With Thanksgiving Weekend now behind us, I wanted to take the time to share a story that most Kings fans should be thankful for. <\/p>\n
For anyone looking for something in the LA Kings world to be thankful for, how about Kevin Fiala and the program he ran on Wednesday afternoon. <\/p>\n
The Kings did not hold a team practice, day off from on-ice activities, but that didn\u2019t stop Fiala from getting out there. Fiala hosted his annual Fiala\u2019s Friends skate at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo, as he hosted children and families from Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles for an on-ice skate, lunch afterwards and a tour of the team\u2019s locker room and facilities. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust to give back something around Thanksgiving is awesome, to do something like that,\u201d Fiala said. \u201cThanks to the Kings, they\u2019ve helped out a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kings have helped out a lot, sure, but none of this happens without Fiala\u2019s drive and commitment to giving back within the community he now calls home.<\/p>\n
Fiala has had a community presence everywhere he\u2019s been, in Nashville and Minnesota, as well as back home in Switzerland. Los Angeles has been no different for him. The Fiala\u2019s Friends program has taken on many different roles and worn many different hats, but it\u2019s all around a central theme of giving back. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very proud of that,\u201d Fiala said of the program he and the organization have worked to build. \u201cIt\u2019s been very fun to do something like that, to build something up like you said, with the children, they have lots of fun, so it\u2019s been cool. I\u2019m excited to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the summer, Fiala organized a charity game in Zurich, as he led a team of European-born NHL players against the local club, the ZSC Lions. All proceeds raised from the game went to the Children\u2019s Hospital in St. Gallen to support critically ill children, as well as to the youth programs of the ZSC Lions and EHC Uzwil.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s been a central theme of the charity work that Fiala has done since joining the Kings \u2013 helping children in the community.<\/p>\n
Hospital visits have been regular for Fiala, both as a part of team-scheduled trips and visits he has scheduled on his own. He\u2019s also invited kids out to Kings games and he\u2019s committed his time, win or lose, to meet with them after the game for a personal moment. He doesn\u2019t do it for stories like this, for coverage, for notability. He does it for what it means to those impacted. For what they\u2019re going through and what their usual days entail. To give them just one day to forget about all that is Fiala\u2019s goal. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot to me, just to give something back to them,\u201d he said. \u201cGoing to the Children\u2019s Hospital, or inviting kids to games, all that stuff. Just kind of see the smiles on their faces, forget about, a little bit, what they\u2019re going through and just having a great time, that\u2019s my goal, to have them that day. Just have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fiala himself recently became a father, as he and his wife Jessica welcomed their daughter Masie-Mae in May of 2024. <\/p>\n
As a young father, he admitted days like this are something he thinks about even more, from the perspective of the parents who get to see their children have a special day. His community involvement has gone long before that, though, and will certainly continue. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re a dad, you think about a little bit more, but I\u2019ve always had a special place in my heart for stuff like that,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019ve always been very emotional to that case. I just want to love and support how I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
A coach\/player relationship isn\u2019t quite the same as being a father, but you could certainly see the pride on Kings Head Coach Jim Hiller\u2019s face when speaking about Fiala\u2019s commitment and program.<\/p>\n
Hiller said his daughter was the one who sent him the photos from the skate and he immediately went to his phone to reach out Fiala, just to express how proud he was of the work he\u2019s putting in.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter showed me that and I immediately sent Kevin a message and just told him the respect I had for that and how proud we all are of him. It\u2019s awesome. On his own like that, I mean, what more can you say, that\u2019s a heck of a good guy doing something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The beauty of it all is that Fiala will keep it going, as long as he\u2019s here, making a different in the lives of people who could use it. It\u2019s part of the beauty of what makes his program so special and will continue to do so. As we exit the Thanksgiving season, it\u2019s important not to forget about something we should really appreciate around this time of the year. In the season of giving, Kevin Fiala set such a good example, one we\u2019d all do well to follow. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Thanksgiving Weekend now behind us, I wanted to take the time to share a story that most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-323564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}