The unfortunate similarity between these appearances by Canadian teams? All losses. The last year a Canadian team hoisted the Cup was the 1993 Montreal Canadians.
One might say that of all the teams I mentioned, only Vancouver was expected to win the Cup, but I'm sure we were all caught up in the hype in 2006 when the Oilers went on their cinderella run to the cup from the 8th seed position.
This series in 2012 may not have the intrigue of the Canadian team, fighting to bring back the Cup to Canada. It certainly doesn't have the allure of Sidney Crosby, challenging for back-to-back cups in 2008-2009. That said, as the series prepares to kick off tonight in New Jersey, the Devils and the Los Angeles Kings are not without their fair share of interesting story lines.
First off is Martin Brodeur. The veteran goaltender and future hall-of-famer turned 40 during the fourth game of the Eastern Conference Semifinal against the Philadelphia Flyers and has been making jaw-dropping saves on almost every night of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He already leads all goalies in history in every conceivable statistic on which a goaltender is judged. Would a fourth Stanley Cup ring in an unprecedented third decade be the crowning achievement in an already legendary career?
Since settling in New Jersey in 1982, the Devils have won three Stanley Cups (1995, 2000, and 2003), all with Martin Brodeur in the nets. The Devils came into the playoffs as the Eastern Conference's 6th seed. NJ has advanced through the 3rd place Florida Panthers (7 games), the 5th place Philadelphia Flyers (7 games) and the 1st place New York Rangers (6 games), playing 20 games, 6 games more than the Kings, enroute to the Cup Finals.
Though the Kings have had a more than ample opportunity to rest up coming to tonight's game 1, the Puck will drop with New Jersey enjoying home-ice advantage, the first such occurrence for either of these teams throughout this postseason.
For the LA Kings, a young team loaded with talent and grit, it is a surprising statistic to hear that they were 29th of 30 teams this year in goal scoring with a 2.29 goals per game average. They went through three different coaches this year, two before acquiring their current coach Darryl Sutter from the Calgary Flames. LA came into the playoffs as the 8th seed in the highly competitive Western Conference, and as little as one week before the playoffs started, the Kings found themselves out of a playoff spot.
The Kings are backstopped by Jonathan Quick who had nothing less than a Vezina trophy-worthy season in 2011-2012. 2nd in GAA with 1.95 and first in the league with an astonishing 10 shutouts. Quick's acrobatic saves in the 2012 playoffs have opened the eyes of those who may not have noticed his dominant stretches throughout the season.
In their 44 year history, the LA Kings have only made it to one Stanley Cup Final (1993) and have yet to win a cup. LA has advanced through the 1st place Vancouver Canucks (5 games), the 2nd place St. Louis Blues (4 games) and the 3rd place Phoenix Coyotes (5 games), playing 14 games enroute to this years Cup Finals.
For the first time ever, both teams have Americans as their captains in Dustin Brown (LAK) and Zach Parise (NJD). Parise is scheduled to become an unrestricted free-agent this summer if New Jersey can't lock him up to a contact after this lengthy playoffs wraps up. How the finals play out could play a huge part in weather we see Parise suit up again next season for the Devils, or exercise his right to choose any NHL team to continue his career with. As for the Kings captain, Brown's name was floated in many trade rumours as the 2012 trade deadline approached and some speculate that without a cup win in 2012, Brown might too valuable an asset to keep and may also find himself playing for another club next year.
Plenty of great hockey stories heading into tonight's game. While we can expect a chess match of a series with these two strong defensive teams backed by spectacular goaltending, this series promises to showcase two teams that may not have been favourites heading into the playoffs, but each have earned their right to challenge for the Cup. I, for one, can't wait to see how this series unfolds.
All games in this series start at 8:00pm, so choose who to root for, and come by Jawny Bakers with your friends to watch some great hockey.
Neither a 6th place seed, nor an 8th place seed has ever won the Stanley Cup. All that will change, starting tonight.
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