By Karen Aney (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: June 20, 2012
Apparently, winning the Stanley Cup isn’t so easy. In fact, it’s kind of a battle. Or perhaps a series of battles. With that in mind, I reverted back to my days in high school history class and decided to make a timeline – turning point battles in the LA Kings’ run for the Cup.
This first point happened long before the playoffs started. In fact, it started before the season itself. Actually, it started before last season. Yeah, it happened in 2007. That’s when general manager Dean Lombardi managed to secure a six-year contract for Dustin Brown, with a cap hit of just $3.175 million per season. Granted, he wasn’t a team captain when that contract was signed, but when you put him up against Alexander Ovechkin—who makes just over $9.5 million per season—or even the Sedin twins, who make about $6.1 million, he’s pretty severely underpaid. Lombardi apparently has the magic touch, as the team brick wall—Jonathan Quick—has a cap hit of just $1.8 million per season. This means that the Kings have room to sign some other high-calibre players, such as…
Mike Richards. Yes, it was the Kings’ acquisition of Richards that really started their run for the cup. Even ignoring what he did for the team in the regular season, he scored 15 points in the postseason – no small feat. The hockey world focused more on the fact that Richards had been traded away from the Flyers (where he was captain) and dumped rather unceremoniously on a team with no strong cup run potential, but that wasn’t the whole story – it was also the first step towards building an offence in Los Angeles. One that functioned. One that didn’t include Kobe Bryant.
The Kings, floundering around at the bottom of the western division despite an undeniably spectacular goaltender, demoted coach John Stevens (say it with me now: who?) and replaced him with Darryl Sutter. According to Wikipedia (and other much more reliable sources), his first game as coach of the Kings was December 22, and it ended in a shootout victory over the Anaheim Ducks. Also, can we talk about how I still want to call them “The Mighty Ducks” sometimes? The Ducks, that is. Not the Kings. That would be weird. And likely dangerous.
Shortly before the trade deadline, forward Jeff Carter was traded to the Kings from Columbus (who clearly gave up about three games into the season). He had been traded away from the Flyers on the same day as Mike Richards. The two were under heavy scrutiny in Philadelphia for their propensity to party, and separating them seemed intentional to everyone who wasn’t blind. Apparently Lombardi is blind, but has some heightened sense we don’t know about, because he reunited the pair. It worked out pretty well for him: Carter had 13 points in the postseason, and performed well enough in the regular season that the Kings actually managed to get to the playoffs. Arguably, getting to the playoffs is a pretty important step to winning the Cup.
We can talk about how Daniel Sedin mostly wasn’t there. We can crucify Alex Edler. We can set bears on David Booth. The truth was, the Kings were the better team in the series, and they played well enough to oust the top-seeded team in round one. The series turning point here was game one – The Kings won 4-2, with Dustin Penner scoring the game winner with only 3:14 remaining in the game. His goal was assisted by a pass from Mike Richards which bounced off Jeff Carter’s skate. So yes, their trades did pay off. Also, the Kings outshot the Canucks 39-26. It set the tone for the entire series, and had the Canucks playing a dangerous game of catch-up. Too bad they played like mouse turds.
In the second round, the Kings swept the St. Louis Blues. This whole series was (clearly) dominated by LA, but it was a stand-out for Anze Kopitar. He had two goals and two assists in the four games, but his play was—for lack of a better word—pretty. He found the open lanes, was acutely aware of the play, and was a key piece of the winning puzzle. The series for him can be neatly summated by a short-handed goal he scored at about 5:40 into the second game. After a turn-over capitalized on by Dustin Brown, he received a pass, flawlessly handled the puck, and shot it top-shelf – right before receiving a lovely hit from behind, courtesy of the sloppy Blues defence. The move, to me, epitomizes my typical experience playing NHL 12 against my boyfriend. He makes a beauty of a pass, wiggles his stick, and puts it where Mom keeps the peanut butter. I fruitlessly hit him from behind a split second after he releases the puck. I’m the Blues. The Kings are my boyfriend. I felt an overwhelming amount of empathy for the Blues during this series.
Round three, the Kings beat Phoenix. It wasn’t that much of a surprise – no one really expected Phoenix to get as far as they did, though everyone in Vancouver cheered (or should have) when they ousted Captain Serious (Jonathan Toews) and his Blackhawks. The Kings put the desert dogs (howling puppies?) to bed in five games. The series was a team effort; scoring came from some unexpected sources, including Dwight King, who had his first ever two-goal game. The stand-out, though, was Jeff Carter. In game two, puzzling everyone in Columbus who didn’t see such prodigious skill from him, he scored a hat trick. This was likely unnecessary, as the game’s score was 4-0. Quick stopped just 24 shots, securing his team the win before fans were even thinking about tossing their hats on the ice.
In what was possibly the most boring Stanley Cup series in recent history, the Kings beat the Devils in six games. It’s not that it was a cake walk – in three of the five games, the Devils were bested 2-1. Game three was 4-0 and game six was 6-1, but we’ll ignore that. Games one and two were both won in overtime, the first time that’s happened in Stanley Cup Final history. The key victory, game six, was decisive. It solidified what everyone now recognized: the Kings are a cohesive team that poured everything they had into their game play. Now they have a cup to show for it. One thing to note? When asked what his advice to his team was in pre-game pep talks, captain Dustin Brown said “before Game 5 … I told them to lose, so we could win on home ice.” Indeed.
