Top 10 Los Angeles Kings Playoff Series Part II

1 – 2014 Stanley Cup Final – “THE SECOND CUP” – Los Angeles Kings vs New York Rangers

If the first Stanley Cup run and victory was a nice change for Kings fans by having the team be absolutely dominant in its campaign, then the second Stanley Cup run was more of a return to the Kings teams of old.  This was a run that only the Hockey God Scriptwriters could think of.  This was a run full of L.T.K.F.S. moments as everything bad that you could imagine that could happen to this team was heavily teased in a tortuous way, only never to happen as the team would somehow comeback and triumphantly conquer their enemies!

We all heard the comments by jealous fans from other teams or even from some hockey analysts and experts that the 2012 Stanley Cup victory was possibly a fluke.  Some claimed that it only happened because the Kings were in the right place at the right time against the right teams for the right Cup run.  Others claimed that The Kings just got hot at the right time of the year and that the hot streak is what led them to the Championship.  The Kings were even compared to teams like the Calgary Flames, Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes who were one and done Stanley Cup winning teams and the Kings nation were not to expect to another Cup victory any time soon.  They said it had nothing to do with the intelligence of Dean Lombardi’s team and culture building architectural skills or Darryl Sutters’ competitive “bend but don’t break” 40 seconds of hell coaching methods.  It had nothing to do with the drafting or underrated physical and leadership skills of the team’s core group of Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Jonathan Quick or Dustin Brown or had anything to do with the trade acquisitions of Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Justin Williams, Jarret Stoll, Matt Greene and even Dustin Penner.  No not at all!  It was all because of a fluke, fluke, flukity fluke.  All of those comments just make me shake my head and laugh.

The Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in team sports for a reason.  You can only succeed by winning 4 games in 4 rounds of best of 7 bloody, gruelling and intense action packed physically tight playoff games at a high level of speed on hard
ice.  One does not just simply win the Stanley Cup by a lucky fluke.  If that was the case then the Toronto Maple Leafs, St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks would have found a way to win at least once in the last 40 or so years? (You too Sharks!)  They
haven’t for a good reason.  Sure, not all 4 rounds of playoff hockey can be gruelling but one or two of them may be and all are physically hard, fast and intense.

No team trophy in sports is easy to win.  As hard as those other championships in other sports are to attain, you just don’t have the same higher level of mental and physical punishment and exhaustion that you do in the Stanley Cup playoffs.  It’s a war of not only skill and strategy but one of attrition as well.  Even in the NFL, where without a shadow of a doubt the sport of football is an extremely punishing sport both physically and mentally, in the end they only play one and done playoff games.  The Superbowl isn’t fought over in a best of 7 series like the Stanley Cup is nor does it take 16 wins to win it all.  It only takes 4 (or even 3) to win the Superbowl.  I’m not kidding when I say the hockey version is pure torture. Just look at the photos of the Stanley Cup Champions at the very end of every playoffs and compare them to any other sport.  The hockey champs looked exhausted and frail and had ugly playoff caveman like beards on them. They don’t look like they just won a coveted sports match and won an award, they looked they where characters from the Walking Dead!

Also don’t forget the great speed that the game is played at as well as the struggle and stress that NHL teams have to keep their rosters together because the league has a hard salary cap policy.  That’s why when people say that any team winning the Stanley Cup is a joke is not to be taken seriously.  They instead are the joke.

Now focus on what the Kings miraculously accomplished in that 2014 Stanley Cup run (and as I have previously mentioned in this 2 part article) by being down 0-3 against the Sharks and coming back to beat them 4-3 and with game 7 having to be played on the road.  Only 4 teams in Stanley Cup history and 5 teams overall in North American sports history have ever done that and the Kings did it as chapter 1 of this playoff story! Then focus on the battle with the Anaheim Ducks that also went a tough seven games where the Kings once again had to win game 7 on the road.  This made unique NHL playoff history as the Kings were the first team in history to lose 3 straight games in 2 different series but still came out the victors both times! (huh?) Then it was the heavyweight re-match with the Chicago Blackhawks and then the Stanley Cup Final against a very fast and very game New York Rangers?  And lets not kid ourselves, the series only went 5 games but The Rangers threw EVERYTHING they possibly could have against the Kings and just like the Sharks, the Ducks and the Hawks before them,
nothing worked! (and what an entertaining and action packed and tightly close 5 games it was too!)

How many times did the Kings have to come back in this series after being down 2 goals?  How many times did this series have to go to overtime or double overtime?  The Rangers wanted this so badly they could taste it and they were desperate to keep trying anything they could but still ended up helpless against this Kings team.  The 2014 Kings were like something out of one of those futuristic cyborgs that were hard to kill in the Terminator films.  What they were doing and accomplishing couldn’t be properly explained or countered by anyone.  There was just something supernatural about this team!

