The Kings play Edmonton this weekend with a chance to sweep the Oilers and win their first eliminatory series since their Stanley Cup championship in 2014.
I hope that the Kings have not forgotten any of the essential elements during the packaging for such a big trip.
“Pack your harmonics”, the X Kings account posted after the 6-2 victory of the team on the Oilers Wednesday evening at the Crypto.com Arena. “We take this show on the road.”
It’s true, harmonicas. Only two games in the 2025 eliminations series, the free music instrument has become the unofficial good luck of Kings-thanks to certain memorable pre-match performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” played by a group representing the center and the community center of Koreatown.
Located about 2 and a half years west of the original arena of Kings, the center offers 47 programs to follow by around 1,500 people each week, according to public relations manager Gloria Y. Kim. A harmonica course was introduced seven years ago and the group began to practice the American national anthem in 2021.
On June 7, 2023, several class members played the anthem to start a meeting of the Los Angeles municipal council at the Town Hall.
“That day, we received a standing ovation from the members of the municipal council and more than 100 participants, which gave us great confidence,” Kim at Times told an email on Thursday.
In January, Kim said, the center was contacted by the Kings, who provided that their K-Town night will be held on March 23 when the team welcomed the Boston Bruins. Kwanil Park, the Executive Director of the Center, suggested that the Harmonica group resumes its performances from “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the match.
The Kings liked the idea, said Kim. Thus, 13 women and a man in the harmonica class, dressed in traditional Korean hanbok, appeared to the game and played the anthem “to an extremely positive response”.
The harmonica course was invited to come back for match 1 against the Oilers on Monday, Kim said. This time, the group was entirely made up of women, again dressed in their traditional costume.
Members of the weekly Harmonica class of Koreatown Senior & Community interpret the national anthem before the Kings eliminatory match against the Edmonton Oilers on Monday in Crypto.com.
(Koreatown Senior and Community Center)
“It was a truly moving moment when the crowd sang the national anthem with our Harmonica performance,” said Kim.
After the victory of the Kings Wild 6-5 that evening, the team’s X account published a group of photos of the game with the legend “the power of the harmonics”.
This led to Wednesday’s anthem by the Harmonica group, this time with kings jerseys. After the victory, the team X’s X account said: “The Harmonies are 2-0”.
The series moves to Edmonton for match 3 on Friday and match 4 on Sunday, but the Kings will be back at a given time in the playoffs-either for possible matches 5 and 7 against the Oilers or in the next round and perhaps beyond. Does this mean that local hockey fans have not seen the last of the Koreatown Senior Center players as part of the pre-match festivities?
“We are currently talking about it with the Kings of Los Angeles,” said Kim.
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