The Kings Sweep Away their Blues
The St. Louis Blues were the second-ranked team in their conference going into the Stanley Cup playoffs; and the L.A. Kings placed eighth in that same division. So how did it come to be that the Kings were the ones to not only knock the Blues out of the post-season, but do so in a sweeping fashion? The same way they were able to take out the number one team overall, the Vancouver Canucks, last series. His name is Jonathan Quick.
Last night Quick made a total of 23 saves in the 3-1 win against the Blues; but throughout the series he’s stopped a total of 96 shots, and allowed just six shots to get past him. This post-season he has a save percentage of .949, and it’s thanks to Quick that the Blues had a lead for just over seven minutes in total throughout the entire series. It’s stats like those that have earned him a Vezina nomination this year, and those stats that have helped the Kings make some serious NHL history.
It’s the first time ever that the eighth seeded team has taken out the top two seeded teams in the same post-season; and it’s only the second time in Kings’ history that they’ve made it to the conference final. The first time was when Wayne Gretzky and Luc Robitaille took the team to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1993. And not only have the Kings not been to the finals or conference finals since that time, they’ve only one playoff series since. It’s also only the second time the Kings have swept a team out of the playoffs; the first time was in 1976 when they defeated the Atlanta Flames to move on.
Not bad for a team that barely made it into the playoffs this year.
So aside from Quick, where did the magic come from? “L.A. plays the way you have to play to win the Cup now,” explained Coach Ken Hitchcock of the St. Louis Blues. “Over the disappointments of the last three or four years, they’ve figured it out.” They certainly have, but there were many other factors working against St. Louis, too. After all, even though they took the victory, the Kings still gave their worst performance of the season.
The biggest factor for the Blues was the loss of goaltender Jaroslav Halak due to an ankle injury sustained against the Canucks in round one. Brian Elliott stepped in to take his place and while Elliott isn’t a terrible goalie, he’s proven in the past that he’s not a playoff goalie, either. The injury to Alex Pietrangelo early in this series was felt heavily by the Blues. Although he came back to finish the series, it was obvious he wasn’t the same.
Tonight the Nashville Predators will fight for their lives in an elimination game against the Phoenix Coyotes. With the Coyotes already up 3-1 in that series, it looks like that’s who the Kings will be facing in the Conference Final next round.
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