Why Los Angeles won the Semi-Finals against St. Louis Blues – NHL Playoffs Special
Los Angeles Kings came out and proved to all their critics that winning round-one against 2011 Stanley Cup finalists, the Vancouver Canucks, was not a fluke as they downed St. Louis Blues with a clean four-game sweep.
Terming the Game 5 victory against Vancouver Canucks to oust them a fluke is certainly one the worst things someone could have done back then as the Kings are rolling high and have become favourite to win the Stanley Cup, or at least the Western Conference.
Many are now regarding Kings’ goalie, Jonathan Quick, as this year’s Tim Thomas but that would not be the best way to approach it because Quick is much better than the Boston Bruins goalie in all aspects.
"It's the time of the year when you have to enjoy hockey," Quick said. "It's the time of the year when you don't know if you are going to have another game, so you just try to enjoy ever day and try to enjoy the game as much as you can."
Bruins took nearly every series to a Game 7 decider but Kings and Quick are just sweeping through each series and making it look like child’s play.
Analysing what St. Louis Blues head coach, Ken Hitchcock, said after his team was eliminated on Sunday, May 6, 2012, goes to show how good of a team Los Angeles really has become.
“L.A. plays the way you need to play to win the Cup,” said St. Louis coach, Ken Hitchcock. “Over the disappointments of the last three or four years, they’ve figured it out.”
Not only has Los Angeles gotten through to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in 19 years but they are well on their way to becoming the first eighth-seeded team coming into the playoffs to do so.
Los Angeles Kings and Washington Capitals from the Eastern Conference are very similar in terms of how they played throughout the season and they way they made an entry into the postseason.
Capitals also changed their head coach and are now playing very well also but will they be enough to take down Los Angeles and Darryl Sutter? Probably not.
The great aspect about the Kings team now is that they have a great man in the head coach position. Darryl Sutter led the Calgary Flames to a surprising Stanley Cup contention in 2004 but unfortunately lost in Game 7 to Tampa Bay Lightning. He was not that
successful working as the team’s general manager and is now back doing what he does best, coaching.
Now, as Los Angeles Kings await their opponent for the Western Conference Finals, which will be either the Nashville Predators or Phoenix Coyotes, they can rest and wait for Game 1 but probably are not planning on doing so.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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