Every terrible scenario that one could possibly think of was thrown at the Kings in this run but they just pushed right through it anyway. This version of the Kings was in many ways (but not in every way) more in tune with all of those less successful Kings teams of the past, the only difference was they ignored the random bad luck and strong adversity and overcame it instead.  What an idea! This was the perfect Los Angeles Kings ending to the L.T.K.F.S. condition era that we all have been waiting to be cured of our entire lives and I will never doubt this franchise again because of it.  If the theory of the so-called fluke of the 2012 Cup win is to be believed than it wasn’t a fluke because the Kings won the Stanley Cup, it was a fluke because that they had such a smooth and easy time doing it! Nothing about the Los Angeles Kings has ever been smooth and easy so if anything, the Kings being so dominant in the 2012 playoffs was more of an anomaly than anything else.  Now the road taken to the Stanley Cup in 2014, complete with all its highs and lows and its anything BUT smooth and dominant ride had more familiar themes like a harp from hell to us long time Kings fans but with a way better and more rewarding storybook ending.

The accomplishment the Kings achieved here was more than just “epic.”  The word “epic” is not even a proper or fantastical enough of a word to fully describe what transpired here. I don’t believe that any word that would properly fit actually exists in the English (or any human) language?  It was just … FREAKING AMAZING AND THE MOST INSANE ACHIEVEMENT I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!! The euphoria and relief I felt in 2012 was very different to what I felt in 2014 when Alec Martinez scored the Stanley Cup winning goal in double overtime.  That first one was more like the weight of a giant boulder finally being lifted off of my shoulders and the fact I could now die a happy Kings fan without any regret because I had finally seen them win the precious Cup.  This time the feeling was that I had changed in some way and felt for the better.

This Stanley Cup series win over the Rangers and the entire 2014 Stanley Cup run not only proved once and for all that the 2012 Stanley Cup victory wasn’t a fluke but it proved that the Los Angeles Kings were more than just a hockey team. It proved that the Kings were even more than just the Champions of their sport.  No, this victory went incredibly deeper than that. It proved that these men were survivors and they were survivors because they were warriors and they were warriors because they believed in each other and because despite what horrible situations that were thrown their way, they had to find a way to overcome them and they did because they believed in themselves.

This team and Stanley Cup win taught me the valuable lesson that you should never give up in anything in life.  Whether it’s at home or at work or at school, if it’s with your friends, family or other loved ones or even if it’s with your dreams or your goals, you should never, ever give up, ever!  Sure I have heard this many times before but it wasn’t until I saw it unfold with the Kings before my very eyes that this message became as clear as day like a punch to my face or as loud as a heavy metal festival in my living room.  Now I fully understand what it truly means and what actual hardships and dedication that it takes to achieve!

Even if life first gets the upper hand on you (like the Sharks, Ducks, Hawks did or the Rangers tried to do with the Kings) by beating you down to the ground, you get back up on your feet anyways and you fight on, no matter what. When things look the bleakest and it seems you are in a no win situation and everything you love or need seems lost, it isn’t.  Keep fighting and keep dreaming.  Giving up is never an option! Keep BELIEVING AND KEEP WORKING AT IT and don’t let anything or anyone get in your way.  That’s why this playoff series is number 1 on my list.  This is why I consider it the greatest and most important playoff series in Los Angeles Kings history.  The Kings didn’t just win a trophy, they taught us a beautiful life lesson and because of it I was greatly inspired to overcome my own fears and doubts and become a better and stronger person.

That is why I finally decided to step up and find the courage to expose myself to the world and write about a team and a sport that I have always absolutely adored and that is how and why you are reading my words right now at this very moment.  It was all because of the lessons the Kings taught me and all of us by showing us the true meaning of perseverance and hard work and showing us a fighting spirit and will power that couldn’t be broken by the strongest of opposing forces. They showed us that reaching paradise can be still be possible even if the road to it seems frightening and impossible to survive. The Kings won this time by defying all logic by taking the most dangerous and risky route in the 121 year history of the Stanley Cup and without blinking an eye they conquered it.  It seemed like they had just opened a mysterious door that we thought we knew existed but actually didn’t know anything about for all us to follow and explore, a door that opened a life lesson that far extended beyond what could be accomplished in just a sport that involved sticks and ice.  In 2012 a bunch of players went on to become champions but in 2014 these players went on to become legends and this inspiration and example was one we could all apply to ourselves and to our everyday lives and I believe this has turned out to be the greatest gift that the Kings could ever have given their fans and I will be forever grateful to them for it.

*Honorable mentions that didn’t make the top 10 list.

1990 – Smythe Division Semifinal – Los Angeles Kings vs Calgary Flames
1993 – Smythe Division Final – Los Angeles Kings vs Vancouver Canucks
2012 – Western Conference Final – Los Angeles Kings vs Phoenix Coyotes
2013 – Western Conference Quarterfinal – Los Angeles Kings vs St. Louis Blues
2013 – Western Conference Semifinal – Los Angeles Kings vs San Jose Sharks

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