By the time anyone reads this,
the playoffs may very well be over.
However, at this point in mid-May, four teams remain. In the Western Conference, the Kings and
Coyotes play in a matchup of goaltenders, and in the Eastern Conference, two
rival cities in the forms of the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils
play.
The
team that probably has the least chance to win is the New Jersey Devils. They were a middle-of-the-pack team during
the regular season, and they barely made it out of the first round against the
Florida Panthers who haven’t made the playoffs in years. Granted, they have proven me wrong two rounds
in a row now, but I’m confident that this will be their last series of this
season.
Which
leads me to the next team, the New York Rangers, who I believe will win the
series between themselves and the Devils.
The Rangers are a team that usually doesn’t make it very far in the
playoffs, and it is somewhat surprising to see them in this position, although
they easily could’ve gotten eliminated in either of the first two rounds. They needed seven games to beat both the
eighth seeded Ottawa Senators and the seventh seeded Washington Capitals. However, their strengths do lie in defense—with
both their notable shot blocking from the defensemen, and goaltending from Henrik
Lundqvist—and defense is the most important piece for winning a championship.
Out
in the Western conference are the third seeded Phoenix Coyotes. They had been a favorite to go to, if not
win, the Stanley Cup Finals, until they ran into the freight train known as the
Los Angeles Kings, that is. Led by
sensational goaltender Mike Smith and veteran captain Shane Doan, the Coyotes
were a force to be reckoned with in the first round against the Chicago
Blackhawks, and in the second round against the Nashville Predators. In fact, the Coyotes had been so good, Mike
Smith particularly, that they made Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne, who had
been having an outstanding postseason, look average. Their only problem, which has now been
magnified, was that their offense wasn’t quite clicking, with their top goal
scorer being Antoinne Vermette, who most would consider a role player, not
necessarily a scorer.
Then
there are the Los Angeles Kings. After
getting some marquee players from the Philadelphia Flyers in the forms of Jeff
Carter and Mike Richards, it seemed the Kings were bound for success, but it
was uncertain if they’d even make the playoffs going into their final games,
and they just barely snuck in as the eighth seed. Their problem had been that there offense
wasn’t up to par, but something connected in the playoffs and the Kings
defeated the top seeded Vancouver Canucks in five games in the first round, and
completed a four game sweep of the St. Louis Blues in the second round. In fact, the Kings were the first eighth seed
in N.H.L. history to beat both the one and two seeds in the same
postseason. For some reason, no one
seems to be able to score on goaltender Jonathan Quick right now, and captain
Dustin Brown has been on a tear.
I
would be lying if I say I’d thought the Kings would be the favorite to win the
Stanley Cup at this point in the playoffs, although I did have a hunch they’d
go far because of certain players on their roster. However, I had thought it would be the St.
Louis Blues who’d win the Stanley Cup this year. Now that I’ve seen them get swept by the
Kings though, I’m more convinced than ever that the Kings will win the Stanley
Cup. If I had to predict, I’d say it
will be the Rangers and the Kings in the finals, and the Kings will win in six
games. If the Devils ended up in the
finals however, I think the Kings would sweep them. On the off chance that the Coyotes made it to
the finals, I think they could also beat either team from the East. The West simply has a stronger conference
this year. The West has sort of been the
antithesis of the Republican primaries: instead of exposing one another and
spurting out a weakened candidate, the Western conference allowed for the just
the right amount of pressure to produce one of the best looking playoffs teams
in recent memory, the Los Angeles Kings.
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