They call California the Land of Dreams, and with the NHL playoffs approaching, I decided to pursue a dream in the state of big-budget movies and bikinis. I packed up my vintage Vancouver Canucks jersey from 1989–90 (the year Vladimir Krutov discovered hot dogs) and grabbed a flight to San Jose on March 27 to follow our local heroes on their California road swing.

I’ve covered the NHL as a journalist since 1999, along with hundreds of Olympic and World Championship hockey games. Yet bizarrely, I’d never seen a Canucks tilt outside Vancouver. It was time to change that. In California, I’d do it like a fan, shunning cliché-filled postgame scrums. Granted, as great as Henrik Sedin is, I can’t idolize him like I once did Pavel Bure: I’ve written too many hockey stories, and I’m not 19 anymore. Still, I wanted to recapture the feeling in the stands.

Interestingly, it can be more affordable to catch the Canucks in person in California. With the NHL’s third-highest average ticket price, the team has sold out GM Place over 300 straight times since 2002. (Roberto Luongo’s retirement fund thanks you.) However, according to the October 2009 NHL Fan Cost Index published by Team Marketing Report, a family of four can attend a San Jose Sharks home game for US$277.78, including tickets, parking, refreshments, programs, and caps. That would cost US$342.43 in Vancouver. And the exchange rate has improved for Canadians recently.

Just how much has hockey grown in California since the first organized game pitted the Hollywood Athletic Club against the Los Angeles Monarchs in 1925? Stephen Brunt’s 2009 book Gretzky’s Tears puts the 1988 trade of the Great One to L.A. in context, noting that hockey remained a “cult sport” here until then.

In San Jose today, though, the “cult” thing is more like fanatical devotion, vividly contrasting with the quiet, sunbaked boulevards and sleek techno-buildings. At the airport Hertz rental outlet, agent Lucy Ashbaugh gushed over her side job as an HP Pavilion usher: “After 17 years, I still never tire of seeing the players skate out of that big shark’s head.” Even at the San Jose Museum of Art, entire families in Sharks garb gazed at Wayne Thiebaud’s cheery modern paintings.

Traditionally toothless in the playoffs but ruthless in the regular season, the Sharks ate up Vancouver’s second-period power-down in honour of Earth Hour to win 4-2, overshadowing Henrik’s first 100-point campaign. The arena vibe was throwback ’90s, from the unrestrained wearing of teal to the Gary Glitter song “Rock and Roll (Part 2)”, which pulsated after each SJ goal. Afterward, at ex-Sharks captain Owen Nolan’s packed Britannia Arms pub, locals good-naturedly chirped at anyone foolish enough to be wearing Canucks colours.

Zooming down the I-5 to my next stop, L.A., I wondered if the vibe would get less hockey-ish. The Kings, after all, have never generated the same buzz post-Gretzky. Would the U.S.’s 2010 Olympic gold medal showdown with Canada in Vancouver have had an impact? Later that evening, a fellow diner at Delphine in the new W Hollywood hotel told me she’d heard cheering coming from mid-city buildings during the February 28 final—unheard of for hockey here.

But whoa—hold on to those dreams of Olympic-inspired L.A. hockey fever. Browsing through World Book & News, reputedly L.A.’s best newsstand at 3,000-plus titles, I found one measly copy of The Hockey News. On the Starline celebrity homes tour, I told my guide, “Hockey is a big part of my Canadian culture. Can you point out the homes of NHL players?” “Um, we’d have to drive to Thousand Oaks to see Gretzky’s [former] place,” he replied. I had to settle for tidbits on Jay Leno’s driving habits and Courteney Cox’s lunches with Jennifer Aniston.

Later that night, I caught Paul McCartney at the ecstatically packed Hollywood Bowl, rocking out like it was 1964 again. Some things never change, I mused. Had the NHL, which arrived in L.A. in 1967, gained enough of a foothold to spark Canadian-style passion at games? I was about to find out.

On April 1, I got to the Staples Center early and spotted retired Kings legend Luc Robitaille entering an office near the LED-screen-laden Nokia Plaza outside. I considered going í¼ber-fan and trying to get his autograph, but it seemed silly when no one else even noticed him. Canucks jerseys abounded on the plaza, but, unlike in San Jose, they were blithely ignored by Kings fans.

The playoff-questing Kings hammered Vancouver 8-3, and after Alex Burrows took a first-period puck to the throat, his teammates played like they didn’t care. The Staples Center interior exuded complacency and abundance: stacked skyboxes, Lakers championship banners, and pneumatic Ice Girls. I retreated into journalistic detachment, wishing I could get angry the way a “real” Canucks fan would after attending two straight defeats.

And what about Anaheim, the 2007 site of California’s lone Stanley Cup triumph? The next day in the O.C., I tried a new pregame routine to change the luck.

First, I visited the Science of Hockey exhibit at Discovery Science Center, learning how goalie pads are made, climbing aboard a Zamboni, and scoring a hat trick on a computer-simulated Ducks goalie, which impressed nearby seven-year-olds. Then I drove to Anaheim Ice, the Ducks’ practice facility, and marvelled at the local peewees packing the two ice pads (NHL-sized and Olympic-sized) for a spring tournament. Now this felt like SoCal hockey excitement.

With apologies to neighbouring Disneyland, dreams came true during Vancouver’s 5-4 shootout win over Anaheim. The palm-tree-ringed Honda Center glowed with sunset warmth. Boozy ’Nucks fans around me in the lower bowl cheered and high-fived constantly. Michael Grabner was obviously inspired by my scoring prowess, popping his first career hat trick to help clinch Vancouver’s playoff berth. If this had been a Hollywood screenplay, I couldn’t have written a happier ending.

ACCESS: To plan a California hockey vacation, check out the Web sites of the California Travel and Tourism Commission and the cities of San Jose, Los Angeles, and Anaheim. The author travelled courtesy of the California Travel and Tourism Commission.