Los Angeles Kings Come Home Sweet Home

December 16, 2014: during a National Hockey League game between the Los Angeles Kings and the St. Louis Blues at Scottrade Center in St. Louis. (Icon Sportswire via AP Images)

Western Conference Stronger than Eastern?

The level of disappointment is rooted deeply for Kings fans for a couple of reasons.  The first  is obvious and that is the 3 losses. The second reason is that before the events of this trip, the Kings were very successful against the Eastern Conference, at least they were for the last few seasons. One could easily assume that some much-needed points were going to be won and the Kings were gonna rise in the standings – and this is a great life lesson to never assume anything as a sports fan. The third reason is that some of the Kings players are originally from the geographical area, so this was a coming home of sorts. Family and friends were going to be at these games in full support. Losing in front of them didn’t seem like an option.

It is believed, like it is in the NBA, that teams in the Eastern Conference are inferior to teams in the West. Okay, this saying isn’t only limited from possibly biased fans from the West as one only has to research the results of the Stanley Cup Final. Based on the Cup Final results of the last five years – and simple math – the saying is true. Since the 2009 Final, the Western Conference teams have four Cup victories with Chicago in 2010 and 2013 and Los Angeles in 2012 and again in 2014.  The Eastern Conference is only represented with  two victories with Pittsburgh (2009) and Boston (2011).  If we were to expand the timeline to 2007, since the five-year time frame that we are using (and only needed to use) have two teams as examples (but four Cups total), then the West would have two more Stanley Cup victories as Anaheim won in 2007 and Detroit won in 2008. This would give the West a 6-2 advantage for the last 7 years (unless one takes into consideration that the Red Wings are now an Eastern Conference team, it would still give the West 5 Cup wins to 3 … unless you also take into consideration that the Eastern Conference Boston Bruins play like a Western Conference team and the … oh forget it. The point is the West has won more).

The Stanley Cup playoffs (which are four rounds of Best of 7 hockey that can be best described as both a breathtaking experience of achievement and an exhausting war of attrition) are one thing.  Considering we are still in December (and not even halfway through the season yet) the playoffs can’t be used as an example, and another saying is now in play, and seems better suited to what happened to the Los Angeles Kings on this Eastern trip. That saying is “On any given night or day, any team can defeat any other team,” and defeat the Kings they did.

The first stop was in Buffalo, New York against the lowly but proud Buffalo Sabres.  So proud are these stubborn Sabres, that they not only refused to lose the game but they refused to even give up a goal! Buffalo won in a 1-0 shut-out. So far not so good for our Kings or for the “West is best” theory.