One of the reasons Bill Simmons is so successful as a sportswriter is his ability to wrap the fan perspective into all of his writing. He’s not an “objective” journalist. He doesn’t hide his emotions, and he pours his heart out when his team loses.

He’s also funny as hell, and mixes in pop culture references better than anybody in sports media.

His latest column is a classic, as he recounts his young daughter’s love for the Los Angeles Kings, and how she experienced her first “stomach-punch loss” recently when the Kings couldn’t close out the Devils in Game 5 last Wednesday.

So Wednesday’s game … man.

I tried to warn her. I tried to prepare her: “Look, this is sports, you never know, you can’t just assume they’re going to win.” She wouldn’t hear it. She kept saying, “Dad, stop it, just stop. They’re going to win.” She had the whole night planned in her head, inadvertently jinxing it with questions like, “Who gets to hold the Cup first again?” and “How long will they pass it around?” She insisted on arriving 40 minutes early for warm-ups. On the way there, she leaned out her window and waved to anyone wearing a Kings jersey. We made it downtown and realized it had morphed into a sea of Kings jerseys — more than we had ever seen. She was delighted.

“Look at all the jerseys!!!!” she gushed. “Did the Lakers ever have this many?”

And I just watched the whole thing happen, unable to stop it, knowing the entire time, “Oh God, tonight’s probably the night … her first stomach-punch loss.”

The night ended with his daughter sobbing in their car on the ride home. After last nights loss in New Jersey, the pressure is suddenly on the Kings in game 6. Hopefully she and other Kings fans can celebrate a win that will feel even better after the disappointment of the last two games.

Having just barely ousted the Buffalo Sabres for the final playoff spot with their victory against the Panthers, and subsequently taking the 7 seed out from under Ottawa, the Caps almost made it to the end of the regular season in relatively good health. That is until Michal Neuvirth went down with a leg injury just five minutes into the second period of the penultimate regular season game against Florida. The injury to Neuvirth came just one week after Tomas Vokoun reinjured his groin in the Caps March 29th game against the Buffalo Sabres.

Now, unless either Tomas Vokoun or Michal Neuvirth can find a bowflex treadclimber to hop on to help with a quick rehabilitation, it looks like rookie goaltender Braden Holtby will be carrying the team into the playoffs on his young shoulders this month. Holtby looked solid in the Caps 4-1 victory on Saturday night against the Eastern Conference’s No.1 seed NY Rangers, and the club looks for him to continue with that level of play in his first playoff appearance against the Boston Bruins later this month.

With a wild regular season now behind them, the Washington Capitals can at least breath a short sigh of relief. But with their top two goalies out and a rookie goaltender with 0 NHL playoff experience between the pipes, one can expect some more wild goings-on from the Washington Capitals in the near future. Heck, at this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if they won it all.

Sports Illustrated put out this list of what it believes to be the Top 20 all-time sportscasters. Some of these guys are before my time, but unfortunately, most of them are not. Anyway, here is the list and a snappy comment or two, as well as who they missed and who I’m glad is not on here:

1. Jim McKay—The Bob Costas of his time. McKay hosted ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” as well as The Olympics. It’s hard to argue with putting him on top here, but it’s also easy to argue for a few of these others to be #1.

2. Vin Scully—If I hear ol’ Vin doing a game on TV, and with the MLB package it’s nice to still hear him doing Dodgers’ games, I don’t care who is playing….I stop and watch, and listen. It’s just comforting to hear the guy’s voice, which was made for broadcasting baseball.

3. Mel Allen—He did Yankees games before I was born, but I remember his distinctive voice as the host of “This Week in Baseball.”

4. Red Barber—Way before my time, but I’ve heard great things

5. Ernie Harwell—Even hearing his voice doing interviews before he passed away recently, you couldn’t not be engaged to listen.

6. Jack Buck—Loved hearing him do both baseball and football, and who can forget his call in the 1988 World Series when gimpy Kirk Gibson hit that home run against Dennis Eckersley? “I don’t believe what I just saw!”

7. Bob Costas—Many of you don’t like this guy, but he’s a pro and as knowledgeable as they come.

8. Curt Gowdy—Another voice from my childhood that is synonymous with baseball.

9. Howard Cosell—Who can forget Cosell doing “Monday Night Football” along with Frank Gifford and Dandy Don Meredith? The fact that Cosell was so annoying just added to his charm.

10. Keith Jackson—Even if you were never into college football, you had to tune in when Keith Jackson did a game. It was like religion. “Oh, Nelly!”

11. Harry Caray—I remember when we first got cable and had Cubs’ games on WGN. I was like, “who is this old dude doing the games?” But Harry was awesome, especially when trying to pronounce names he couldn’t pronounce.

12. Jack Brickhouse—Um, also before my time.

13. Al Michaels—He’s not my favorite announcer ever, but he’s not hard to listen to either. Michaels is smart and extremely professional, and his resume is enormous. His claim to fame was calling the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980.

14. Dick Enberg—“Oh My!” I still love hearing this guy do NFL games.

15. Marv Albert—Yeah, you can poke fun all you want about his extra-curricular, um, issues in 1997, but there is no better basketball announcer, and he was doing hockey games when I grew up in New York too. About as recognizable a voice as there is in sports. Hard to believe he’s almost 70!

