Quest For The Crown--L.A. Kings seek to rewrite history

Sometimes you wait 30 minutes. Sometimes 45 years. Even if Los Angeles, which entered the finals favored over the Devils, ends the NHL's longest active Cup

Goalie Rogie Vachon, an ex-Canadien, was an early star for the Kings, who wore distinctive uniforms :: Denis Brodeur/Getty Images

The Kings and the New York Rangers met in the postseason for the first time in 1979 :: Tony Triolo/SI

Sometimes you wait 30 minutes. Sometimes 45 years. Even if Los Angeles, which entered the finals favored over the Devils, ends the NHL's longest active Cup drought—a dubious honor shared with the Maple Leafs and the Blues—there's no guarantee it will become part of the fabric of the city. As Kings president of business operations Luc Robitaille notes, "Thirteen million people here. We're not a city. We're a country." The only universal fabric in Los Angeles appears to be spandex. "The way we make a dent is if we compete [for a Cup] year after year," continues Robitaille, the team's alltime goal scorer. "But our best players"—27-year-old captain Dustin Brown, 26-year-old goalie Jonathan Quick, 24-year-old center Anze Kopitar, 22-year-old defenseman Drew Doughty—"are our youngest players. We should be able to compete for six, seven years."

Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne never got a sniff of the Stanley Cup during 12 seasons as a King :: Steve Babineau/Getty Images

Rogie Vachon (center) and the Kings looked and played like the Charlestown Chiefs of Slap Shot fame :: Denis Brodeur/Getty Images

"There's been this sort of speculation I was traded there to grow hockey," Gretzky says. "Really, there's nothing further from the truth. At 27, I'm not thinking that. I just wanted to be part of a championship there."

Wayne Gretzky's Kings were foiled by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1993 Stanley Cup Final :: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

"Maybe," Jiggs McDonald says, "the Inglewood High School band could even lead the Stanley Cup parade."

Royalty at last: The Kings clinched their first Cup by downing the Devils in six games in 2012 :: Christian Petersen/Getty Images