Los Angeles Kings vs. New York Islanders

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Long Island vowels in the concourse are the first thing you notice. This opponent does not get sent west very often, and when it does the people who turn up are a specific and rather wonderful crowd: decades-old sweaters that have clearly travelled in hand luggage, and a quiet intensity about a franchise that has handed its supporters a great deal more grief than joy over the years. They are excellent company for an evening. The Kings are the opposite sort of story, a team that had to build its congregation from nothing at all in a city with no ice and no reason to care, and a Thursday meeting between those two histories is a considerably better evening than the standings will suggest to you. Get there for the warmups. It is the only part of the night when you can stand at the glass without anybody moving you along, and it is where you find out how fast this game actually is before television flattens it out.