It’s the most wonderful time of the year. NHL playoffs are upon us, and what better way to start them off than a rematch between last year’s second round match-up between the St. Louis Blues and the Los Angeles Kings?
The Kings put an early end to the Blues playoff hopes with a four game sweep during the second round in their amazing playoff appearance last season which would later result in a Stanley Cup. The Blues haven’t won a game against the Kings in their last nine meetings, dating back to February 3, 2012. But don’t count the Blues out just yet. They once again have home-ice advantage and are coming off of six straight wins at Scottrade Center. Oh and their goaltender Brian Elliott? He went 11-2 for the month of April, allowing one goal or less 10 times.
There’s a saying in sports, “You have to learn to lose before you can win.” In spite of how many times the Columbus Blue Jackets have done it, they’ve yet to win a playoff game. However, plenty of teams over the course of time have proved this adage right. Gretzky’s Oilers Dynasty needed to lose to the 83 Islanders. Those Islanders needed to rebound from several playoff disappointments before winning an astonishing 19 consecutive series. The 97 Detroit Red Wings were guided to the Cup after seeing what it took to win by New Jersey and Colorado. New Jersey had their hearts crushed by Stephane Matheau, but the following year won the Stanley Cup in a shortened season. Lastly, the 94 Rangers were a team that dealt with adversity for three seasons and in their title defense, they taught the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche a valuable lesson; move from Quebec and you can acquire Patrick Roy. This list could be endless, despite the few that seemed to come out of nowhere (2006 Carolina Hurricanes), here’s a list of heartbroken four teams to watch out for:
Last season, the NHL didn’t fail to disappoint. It produced several games that won’t make this list- and will be very New York Rangers heavy- but Gary Bettman and NBC were incredibly happy with the NHL’s quality of games last year and generated excitement that carried into the post-season. Hopefully, Bettman isn’t stupid enough to lockout the NHLPA because then we won’t see great games like these.
Thanks to Patrik Elias, the mystery of the missing game puck from the end of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final has been solved.
A day after the Los Angeles Kings‘ 6-1 triumph over the New Jersey Devils, the Kings were still busy celebrating their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. But then in dawned on several players and Kings personnel that an important piece of history was stilling missing from that memorable night—the game puck.
For the last five years, Anaheim has been home to Bobby Ryan. However, midway through last season, the four-time 30-goal scorer had to keep his luggage handy and a real estate agent on standby amid rampant trade rumors. And even now, instead of enjoying his summer on the golf course, Ryan once again finds himself clutching his cell phone, waiting for what now seems like will be an inevitable call from Ducks GM Bob Murray to inform him that he’s been traded.
It seems as though every season, for the last several seasons, hockey fans in Anaheim have chanted “one more year” for Teemu Selanne, and every season they get their wish.
Well, it appears as though the Finnish Flash has heeded those chants and may be granting the wish of Ducks fans once again.
According to Veikkaaja, a sports magazine in Selanne’s native Finland, the 41-year-old Selanne has decided to play another year of hockey in the NHL. However, this is only a report, and we won’t get an official response from Selanne or the Ducks until July.
It’s only been two days since the Los Angeles Kings claimed their first Stanley Cup championship in their 45-year history, and already hockey pundits are looking ahead to 2013 with one simple question: Can they do it again?
As the final seconds ticked off the clock in Game 6 of the 2012 Stanley Cup Final, Los Angeles Kings fans knew that their team had their first Stanley Cup championship wrapped up, but that didn’t prevent fans from double checking to make sure they weren’t dreaming.
Fans then took to Twitter to take comfort in the fact that they weren’t crazy and that after 45 years, they are indeed Stanley Cup champions.
