Top 10 Los Angeles Kings Playoff Series Part II

5 – 2012 Western Conference Quarter Finals – “The Golden Era Begins” – Los Angeles Kings vs Vancouver Canucks

I was asked by many readers of my last article about why the “Miracle of Manchester” and/or the “Gretzky’s Revenge” playoff series were not higher up on my list?  The reason is that as great and important as those series were and still are to the history of

The Los Angeles Kings, they have been largely surpassed by the events that have gone on in the last 4 seasons. Unlike the “Miracle on Manchester” or “Gretzky’s Revenge” series wins, my number 5 series of all time wasn’t an isolated one and done series like the previous two ended up becoming.  In both of those second rounds, the Kings were outplayed and out in 4 or 5 games.  This series here was the beginning of something really special. It was the beginning of the true “Golden Era” for the LA Kings.

Remember that the Canucks were 1 win away from winning the Stanley Cup the previous season against the Boston Bruins but lost embarrassingly at home in Game 7.  This made the Canucks team even more determined to return to the final and get another crack at the Cup.  The Canucks bounced back strong and won the President Trophy with a league high 111 points and finishing the regular season as the number 1 seed for the playoffs.  All evidence pointed to the Canucks smashing through their first
round opponents.  They were going to face a team that they had already beaten before recently in the first round of the 2010 playoffs.  It was a team that the Canucks were taking very, very lightly.  That team of course, was the 8th seeded Los Angeles Kings.

The Kings struggled throughout the season and only squeaked into the playoffs due to the incredible play of goaltender Jonathan Quick.  No one were giving the Kings a chance and they became the heavy underdogs (what else is new?) What no one
outside of Los Angeles were paying close attention to was the particular team and roster that GM Dean Lombardi was slowly piecing together.  A team and roster that not only had the talent or physical attributes to win games but with a collective
mindset of a winning culture, on and off the ice to win championships.  The final pieces turned out to be hiring veteran head coach Darryl Sutter, calling up Dwight King and Jordan Nolan from the minors to add size to the wings and trading for
sniper Jeff Carter.  The rest is history.

The Kings went on to stream roll the number 1 seeded Canucks in a complete blowout 4-1 series win.  Jonathan Quick was almost inhuman in net and Captain Dustin Brown seemed such a monster on skates that I bet Roberto Luongo still has nightmares about him to this very day.  Who could forget those 2 players combining to beat
the Canucks 1-0 in Game 3 when Quick got the shutout after making 41 saves and Brown scored the game winner by crushing Canucks Captain Henrik Sedin into obliteration!  Oh and Brown also scored the only goal that won the game too!

Nothing was more satisfying though then when Jarret Stoll scored the series winner in overtime to knock the heavily favored Canucks out! Remember how proud we all were of them but also remember how most of us thought that this was as far as they were going to go in those playoffs. And who could blame us long time Kings fans that were trained (or brainwashed) to be pessimistic right?  After that frustrating regular season and a long-suffering history of everything always going wrong for the Kings, making the playoffs and getting revenge on Vancouver (for2010) was better than anyone expected and darn it, that was more than good enough for us, right? Little did we know that we didn’t know anything at all? These Kings were only getting started.