So, mired in a hopeless season where wins are few and far between, the Kings have to drum up support the old fashioned way, using sex.

This gorgeous creature is Lucious Liz, a DJ from Los Angeles radio station Power 106. She graced billboards all over the Southland last season for Los Angeles.

Now this tack is hardly uncharted territory for sport franchises to try and drum up business. The most famous L.A. cheerleaders must be the L.A. Laker Girls. Known for dancing in between timeouts and TV breaks, the Laker Girls are very much a part of Lakers basketball as purple and gold jerseys, Jack Nicholson in the front row and championship banners hanging in the rafters.

Down the 5 Freeway, the Anaheim Ducks have the Power Players who wiggle down the aisles to assist in giveaways, contests and anything else.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have the Strike Force, a group of girls who fire t-shirts through a cannon to the masses around Anaheim Stadium.

So, this is not unchartered territory the Kings are navigating here. Sex sells, and the beautiful people are drawn to the ice like paparazzi to the red carpet. And since attendance has been lagging due to a lackluster showing this season, the Kings brought Liz back for a second go-around.

And it hasn't gone unnoticed. Apparently one of Sports Illustrated's online columnists, Steve Hoffstetter, caught wind of the Kings' new billboards, and decided to write a column about it.

I have nothing against a hot blonde. They just shouldn't embody Kings hockey.

'The idea must be to attract fans by selling sex, something that beer commercials and the LPGA have done for years. But this is not what the Kings need right now.

How about this -- a billboard with a picture of Wayne Gretzky above the phrase, "Hey, we couldn't win a cup with him, either."

Apparently, he forgot about his employers' most heralded issue of the year. And no, I'm not talking about their NHL Preview Issue (the preview which was sandwiched between a feature on the NFL's Nastiest Rivalry and Who Can Derail a Subway Series in New York). You see this week, SI publishes it's annual foray into soft porn with it's annual Swimsuit Edition. Husbands nationwide look forward to trying to beat their wives to the mailbox in hopes of rescuing said magazine from being used to line the bottom of the kitchen trash can.

I'm not a smart man, but I know what sex is. /Forrest Gump voice And I understand why the Kings are using Liz in their latest campaign. It's the same reason SI rolls out the glossy pages the cold months after Super Bowl but before the spring thaw. It's no coincidence SI does this. Interest in sports lags heavily after the Super Bowl, and magazines struggle to maintain readership at least until the start of baseball season.

Then again, maybe Hoffstetter didn't beat his wife to the mailbox this week... If so, you can have my copy, brother.