Los Angeles Kings vs. San Jose Sharks

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Half past six is an awkward, wonderful hour. Too early to go home first, too late to pretend you are still working, so the only way to make it is to leave the desk at six and walk straight down Figueroa with everybody else who made the same call. The building fills in a rush between the anthem and the end of the first period, which is its own small comedy. This is the second meeting with San Jose inside five weeks, and the second one always has an edge the first did not, because now there is something to answer for. December hockey in a warm city is faintly ridiculous and completely absorbing once the puck drops. Eat afterwards rather than before - everything around LA Live is still open at nine and considerably calmer than it was at six. Sit anywhere in the lower bowl along the side rather than behind a net for a game like this; the neutral-zone play is where a division rematch is actually decided, and from the end boards you cannot see it developing at all.