Kings Crowned Western Conference Champs

Dustin Penner celebrates with his team
scoring the OT winner in Glendale, AZ

It's been 19 years since the LA Kings have gone to the Stanley Cup Finals, and now they are back looking stronger than ever.  It's been a very impressive run for the eighth seed team, defeating both the number one (Vancouver Canucks), two (St Louis Blues), and now sixth seed (Phoenix Coyotes) to birth their first Stanley Cup Final since Wayne Gretzky lead the Kings back in 1993.  

I have been very impressed with this team all playoffs.  The addition of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter were, to me, very questionable as they're past doesn't reflect well on them.  However, the need to add toughness and grit along with skill definitely helped lift this team to a whole new level.  Without these two players, the team would never have made it even to the playoffs.  Their captain in Dustin Brown was struggling and on the brink of being dealt.  The addition of those two key players helped elevate everyone else on the team and basically dominated each and every series. 

Darryl Sutter is an amazingly talented coach and he yet again proved that to the hockey world.  Before taking over the Kings, the team was under-performing, lazy, and showed very little heart as their season looked to be over.  However, once Darryl stepped in, his leadership and coaching abilities pushed the once hopeless team to now the Stanley Cup Finals.  

It has been very fun watching this team play, and look for them to win the cup in six games against the New York Rangers.  It will be a very tough battle as the Rangers are an extremely tough team to play against, however I really do feel that this year the cinderella story will unfold.  Kings in six, you heard it here first.