The Hockey Stop

It is doubtful there will be a more dramatic game during the regular season.

The Chicago Blackhawks overcame a 5-0 hole against the Calgary Flames at United Center last Monday to win 6-5 in overtime.

Chicago matched the biggest comeback in NHL history and beat the previous club record of a four goal comeback.

The game reminds me of a lesson I learned a few years back while listening to the Dodgers on the radio. The date was Sept. 18, 2006 and Los Angeles entered the ninth inning trailing the San Diego Padres 9-5 at Dodger Stadium.

At that point I turned off the radio thinking the game was over. About a half an hour later I turned the radio back on to listen to the postgame analysis of the Dodgers' disappointing loss.

And what did I hear? Dodgers win 11-10 in ten innings! What? Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew, Russell Martin and Marlon Anderson all hit consecutive home runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game and send it into extra innings. It was only the fourth time in MLB history a team had hit four consecutive home runs.

Then in the top of the tenth, the Padres took the lead again by a score of 10-9.

That set the stage for the heroic two-run walk-off homer by Nomar Garciaparra to win the game for Los Angeles.

So the moral of the story is: Never, and I mean NEVER, leave a game early no matter what the score is because sometimes something special can happen. Just ask those Dodgers fan who stuck around and the Chicago fans rocking the UC.

Here are the highlights (or lowlights if you are a Flames fan) of the unbelievable comeback by the Blackhawks:

I'm happy to report that the Los Angeles Times has finally added links to the Ducks and Kings from the top navigation bar on their new homepage.

Plus, the King and Ducks both won their games last night. L.A. dispatched Minnesota 6-3 at Staples Center while Anaheim dominated the Bruins 6-1 in Boston.

Oh yeah, and I heard the Dodgers and Angels won their playoff games yesterday but that hasn't been confirmed.

The Los Angeles Times launched their redesigned website today and overall it is a big improvement with easier navigation, simpler layout and more interactivity.

But where are the two local NHL teams in the top navigation bar? The Ducks and Kings get no love from the new homepage. Instead it lists the Lakers, Dodgers, Angels, USC and UCLA. Even the lowly Clippers get linkage.

This egregious omission will hopefully be fixed soon or there will be many Ducks and Kings fans starting to question the Times' commitment to covering hockey.

Online managing editor Meredith Artley and editor Russ Stanton had this say about the new look:

"Our work is not done. We approached this redesign as another step in the evolution of the Los Angeles Times, as a building block for more things to come."

It would be nice if the Ducks and Kings were a part of this evolution.

To request that the Ducks and Kings be added to the top navigation bar of the homepage, e-mail L.A. Times readers' representative Jamie Gold at readers.rep@latimes.com.