Well this is it, the 2011-2012 NHL season has finally drawn to a close in a manner that litterally no one in North America predicted. Sure LA has been a sexy pick for the past couple seasons but was this actually a thought in anyone's mind? Did anyone actually think that the Kings would breeze through the defending Western Conference Champions(Vancouver), sweep this years break out team(St. Louis), and dominate the red hot Coyotes to advance to their second Stanley Cup Finals in franchise history? Was it within the realm of possibility that they could become the first team to start each series 3-0, thus never be in any real danger of losing? Was it ever conceived that they might outscore playoff opponents 57-30 over the course of the playoffs culminating in a 6-1 walloping of the nearly equally suprising New Jersey Devils in the clincher? Hell No. Let's put this in perspective; the LA Kings just had the most dominating playoff run in NHL history save for the mid-1980's Oilers. Those Oilers had the top two scorers in NHL history in Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier. Those two were complimented with 70 goal scorer Jari Kurri, one of the best scoring defensemen of all time in Paul Coffey, star goalie Grant Fuhr, and a slew of young talent. They once scored 446 goals in a season or nearly five and a half per game. This year the Kings scored 192 goals, not even 2 and a half per contest. They fired their coach during the season and panic traded star young defenseman Jack Johnson. Yet they just put on the most dominated display my young eyes have ever witnessed, i'm still in shock and I don't think i'll ever be able to explain it.
Although it's become abundantly clear that the NHL refuses to adhere to logic or some sort of order, I do have one prediction. Don't expect Los Angeles to become some sort of dynasty. Circumstances change quickly in hockey and I don't think long term predictions can be made. So much of success on the ice is based on chemistry; things change every year and chemistry can be ruined by key departures and poor acquisitions. Let's take a look at a few other teams deemed "team of the future" and see how well that panned out.
Pittsburgh: If you were to tell me in 2008, when the Penguins were getting ready to face off against Detroit in their first StanleyCup as a young team, that by 2012 they would have no more division titles, one Stanley Cup, and 1 playoff series win in the past three years, I would have said you were crazy. They were supposed to be the team to beat for years to come. By knocking Detroit off in the finals in 2009, the Pengiuns were supposed to be knocking the Wings into obscurity while taking the throne as top dogs for at least a decade. But then something happened, they were hit on all sides by everything that could go wrong with a team. First they ran into a hot goalie in 2010 as Jaro Halak and Montreal took them down in seven games. The following few years they were hurt by injury(Crosby and Malkin), declining play of those around(Malkin while healthy in 2009-2011), players flat out sucking (Marc Andre Fluery far too often), big free agent losses that weren't replaced(Gonchar, Leopold, Malone, Sykora), and then when they had the chance to reclaim the throne this year they completely collapsed in the first round. It's not too late for them but they have a lot of changes to make if they want to get to the level everyone set for them.
Chicago: Like Pittsburgh, Chicago rapidly moved from laughingstock to Hockey Royalty. Just a few short years after finishing last in the west for seemingly the 25th year in a row, the Blackhawks were champions. They were a team with their three best players locked up for a number of years, a solid, tough young core, a great coach, a Bowman in the front office, and a star young goalie. The two years following the Stanley Cup victory, they were easily knocked out in the first round. Why? Theirs was a much simpler reason; money. Management committed too much money to too many long contracts and had to pay for their mistakes. They were forced to trade away many promising young players including Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, and Kris Versteeg. They also lost goalie Annti Niemi and were unable to sign Brian Campbell. Overall, they're a cautionary tale on how not to spend money.
Overall what I'm trying to say is that the NHL is too random to try to the Kings will be good for years to come. We've seen far too many cases like Pittsburgh and Chicago but we've also seen stranger cases. We've seen Carolina and Anaheim make suprise runs only to lose in back to back finals. Then, after flopping the next year, they re-invented thei images and both won cups three years after their run. We saw eight seeded Edmonton take the Stanley Cup finals to seven games in 2006 and fail to make the playoffs in the six seasons since. Dynasties seem like a thing of the past in hockey but that doesn't take away from what the Kings accomplished. Congrats to them and I hope they'll always remember to : Stay Hungry My Friends.
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