A screenshot of half-empty seats early in a Kings game is the cheapest shot in sports media, and it almost always falls apart on contact. NHL crowds filter in through the first period everywhere, in sold-out buildings and dead ones alike. Point a camera at any lower bowl at puck drop and you can write whatever story you want. So if you want to defend Kings fans by saying the photo was snapped before people found their seats, fine. You're right about the photo.
You're wrong about everything else.
Strip the image out of it entirely and look at what's left. On Thursday night, November 12, the Islanders came into Crypto.com Arena, snapped a four-game losing streak, and left with a 5-2 win. Brayden Schenn had a goal and two assists, Victor Eklund scored for the fourth straight game, and the Kings lost for the third game in a row. All three of those losses came at home. Entering Saturday's game against Calgary, the Kings sit at 5-10-2, with a home record of 2-7-0.
RatingThat is the actual story, and no amount of "people were still in line for beers" fixes it. A fanbase doesn't need a viral photo to notice that the product on the ice is bad right now. They can read the standings. They watched Kevin Fiala come back and watched the team lose anyway.
The traffic argument gets this backwards. Yes, getting downtown on a weeknight is a slog, and yes, there was a Giants-Commanders game on every TV in every sports bar in America that evening. Both true. But a Giants-Commanders game isn't pulling LA season-ticket holders off their couches, and traffic has been bad in that city for roughly a century without emptying this building. People find a way to show up for a team worth showing up for. When the team is 2-7 at home and buried under .500 nearly a quarter of the way through the season, the math on a Thursday night changes. A slog through downtown traffic, plus parking, plus concession prices, plus a loss, is a bad trade. Fans are allowed to notice that.
Stop pretending the two sides of this argument are enemies. A thin snapshot early in the game and real apathy from a losing home team are the same thing seen from two angles. The crowd shows up late because the product isn't urgent, and the product isn't urgent because the team is losing. It's just the natural result of a bad team playing a forgettable Thursday game.
This is a building with banners from 2012 and 2014 hanging in it. The people who filled those seats haven't forgotten how. They're just waiting for a reason, and a 5-10-2 roster losing at home every few nights isn't giving them one. Point the camera at the ice and the front office that built this roster.
