Los Angeles Kings looking to be defensive against Chicago Blackhawks – Western Conference Finals
Expected to be equally as exciting as the Eastern Conference Finals between Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins, fans and experts alike are having a tough time predicting who will come out as the winner in the Western Conference Finals series between Los
Angeles Kings and Chicago Blackhawks.
Both teams have won a Stanley Cup championship in the past three years and certainly know what it means to be a trophy winning club, but on the other hand, they have not seen much of each other during the postseason. One reason being that the Los Angeles
Kings finally emerged as playoff and Stanley Cup material just last season as they were the first team ever in National Hockey League (NHL) history to take home the cup after ending at number-eight in the regular season.
Now that they are going to be up against each other, both sides are busy in planning out a strategy and what could be done to take down the opposition. Two factors are currently in play in the minds of coaches from the respective sides. That is Chicago is
a big team with a lot of speed, while Los Angeles is big in terms of size but may be slower.
“If you actually look at it, their lineup that they had in their last game and our lineup that we had last game is identical,” LA coach, Darryl Sutter said. “The size is the same, so I guess we have a problem with their speed.”
Having speed and size will be something Chicago looks to capitalize with, other than the fact that they also have the home-ice advantage in the series because of winning the top spot in the Western Conference after the shortened season.
“The challenge that Chicago poses is, they've got some big guys on their team and they also rely on their speed and quickness,” Kings captain Dustin Brown said. “For us to be successful in our physical aspect we need to put pucks in good spots, make it harder.
They've got a lot of good puck-moving defensemen, so it's a matter of putting pucks in the right spots.”
Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings go head-to-head for Game 1 on Saturday at 5 PM ET.
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