The Kings were about to file onto the ice at their practice facility in El Segundo when the first embers of what would become one of the most destructive wildfires in U.S. history began to blow in Pacific Palisades.
That was on the morning of Jan. 7. Less than 24 hours later, with eight other fires burning throughout Southern California, the team postponed a home game with the Calgary Flames and prepared to head to Winnipeg, where they glued stickers to the back of their helmets and patches on the left shoulder of their white road jerseys in tribute to the firefighters battling those blazes.
In the locker room, however, there was a feeling that that wasn’t nearly enough. The community they play for was literally going up in flames and all they could offer the people trying to save it were thoughts, prayers and a helmet sticker?
“It takes a special person to run into a building when everybody’s running out,” said Dana Bryson, the team’s longtime assistant equipment manager.
So Bryson reached out to Matthew and Marty Mullen, lifelong buddies who are also firefighters, and they hatched a plan. Matthew would donate a battle-scarred L.A. City Fire helmet and Bryson would convince the Kings to present it to the outstanding player after every home win.
It wasn’t a tough sell.
“We’ve all embraced it,” Kings captain Anze Kopitar said. “We just wanted to recognize those guys, what they do for the city of L.A. And hopefully they get a kick out of it.”
They do, the Mullen brothers say. But the Kings have gotten a lot more in return.
Since returning from the trip that began in Winnipeg, the Kings have won an NHL-best 17 times at home, vaulting over the Edmonton Oilers and into second place in the Pacific Division. If the Kings beat the Oilers in Alberta on Monday, they will have home-ice advantage against Edmonton in the first round of the playoffs, which begin this weekend.
And the fire helmet is getting some of the credit for that.
“Maybe that helmet brings a focus at home,” said Glen Murray, a two-time NHL all-star and currently the Kings’ director of player development. “You’re more clear and you’re super focused. That’s maybe what that helmet has brought.”
“It’s amazing,” added Kings president Luc Robitaille, a Stanley Cup champion and hall of famer as a player. “I think it really ups the team spirit.”
It wouldn’t be the first time a team rallied around an unconventional talisman.
In 2011, for example, a squirrel ran onto the field to interrupt two games of the National League Division Series in St. Louis. The Cardinals came back to win the second game and rode the Rally Squirrel to its last World Series title, toasting a plush toy rodent with champagne after the final victory. And the Angels had the Rally Monkey, which they say played a key role in the team’s 2002 World Series triumph by inspiring a comeback from a 5-0 deficit in the seventh inning of Game 6.
The difference is the Kings summoned their lucky charm from tragedy and made it a force for good while never forgetting the courage and commitment the helmet symbolizes.
“This one’s got a little deeper meaning, right?,” Kopitar said. “With all the things that went down in the city, it all helps. It’s something that we really haven’t done in the past.”
What really made it work, though, is the fact it wasn’t a cheap marketing ploy or something tied to a sponsorship deal. It was inspired by sacrifice and so, in turn, it inspired sacrifice.
“Let’s be honest,” Bryson said. “These guys here get a lot of people who consider them heroes or whatever. It’s their way to create a hero out of real heroes.”
And it all happened organically by tweaking a custom the team had adopted at the start of the season when defenseman Mikey Anderson began bringing a toy Formula One driver’s helmet to games, presenting it to the outstanding player after wins. Kopitar asked Zak Brown, the chief executive of McLaren Racing, if he could have a real helmet and Brown gave the team a bright yellow one autographed by Lando Norris, the runner-up in the points standings last year.
“Don’t tell those guys that thing’s probably worth like 10, 15 grand if someone bid on it,” Bryson said.
The trip to Winnipeg forced a reset though, especially since the players could see the smoke from the fires as their charter flight lifted off from LAX.
“I thought it would be cool to tie it all in. And those guys donated the helmet right away,” Bryson said of the Mullen twins. “So I asked Mikey and Kop. I said ‘I’m going to get this fire helmet. Would you guys be cool with that at home?’ “
There was no debate. So with the fires still burning, the team returned from a dismal five-game road swing to find Mullen’s helmet was waiting for them.
There were other changes at well, with the logo at center ice at Crypto.com Arena replaced with an LAFD shield. The team also donated more than $8 million to fire-relief efforts and would go on to organize a charity game in which the Mullen brothers, both hockey players, and other firefighters participated alongside celebrities including Justin Bieber, Steve Carrell and Matt Leinart.
But for the players, the biggest thing was the battered yellow fire helmet with the huge red shield surrounding a black and gray number 80, signifying the LAFD station at LAX where Matthew Mullen, now a fire inspector, once worked. On the right side is a black shield with a gray number 63, for the Venice Beach fire house to which Mullen was also once assigned.
“That’s banged up from going to different fires,” Matthew Mullen said of the helmet. “I didn’t want to give them a brand-new shiny helmet.”
The Kings lost their first game with the helmet in the home locker room and the LAFD shield at center ice but won four of the next five and didn’t lose again in regulation for 15 games, a franchise record. After each home victory, the keeper of the helmet delivered a short speech, then passed it on to that night’s outstanding player.
“I’m like ‘Omigod, they just keep winning’,” Matthew Mullen said. “It’s an unbelievable good-luck charm.”
The fans have caught on too. When the team posted video of newcomer Andrei Kuzmenko accepting the helmet from Trevor Moore after a game late last month, it got more than 40,000 views. One of those viewers was Mullen, who has made a habit of sharing the Instagram posts with other firefighters.
“Now the helmet’s more famous than anybody,” Bryson said.
The F1 helmet is still presented to the top player after road wins, but it has been gathering some dust lately; the Kings have won just six times in 18 road games since the fires started.
At home, however, the same team is almost as unbeatable as the L.A. fire department, a streak that has buoyed both the Kings and the firefighters.
“We don’t get paid for what we do. We get paid for what we’re willing to do,” Mullen said. “When people are running out, we’re running in. We take big pride in the Kings and we’ve all become Kings fans.
“Seeing our logo on center ice, that alone right there, it’s done a lot. I just hope they have a long run during the playoffs.”
Playoffs that could end with a battered yellow fire helmet perched atop Lord Stanley’s Cup.