16. Don Dunphy—This was a boxing guy from before my time

17. Jack Whitaker—Also covered many sports, probably before I was born

18. Chick Hearn—Was the voice of the Lakers for many years. I never heard him do a game, but heard how awesome he was.

19. Chris Schenkel—I remember watching PBA bowling on Saturdays with my grandpa, and this guy was the voice of that as well as several other sports. A true pro.

20. John Madden—There is/was no one better at color commentary, and to think he planned on stopping in the broadcast booth temporarily before he found another coaching job. But wait? He’s 20th? That is kind of bogus. Madden should be Top 10, easily.

Some guys they missed:
Joe Garagiola—I loved hearing him and Tony Kubek do NBC’s “Game of the Week” in baseball when I was a kid.

Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner—This trio was the soundtrack to my youth watching the Mets.

Phil Rizzuto—Holy cow! Phil isn’t on this list?

Gary Thorn and Mike Emrick—Two of the best I’ve ever heard do hockey games.

Jim Nantz—This guy just excels at football, basketball and golf

Gary Cohen—Did Mets radio for many years and is now the voice of SNY for the Mets. This guy is a walking Mets encyclopedia, and I know many of you don’t know who he is, but he’s remarkable as both an announcer and historian.

Bob Papa—Sorry to be the homer here, but this Giants’ radio play-by-play guy now does the Thursday night NFL games, so you all get to here how great he is.

And who I’m glad they did miss:
Joe Buck—I just don’t see what the appeal is. I loved listening to his dad, but this guy just grates on my nerves. He’s smart and witty, but he’s more annoying than entertaining. He’s like the Ryan Seacrest of sports.

Gus Johnson—There is a reason he does the D-list NFL games on CBS—he’s hyper to a fault. Sometimes it’s funny, but mostly it grates on my nerves.

Since moving to Los Angeles from Michigan, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to watch my Red Wings without buying a cable package I wouldn’t be using otherwise. As such, I’ve had to find all possible venues for watching hockey in downtown LA. BTW, to show some love, Far Bar in Little Tokyo totally hooked me up with Game 1 of the Cup Finals.

Even though it was only on NBC, it should be noted that my quest for comfortable settings for watching the Wings is not going to get any easier this week or even next season. Apparently, NBC bumped (to the Versus channel) the Stanley Cup Finals for every weeknight in order to maintain its week-long coverage of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! (A television program I’m sure we will be talking about for years to come) and the start of the new Conan O’Brien show. Back home, folks aren’t particularly happy about the move. Here’s what Michael Zuidema of The Grand Rapids Press had to say as posted on MLive:

Granted, hockey hasn’t consistently pulled the strongest ratings numbers throughout the years, but it doesn’t deserve to be treated like a second-class citizen or an afterthought. Not when you have a matchup pitting Hockeytown against hockey’s poster boy, Sidney Crosby.

The buzz already is there, build on it. Or is Conan O’Brien that much more important? (Never mind, we already know the answer.)

For all NBC does right with hockey — and its coverage of the Winter Classic stands out as a huge plus — the sport still doesn’t feel like a priority, even during the Winter Olympics.

And Versus may be fighting for its niche in the sports world, but it still isn’t a destination point for casual fans. It’s not even available in every home. Nonetheless, it will carry the NHL through the 2010-11 season.

I like Conan O’Brien, and people watch him more than hockey. I’m not debating the numbers here. Nor am I about to tell everyone in Los Angeles to start liking a sport they can’t actually play without all sorts of technology. I suppose what I would like to say, and this kind of echoes Mr. Zuidema, is that despite its relative lack of mainstream appeal, hockey is still one of the great sports in America. Where it’s popular, it’s VERY popular.

I wish there was some easier way to get around all this, some way to bring hockey back to a more profitable level in order to justify it preempting something else instead of vice versa, but there isn’t. Either you like hockey or you don’t. But come on, hockey is sweet. In that vein here’s another article to check out: 10 Reasons Why You Should Be A Hockey Fan.

No other professional sports league allows competitors to fight within the rules of a game in exchange for a small stint in the penalty box. Simply stated – players can settle their differences with their fists.

Fighting in the NHL has always been popular because it looks great on television and provides an adrenaline rush for everyone in the arena. Fans will stand and cheer in unison, while the players on the bench will bang their sticks on the sideboards to show their appreciation for the fight. A good hockey brawl will have fans talking about the fight weeks later. A series of good fights also develops a bitter rivalry between two teams (i.e. Colorado Avalanche-Detroit Red Wings in the nineties) that generates interest for their next scheduled encounter.

Detractors of hockey say that fighting keeps the sport away from a broader fan base and continues to leave the sport in relative obscurity. In the past, efforts to curtail fighting have set hockey back on several occasions. I’m not talking about taking the sport back to the reckless style of the 1970’s, but critics have to recognize the unbreakable link between fighting and the popularity of hockey with its fans.

Those who defend fighting in hockey will say it helps to deter star players from being targeted with physical play. The game is governed by a complex system of unwritten rules that players and coaches refer to as “the code.”

Teams will open a roster spot for an enforcer, whose main responsibility is to protect the star player’s health on the ice. If the play becomes too chippy, a coach will send their enforcer on the ice to deliver a message via verbal or physical nature. There is a high degree of respect among the league’s top enforcers – in a game; both enforcers must agree to fight before the gloves come off.

Fighting does not guarantee success for a team, nor does it preclude a team from being successful. However, it does help the league, and for that reason it needs to stay.