NHL Stanley Cup Finals Starts Tonight

              The 2012 Stanley Cup Finals kick off tonight in New Jersey. This series is set to be yet another thrilling match-up between the Veteran lead New Jersey Devils and the shocking ,8th place finish, Los Angles Kings. As Time Magazine puts it, its all about the magic of momentum. The Devils look to win they're 4th Stanley Cup. The Devils past 3 Cups were lead by Marty Brodeur who yet again will lead his Devils in this battle against the Kings who are looking for their first cup. The Kings were last in the Finals lead by the legendary Wayne Gretzky. There's defiantly a new era of players playing for the Kings. The Kings are lead by the likes of Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Quick. "You never know when you're going to get here or when you're going to come back again," Kopitar said at Tuesday's off-day press conference. "Right now everybody is really excited to get going. I think it's obviously going to be fun and hard working at the same time. We have to make sure we're ready." The Kings are ready to show everything they got here on the Big stage after shockingly throwing off the Canucks, Blues, and Coyotes. Now they face the biggest task yet, beating the Devils for the holy grail of hockey.

                The Devils will not let this happen very easily. "It's excitement really. A little nervous," Parise said about being in the Finals for the first time. "Maybe today now going through all this, but I guess it hasn't really sunk in that we're in the Final yet. But we got a lot of work. That's the thought process. We got a lot of work to do. We know how great a team L.A. is." The Devils beat the Kings 2-1 in a shootout earlier this season in their 1st match-up.Quick stopped 36-of-37 shots in a losing effort in the 1st game. Brodeur only faced L.A. for 20 minutes in the regular season, leaving the 1st game after one period due to body soreness. The 2nd match-up ended with a 3-0 Devils victory. Patrik Elias and Dainius Zubrus had two goals each in the season series for New Jersey, while Gagne had the lone goal for L.A.
                 

                What should really make this series interesting is the combination of great goaltending. Marty Brodeur and Jonathan Quick have both been spectacular throughout these playoffs. You should defiantly expect this to be a low scoring series. They both have similar Save Percentages (Quick .946 Brodeur .923.) Quick has a better GAA with a 1.54 but Brodeur only has a 2.06. These to goaltenders will more then likely be the difference makers in this Stanley Cup Final. One thing Brodeur has over Quick is his previous 3 Stanley Cup rings and many more years of experience. However, Quick has proved against tough opponents in these playoffs and appears to be ready for almost any challenge ahead of him.

               Both teams may also see a key player return to their line-up. The Devils may see the return of defensmen Henrik Tallinder after he suffered from a major blood clot. For the Kings, the may see the long awaited return of Simon Gagne. Gagne suffered a concussion back in December and he would be a very important return to this Kings line-up. If the Kings put Gagne with Richards and Carter, they will defiantly be a shut-down line as they were during their Philly days.

                This series is yet again going to be another amazing year for the Cup. Fans will not be able to see this great show down between the Kings and Devils. The epic battle of goaltending should defiantly highlight this series along strong goal scoring. As everyone knows, there can only be one Champion. Two teams, one common goal. Only one can be victorious and the battle shall begin.   

Fast Exit for Blues in 2nd Round of Playoffs

         The St. Louis Blues were shockingly quickly eliminated from the playoffs by the LA Kings this past Sunday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. It was a lot faster then the 2nd place Blues hoped or even expected to be eliminated as they were swept with a 3-1 win by the Kings.

          The Blues appeared like there was "No Gas Left In The Tank" as they fell to 8th place Kings. However, these are the same Kings that eliminated the 1st place Canucks in the first round in just 5 games! So is it possible that it's not the Canucks and Blues playing poorly or are the Kings just playing that well? Jack Adams Trophy Finalist Ken Hitchcock stated at the locker clean out today, "What we feel now and (Blues general manager) Doug (Armstrong) said it best, 'This is as close as this organization has ever been to chasing the Cup, but we want to build on this,'"

Hitchcock Also said, "I think there's a lot of lessons here down the line. We'll talk to the players about that over the coming weeks."

            The management staff is not the only ones disappointed in the early exit, the players are too. Blues Captain David Backes said, "We're not satisfied with this as a growing process, It's disappointing right now. It stings a lot." The Blues had many leaders on this team and were only 2 points behind the Canucks for winning the President's trophy as the NHL's top team during the regular season. They were lead by David Backes and T.J. Oshie's 54 points and the unexpected dramatic duo Goalie combo of Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliot with 15 shutouts between the two of them. Elliot, who was signed during free agency this past summer, was expected to be only used as a back-up to Halak. Elliot registered 9 Shutouts and 1.59 GAA.

             However, the strong leadership on this team was not enough to make it past the Kings and as a result they are getting ready to hit the Golf Course. Most fans expected huge things from the Blues, but they just didn't show it when it was needed most in the playoffs. The Blues head into the off-season with a few key players who are free agents as of July 1. This list includes the likes of T.J. Oshie, Jason Arnott, Jamie Langenbrunner, David Perron, Barret Jackmen and Chris Stewart. There is a lot of thought and choices that need to be made during this coming off-season. The Blues need to decide who to bring back next season and who to bring in in order to make another run at Lord Stanley's cup next season.

               As the Blues clear out the locker room today, the Kings prepare for the Western Conference finals against their divisional enemy the Phoenix Coyotes who sent the Predators home packing last night with the 2-1 win that clinched them the 4-1 series. Kings Captian Dustin Brown said today after their brief practice

“We’ve been in the same division, playing six times a year, a couple preseason games, It’s bringing excitement to different markets, and it shows the parity in the league where you probably have two teams that weren’t expected to be in this situation playing for a chance to be in the Cup finals.” This is set to be a great series match up between the Desert Dogs and the Royal Army as they face off in the Western Conference finals to see who moves on to the Stanley Cup Finals.