You might be aware - and I suspect more Americans are aware than Brits - that ice hockey's NHL is coming to London this weekend.

Two games between the LA Kings and Anaheim Mighty Ducks will take place at the O2 Arena, giving British hockey fans (and Europeans prepared to fork out for flights) a taste of the best ice hockey league in the world.

The LA Times has written a very nice report looking at British ice hockey fans - you can read it here. I've excerpted my favourite bits below:

"Some British mysteries just bamboozle the brain, from Stonehenge to Jack the Ripper to the chronic popularity of "Big Brother" to just who on David Beckham's green earth bought enough hockey tickets that London would sell out two NHL games in a hasty fortnight.

"Start by combing the green hills of England, Scotland, Ireland. Tucked in there amid the outnumbered rugby fans and the outnumbered cricket fans and the legions upon legions of keen-eyed soccer fans who can spot an opponent's handball infraction from a buzzard's distance, somewhere in there, yes, some people do report their own hockey fandom.

"They follow unembellished clubs such as the Coventry Blaze, the Basingstoke Bison and the Sheffield Steelers in the Elite Ice Hockey League, which Roberts rates on a level with the United States' East Coast Hockey League. They decry soccer's hegemony without risking deportation.

"They read newspapers with frustration. Epitomizing their place in the margins, they might read a hockey score in the newspapers knowing full well the game went to overtime, but the newspaper will note only, say, "Coventry 3, Cardiff 2," because there's just not room to note the overtime what with all the soccer coverage.

"They often know their athletes personally. If they're out shopping in Basingstoke, say, and they see a member of the Bison, they'll just have a chat.

"Trickles of Kings and Ducks fans have come to London in recent days and have marched through the O2 arena, which houses so many good, varied restaurants that you could live in it full-time without risking malnutrition -- a sports-arena rarity.

"Some inveterate Kings fans such as David and Linda Baltazar of Downey, who rapidly signed on last spring after the announcement of the game, on Friday witnessed the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and filed into the O2 for a party Friday night -- all part of a whirlwind, five-day London trip. The Baltazars also reported that the Kings tour group they joined on the club website had fallen victim to some savage infiltration from Ducks fans.

"Tickets, by the way, are being sold on the open market for $800, according to some news reports."