As I watched the Kings win another road game last night to open the finals, I couldn't help but think how magical this run has been. Not just the road wins, but overtime wins, blowout wins, upsets... Now they are on the verge of taking home the Stanley Cup. How did this happen? Let me break it down for you.
If you watched hockey this year, you knew the Kings were good. They competed well in the loaded Western Conference but they didn't play consistent. They limped into the playoffs losing three of four to close the season, and five of eight overall.
In the first round, they took on the best team in the league: Vancouver. Obviously, the Canucks held home court advantage. That didn't matter. The Kings came out great offensively and won the first two games on the road by the score of 4-2. Quick was solid in goal, and the offense kept applying pressure.
When they returned home, the offense slowed in game 3 only scoring a goal, but it proved to be the difference as they shut out Vancouver. Despite a loss in game 4, they Kings returned to Vancouver and closed them out in overtime. This series truly started the theme of winning on the road, and winning overtime games.
Next up was the second best team in the league: St. Louis. Once again, the Kings started on the road and swept both of those games. Once again the offense was great scoring 8 goals between the two games. Quick was solid also only allowing three.
The difference in this series however was that they didn't let the Blues fight back at all. They kept the attack constant, they remained steady on defense, and closed St. Louis out, sweeping them in four games. They made the two seed look like a college team.
As you can guess, they then took on the three seeded Coyotes. And yes, they started on the road. And yes, they swept both of the road games. You can probably guess how many goals they scored combined in those games: 8. But this time they only allowed two against them.
The rest of the series played out like the first round, winning in game 3 before dropping game 4. Then came the clutch factor again. Phoenix played tough against the ropes, but LA picked up the overtime win in game 5 to close them out, and advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. Things weren't this good in LA since "The Great One" played.
Last night they began the finals against the Devils...on the road. And yes they won. They won in overtime. This makes them 9-0 on the road in the playoffs. Ridiculous. They are also now a perfect 3-0 in overtime. Wow!
Quick has led a defense that hasn't allowed many goals, and the offense is just playing fantastic. They are +20 in goals this postseason which is unreal. Their playoff record is 13-2 and counting. If they close this out, this will go down as one of the more dominating postseasons in NHL history, or even sports history. Not only that, but this is coming from an 8 seed. As they say, it is the hottest team, not always the best team, that wins in the playoffs.
Andrew
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