The Sabres were better in a 3-1 win over the Blackhawks.

In recent years a visit to Buffalo by the Blackhawks would be an event that would draw little interest and plenty of empty seats. Yet thanks to the presence of Patrick Kane rolling into town tonight was going to be a bit different.

From the time the PA system pumped out the strands of Chicago’s “Saturday in the Park” to the nice applause to hearing Kane’s name in the starting lineups to the wonderful pregame ceremony involving Kane, Brian Campbell and their respective fathers to the great ovation they received. It was quite obvious that the fans of Buffalo, Sabres and bandwagon Blackhawk alike gave Kane a warm welcome home to Buffalo.

“OK kid, now just disappear into the background for the night, will ya.” I thought to myself as the puck dropped.

Except Kane wasn’t finished on center stage just yet, because just two and a half minutes in he took in a nice feed from Patrick Sharp and fired it past Ryan Miller from the slot for a 1-0 lead. About five minutes later in the period he would get on the stats sheet again with a penalty for hooking.

Here’s a scenario that would normally be reporter heaven… you are covering the Sabres; no competition as the only other beat reporter covering the game is John Vogl from the News; the Anaheim media contingent is skimpy to begin with and all engaged with their players; the locker room isn’t the labyrinth of side rooms and coves where players duck out like in Buffalo, but just one big room with locker stalls and an adjacent shower. I walk in and nirvana!… 25 hockey players in various stage of undress, and Media Coordinator Chris Bandura beseeching me to please have at it and interview anyone I like. I have the room pretty much to myself.

For the first time ever, we attended two NBA basketball games on the same day… in the same venue no less.

There was lots going on in the sports world in L.A. on day 2 of our journey… USC was hosting Kansas in mens basketball at the new Galen Center, while UCLA was hosting Texas at Pauley Pavilion, a game which Andrew was lobbying to go see.

But in the end we wound up spending the day downtown at the Staples Center, where the headline game that evening was the Los Angeles Lakers hosting the Orlando Magic.

First up at Staples would be the JV game featuring the Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Clippers.

Memo to anyone who complained about the increase in parking prices at The Ralph this year (myself included) - kwitcherbitching and just pony up the cash.

We arrived around 11 AM, and as we were making our rounds and checking out the tailgate and party scene at the LA Coliseum, we came across a parking lot that was charging $60. Our eyes bugged out a bit, but as our walk continued, we spotted another charging $80! And another, and another. Finally, we came across THIS, and $60 seemed… soooooooo 11:30.

Note… that was not a VIP lot, that was still a bit of a walk to the stadium, and was just the run of the mill parking lot behind a gas station in a neighborhood.