The Los Angeles Kings are 9-1-0 in the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Read that a few times. Soak that in for a while.
(Unless you’re a member of the 2012 Los Angeles Kings. In which case please don’t read your own press, obviously.)
I’m not even going to try and explain or understand it. They’re posting insane numbers in basically every #fancystat known to man. Even Jonathan Quick’s inexplicable center-ice goal wasn’t enough to slow them down. They’ve set a new franchise record with 6 consecutive wins in the playoffs, and have won 8 straight road games dating back to last year’s playoffs, 1 shy of the NHL all-time record (set by the Islanders back when that team actually made the playoffs, let alone won road games).
So yeah, that’s all pretty cool. Links after the jump.
Game 1 Recaps
- As usual we’ll start with the LA Times, and Lisa Dillman’s recap focuses on Dustin Brown, for good reason. Here’s something I’ve been knocking around in my head: is it just me, or has he cut way back on the diving/acting school stuff? I can only recall him doing it once, vs. Vancouver (which outraged VanCityDan, I’m sure), so if I’m right and it has corresponded with his immensely improved play, that would obviously be interesting. Anyway. [LA Times]
- There was some excitement this morning as the French-Canadian website Lapresse broke the news (in French) that Simon Gagne was cleared for contact, but then Rich Hammond came along and threw a big ‘ol bucket of water on the entire thing. Here’s a short blurb basically just saying “Not so fast guys.” [Kings Insider]
- For the national media perspective, Eric Duhatschek checks in at the Globe & Mail. Not sure how he really got “close game” out of this….the score was close, but the score also flattered the Coyotes quite a bit. [G&M]
- Jon Rosen has your Fox Sports West recap, which as usual comes with some video from the Kings Live postgame show if you missed it. [FS West]
- On the other side of things, Carl Putnam has a short recap before a long list of links of his own. So if you read through all the recaps I listed previously and thought to yourself, “Hey! I’d really like to read 50 more of these!”, he’s got you covered, dude with the most free time ever. [Five for Howling]
- The Arizona Republic has a little bit of a split personality disorder going on. In one sentence they declare that home ice doesn’t matter “if you’ve got a great goalie”. In the very next sentence, they remind us that Phoenix will still have home ice for a hypothetical Game 7. Huh? But the last sentence just said that didn’t matter… [TAR]
Other Kings News
- Helene Elliott focuses in on Jonathan Quick and how he bounced-back from that awful goal from “the middle line”, as an oh-so-knowledgeable Coyotes fan put it on Twitter. [LA Times]
- Damien Cox thinks the NHL would love a Kings-Rangers series, which probably ranks up there in the “well, duh” department. [Toronto Star]
- Okay, this link was so awesome I had to come back and edit it in. Here’s Derek Zona, I believe also of SB Nation’s own Copper & Blue (the Oilers blog), with an incredibly detailed analysis of our scoring turn-around. Awesome, awesome stuf here. No offense to the other articles in this post, but if you’re only gonna read one link today, this should be it. [NHL Numbers] /
Other NHL News
- Dale Hunter stepped down as head coach of the Washington Capitals this morning. Apparently he hated the NHL head coaching gig. This surprised me a little bit considering he took a 7th seeded team past the defending champions and then took a 1st seeded team all the way to a Game 7, but people who are smarter than I am keep saying he was a terrible head coach. I’ll just take their word for it, I guess. [Puck Daddy]
- Ms. Conduct over at the Backhand Shelf has a fun and fascinating look at all four goalies left playing in the 2012 NHL playoffs, as told by someone who has played the position. Also her taunt of the mainstream media is pretty great, I must say. [BS]
- Tonight, the Eastern Conference Finals kick off in Manhattan, as the #1 New York Rangers host the #6 New Jersey Devils (5:00 pm PST/NBC Sports Network). The Rangers are insisting to anyone who will listen that they aren’t tired after playing a pair of 7-gamers to kick off the playoffs; this probably means they’re actually really tired.
You know the drill by now: share your links, correct me if I’m wrong, follow me on Twitter (@kinghawkranger).