Blizzard of Kozz: Crowning the Kings

Prior to the commencement of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, I was about 90% that this year the Cup belonged to my beloved Penguins. I guess I should have taken those two botched games against the Islanders late in the season as a forewarning. Anywho, in my anticipation of the Penguins impending dominance, I ran a single simulation of the entire playoffs using NHL 12. Who won that simulation?

The LA Kings.

Apparently the game knew something that I, nor every other fan of the NHL didn't. It said that the LA Kings, an eighth seed (the lowest seed in the NHL playoffs) were to triumph over the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team one point outside of 1st place in the Eastern Conference. At the time, I laughed it off. The notion that an eighth seed would win the Cup, regardless of opponent, was utterly ridiculous. Yet here we are, a month and a half later, and the Kings have defeated the New Jersey Devils in 6 games to win their first Stanley Cup, an event 45 years in the making. But they did more than win the Stanley Cup; they made history.

As I mentioned, the Kings were the 8th and lowest seed in the Western Conference. They just barely made it into the playoffs after losing to their division rival the San Jose Sharks in back-to-back games, their last two of the regular season. After that ordeal, they made it to the finals by beating the 3 top seeded teams in their conference. I should actually rephrase that. They didn't just beat those 3 teams, they annihilated them.

This handy chart should help put this in perspective.

The King's first round opponent was the Vancouver Canucks, the first seed in the conference and back-to-back President's Trophy winner for having the most points in the regular season (and also my second favorite team behind the Pens). The LA Kings beat them in 5 games, starting the series 3-0. Next came the St. Louis Blues, the 2nd seed. The Blues were swept in 4 games, bringing an outstanding season which saw them rise back into prominence in the NHL to a screeching halt. In the Conference Finals, the Kings beat the Coyotes, who had reached the Western Conference Finals for the first time in their 15 seasons in operation, in 5 games. Once again the Kings began the series 3-0.

The LA Kings' Dwight King (great name amirite??) scores on the Coyotes' Mike Smith

By this point, the Kings' record stood at 12-2, an unprecedented number in the NHL. They were only the 7th team to since the current playoff format was adopted to reach the Finals with this record, and also the only 8th seed to do so. By the time they had defeated the New Jersey Devils 6-1 in game 6 to win the series and the Stanley Cup, they achieved a road win streak of 10 wins this season along with a combined 12 wins over the last two seasons. Both are now records in North American professional sports. The series between the Kings and the Devils also started with the Kings going up 3-0, making them the first team in league history to begin every playoff series in a year with such a record. There is no other way to describe the way the Kings played other than utter dominance of their opponents.

I could continue and go into detail how the Kings' dominance played out in every one of their games this postseason, but I think I'd be better off leaving that to the experts (no matter how much I'd like to consider myself one). Here's a link to an excellent piece on NHL.com about the Kings' rampage towards their first Stanley Cup victory. If you snoop around the related links there are also bound to be plenty of other stories that describe their victory in detail, provided you're into that sort of thing.

Below I've collected a few more snapshots of game 6 and the Cup ceremony. I'm sure more will be popping up all over the web within the next few days as well.

Rob Scuderi, a former Penguin that won the Cup with Pittsburgh in 2009, lay on the ice after a nasty hit from behind by Steve Bernier. Bernier was ejected for the hit that would lead to a major penalty and 3 power play goals. I have a video of this hit near the bottom of this post.

The Kings celebrate after their first power play goal.

Trevor Lewis (#22) scores on Martin Brodeur for the Kings' 3rd power play goal.

Justin Williams (#14) kicks the puck into the offensive zone after losing his stick as Marek Zidlicky (#2) looks on, confused.

I keep finding cool looking pictures from the game and posting them. Deal with it. Brodeur is scored on yet again.

The Devils score their lone goal against Jonathan Quick.

The Devils celebrate their one goal, scored by Adam Henrique (#14).

Jonathan Quick about to end up on the bottom of a pile up after Ryan Carter of the Devils dives on top of him. It looked pretty intentional to me, anyways.

Time to celebrate

Kings captain Dustin Brown hoists the Cup after dropping the f bomb on national television. I'd be excited if I won the Stanley Cup too.

LA goaltender Jonathan Quick with the Conn Smythe trophy for playoff MVP

Center Anze Kopitar with the Cup. Kopitar is the first NHL player to be from Slovenia /fun fact

Former captain of the Philadelphia Flyers Mike Richards lifts the Stanley Cup, something he was never able to do in his many years in Philly but accomplished with one season in LA. Yes Flyers fans, I hope it burns.

Jeff Carter, another former Flyer prior to this season. hehehehehehehehehe

I've paid my dues..... time after time.....

.....and here's the hit on Rob Scuderi (a former Penguin) by Steve Bernier that practically ended their season by setting the Kings up for 3 power play goals on a 5 minute misconduct penalty.

Bernier might deserve an award of his own for this hit.

Now, I may not be a fan of the Los Angeles Kings, but I am sincerely happy for them. They made history and shook the hockey world by being the first team in history to hoist the Stanley Cup as an 8th seed in dominating fashion. No matter your team or even if you watch the sport, any sports fan should agree that that is an extremely impressive accomplishment. The old adage about the NHL Playoffs was always that just making the playoffs was enough to have a chance to compete. The LA Kings have proven that to be 100% the truth. However, no matter how happy I am for Los Angeles, next year I wouldn't mind if the final day of the NHL season looked a little more like this: