moment when the crowd sang the national anthem along with our harmonica performance,” Kim stated.
After the Kings’ wild 6-5 win that night time, the crew’s X account posted a bunch of photographs from the sport with the caption, “The power of the harmonicas.”
That led to Wednesday’s anthem efficiency by the harmonica group, this time sporting Kings jerseys. After the win, the crew’s X account declared, “The HarmoniKings are 2-0.”
The collection strikes to Edmonton for Sport 3 on Friday and Sport 4 on Sunday, however the Kings will likely be again house sooner or later this postseason — both for doable Video games 5 and seven in opposition to the Oilers or within the subsequent spherical and presumably past. Does that imply that native hockey followers haven’t seen the final of the Koreatown senior middle gamers as a part of the pregame festivities?
“We are currently discussing it with the L.A. Kings,” Kim stated.
