Fans greet Kings at LAX in the middle of the night

I understand the emotion of LA Kings nation, and the passion of hockey fans generally. Still, I'm surprised by this turnout to cheer the Kings players as they returned from last night's series win in Arizona.

For the record: The trophy the Kings won last night is not literally a hunk of cheap plastic, as I wrote last night. It has a name and a longer history than anything in U.S. sports — but nobody cares, most pointedly the Kings players on the ice.

Another view with more crowd shots: