Congrats to the Stanley Cup winning Los Angeles Kings! And a special congrats to Mr. Burt Likko, who has proudly rooted his underdog Kings along and proclaimed their victory before their Finals opponent was even known!
The Kings made an impressive run from the 8th seed in the west, upsetting the #1, #2, and #3 ranked teams in their conference before upending the slightly-less-upstart Devils. Before this final round, they lost a mere two games (zero on the road), with each loss coming after they were already up 3-0. They lost two games in the Finals, which also came after amassing a 3-0 lead, before routing the Devils 6-1 in tonight’s clincher.
I wish I had more to offer. I’ll admit that I didn’t follow the hockey playoffs as much as I had intended to this year, despite my hometown Devils’ run. I was swallowed up in the ongoing drama in the NBA playoffs, the typical end-of-school-year madness, and last week’s ankle sprain. (This also partly explains the slight dearth of sports columns lately.)
Regardless, kudos are in order for the Kings! Congrats on your first Cup!
[Edited to include a better picture]
Sorry to hear about your ankle. Hope you feel better soon.
Thanks, Mary. Doing a lot better. Such is life when you play basketball as often as I do. I’m up and moving again with just a very bit of limitations. Should be back out running by next week.
Did I call the finals in six games? I did, didn’t I? Damn I’m good!
Kings fans across the Southland thank you for the post, Kazzy.
The Devils really self-destructed last night. Three majors and a double minor? (With the Kings’ first three goals coming unanswered during the first major!) That’s not the kind of play you should be seeing in the Stanley Cup finals.
Seemed like they never recovered from the first major, which itself seemed borne out of an uncalled (perhaps correctly so) penalty on an earlier hit. They just got rattled. Which indeed is not the mark of a champion. Regardless, I’m not sure they were winning that game, the way the Kings were flying around the ice. They seemed to come out and say, “Enough screwing around. Let’s do this.”