Top 10 LA Kings Playoff Series – Part One

7 – 1982 Smythe Division Semifinal – “Miracle on Manchester” – Los Angeles Kings vs Edmonton Oilers

I like to believe that the hockey Gods are the greatest scriptwriter in the entire sports world and 2 great examples are the next 2 series on our top 10 countdown list.  Both are against the Edmonton Oilers.  This one takes place in 1982 where the Los Angeles Kings were a struggling team with a horrible playoff history.  A team that no one ever took seriously even though they had a legendary player and future Hall of Famer in Marcel Dionne and the very successful “Triple Crown line” of Dionne, Dave Taylor and Charlie Simmer.  Simmer that year was injured for most of the season and the rest of the Kings were sub par on paper and that’s speaking kindly.  As usual, nothing was expected much of the Kings.  Their opponents were the young and exciting darlings of the NHL.  Only in their 3rd season of NHL hockey (they were originally from the rival World Hockey Association league), the Oilers, led by phenom Wayne Gretzky were the overwhelming favorites to fly past the Kings and compete for the Stanley Cup while representing the old Campbell Conference.  The Kings were gonna try to stop them but most experts, fans and sane people laughed at this idea including the Oilers themselves during game 3 after the Oilers took a 5-0 lead in the game.  This angered the Kings enough that they made a comeback for the ages by shocking the Oilers and the hockey world by scoring enough goals to tie the game 5-5 and then have grinder Daryl Evans score the game winner in overtime for the victory in what is now famously known as the “Miracle on Manchester” (based on the Kings’ arena “The (Great Western) Forum” being on Manchester street) and take a 2-1 lead in the series.  The Oilers won game 4 to tie things up but it wasn’t enough as the Kings took game 5 and the series (back then the first round of the playoffs were a best of 5 series) to complete the upset and the franchise’s first ever memorable playoff victory in its lowly 15 year history.  In other words, the Kings were now finally on the map as this was the beginning of a (very) long journey to something truly special.