Fighting from the Depths

The nervous jitters that are embedded into championship games are enough for a player to break down from the pressure, but when the clock winds down the intensity picks up as you edge closer to the end. Dependent on the result, a player can be overcome with pure joy or be wrought with despair. Both feelings can last an eternity as one team celebrates while the other contemplates what could have been. An ingredient that makes the victory all the more sweeter is when you claim it from those that were supposed to end you. Not only did the Los Angeles Kings during the 2011-2012 playoffs bring to life what it meant to be an underdog, but they completely shattered the expectations that were placed upon them.

As the lowest seed in the Western Conference during the playoffs, the Kings never held home ice advantage in any of the four series that would eventually lead them to the Stanley Cup. In the Stanley Cup Playoffs a team needs sixteen total wins to claim the top prize, but Los Angeles was able to acquire the hardware in a mere twenty games with a 16-4 record.

Not only was this record astounding for any team in a playoff run, the Kings had to run through the top three seeds in the west; Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, and Phoenix Coyotes. The first test would come from not only the top seed in the west but the entire playoffs with the Vancouver Canucks and not to mention they were in the Stanley Cup Final last year against the current champion Boston Bruins.

This challenger’s overwhelming presence did not faze the Kings as they turned the tables by utilizing a strong pressure on offense to score goals while playing a shutdown defense with the acrobatics of their goaltender, Jonathan Quick, supporting them. This style of play is what Los Angeles used to jump out to a 3-0 series lead on every team they came across in their playoff run. This extraordinary feat seemed unrealistic at first, but as you watched their domination unfold you could tell that this team was always on the hunt and would rarely allow their prey to fight back once they were in range. Despite Vancouver winning game 4 in Los Angeles, they would fall victim to the Kings in game 5 in overtime as the Road Warriors would meet the second seed Blues in the next round.

This test would be the quickest as the same tactics would overwhelm St. Louis in four games and would edge them one step closer to the Stanley Cup. Much of the same would happen in the desert against the Phoenix Coyotes as they would be dismantled in five games just as the Canucks had been. With their tickets punched to the Stanley Cup Final, the Los Angeles Kings that were undefeated on the road would meet against debatably the best goalie in the history of hockey, Martin Brodeur, as the final test.

As if the run of the Kings was not already an oddity, the New Jersey Devils were the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference. Now we had the unusual eight seed, Los Angeles Kings, versus the sixth seed, New Jersey Devils, battling for the title of best team in the league. Despite their stats on paper both teams had defeated the first and third seeds from their conferences en-route to main event. Although the first two games would go to overtime, New Jersey would fall to the Kings in back to back games heading to Los Angeles where the Kings would dominate game 3 by 4-0 to go up 3-0 in the series. The tide had started to turn in the favor of the Devils as they would not only take game 4 but game 5 as well, giving the Los Angeles Kings their first loss on the road in the 2012 playoffs. That would be all for naught as the Los Angeles Kings would win the Stanley Cup in game 6 as they put a crushing performance with a 6-1 win in the final game to cap off the historic run.

The story that the Los Angeles Kings had constructed during the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs was one that had informed people of what it meant to perform under pressure and succeed. With the odds being consistently stacked against them they were able to end all of their opponents in quick succession by never faulting or dwelling on the mistakes of previous failures. This strong mental fortitude carried not only to the promised land, but into the history books as the lowest seed to win the Stanley Cup. Proving that any one at any time can win in the end as long as they make the playoffs.