Best NHL All-Star Team: Los Angeles Kings Edition

(Via @SCGscott)

Defense

On to choosing our defense and our first pairing will be a duo that was very familiar to the Kings base during that first epic Stanley Cup run and victory in 2012.  Drew Doughty and Rob Scuderi.  Doughty is arguably the best defenseman in the NHL today, who at the age of 25 already has 2 Stanley Cup victories and 2 Olympic Gold Medals on his mantel and he’s not done yet.  “Dewy” who is just about to play in his first ever All-Star game is the type of player that any team could build a foundation on.
Like Jeff Carter, Doughty only plays better and better when the pressure and the world spotlight gets turned on.  Without a doubt, the greatest defenseman in LA Kings history.

Scuderi, is your classic stay at home, hard-nosed defensive defenseman, and when I say hard-nosed, I mean literally as “Scuds” once went face first into the boards after getting hit from behind which was a wound that took 37 stitches to close!  But that is merely a flesh wound for the mighty Scuderi, as he still came back and finished the game and shut the opposing team down to win the Stanley Cup!  Actually I don’t believe he missed a single game as a King in the entire 4 years he played with the team.  Tough and reliable, if there ever was a person that was the hockey player equivalent of the T-800 terminator from the Terminator film series, it was Rob Scuderi.

http://youtu.be/vrM0IyGW3D0

The second pairing will start off with a player that seems to only be getting better and better with age, just like fine wine from an expensive and sophisticated downtown LA restaurant and that’s the current Florida Panther Captain Willie Mitchell!  A natural born leader with an amazing personality, it is no surprise that the Kings won the Stanley Cup twice in 2012 and 2014 when Willie Mitchell was anchoring the defense and didn’t win the Cup in 2013 when Willie missed the whole season due to injury.
It’s also no surprise (to me anyway) that the Kings are currently struggling with their defense so badly this season after deciding to not re-sign Willie Mitchell as a free agent last summer.  Mitchell meanwhile, is helping lead the underdog Florida Panthers play some tough hockey and making a run towards the playoffs after everyone including their neighbor had counted them out.

His partner will be the recent hall of fame inductee, a player who also recently had his number #4 retired by the Los Angeles Kings, current assistant general manager Rob Blake.  Love him or hate him, Rob Blake had the tools (and then some) to be a part of this “best of all-time” all-star team.  Dangerous offensively and defensively, Blake was a winner in every level of hockey he played or worked at.  The franchise’s leading defenseman in career goals (161), assists (333) and points (494), Blake was the greatest defenseman that ever played for the Kings before Drew Doughty came along.

The final pairing will be of Hall of Famere Larry Murphy and current King’s assistant Captain Matt Greene.  Murphy, is known as one of the biggest “what ifs?” in LA King’s history as its wise to not think too deeply what Murphy could have accomplished with the King’s (especially after Gretzky arrived) before the team foolishly gave up on him and traded him away during the 1983-84 season. Drafted by the Kings 4th overall in the 1980 draft, he would break (and still hold to) the NHL record for most assists (60) and points (76) by a rookie defenseman while playing as a King.  Stronger as an offensive defenseman then a defensive defenseman, he went on to forge himself a hall of fame career with 1,216 career points, 4 Stanley Cups and 2 Canada/World Cups victories.

His partner will be the no-nonsense, serial killer looking, Matt Greene.  Like Scuderi, Greene was tough and reliable (at least before 2013) as a defensive defenseman but more a lot more vocal.  A leader in a team full of leaders, Matt Greene can make a teammate laugh with his zany sense of humor or shutter just by staring into their soul and squeezing their throats with only a look.  A prime and healthy Matt Greene is a fear and anxiety attack for any opposing team.

I couldn’t find a “Murply as a King” video on Youtube so I put one where he got his 1000th point with the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Since this is a fantasy team, we can fantasize that Murphy was wearing (and should have been wearing) a Los Angeles Kings sweater for this major accomplishment.>

Again, this team is going to have a 25 man roster, so I’m going to include 2 more defensemen to round things off and they will be Stanley Cup and Western Conference hero Alec “Jazz Hands” Martinez and the underrated French Canadian player Steve Duchesne, who was magic in his first go around as a LA King (not so much the second go around).