In our humble estimation, these were the top four teams in the NHL entering the playoffs. They were the top four teams in our Round 1 power rankings. Pittsburgh and Boston were the top two teams in the East and Chicago and Los Angeles were the top two teams in the West in our Round 2 power rankings.
Only two teams have won the Cup twice since 1999: the Detroit Red Wings (2002, 2008) and New Jersey Devils (2000, 2003). No one has won the Cup twice since the salary cap was introduced in 2005-06. That’s about to change, and the Kings have a chance to become the first repeat champions since the Wings in 1997 and ’98.
Is this a blow to the league’s beloved parity? No. It’s a testament to these organizations that they have put themselves in this position despite the league’s beloved parity.
The Penguins, Blackhawks, Bruins and Kings have something else in common: All four survived scares in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Three faced elimination, and two came perilously close to going home.
These teams have smart coaches and deep, talented rosters glittering with Cup rings. All four were good enough to be champions once, all four are good enough to be champions again, and all four have had the hallmarks of championship runs – overcoming adversity against worthy adversaries, thanks to clutch play and a little luck.
Jarome Iginla took his talents to Steel City to play with Sidney Crosby a little like LeBron James took his talents to South Beach to play with Dwyane Wade. Iginla didn’t sign as a free agent, but he made a “Decision.” He waived his no-trade clause for Pittsburgh when the Calgary Flames had worked out a deal with another team – and, of course, that other team was Boston, one of the subplots in a series full of them.
The Penguins should be the favorites. They have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and so on, and Crosby has recovered from his broken jaw to the point where he doesn’t need that plastic protective shield anymore.
They are averaging 4.27 goals per game – more than a goal more than the next-best team, the Bruins (3.17). They just ripped through the Ottawa Senators in five games, and the Sens were a better defensive team than the Bruins were in the regular season, giving up 2.08 goals per game, second in the league, while the Bruins gave up 2.21 goals per game, third in the league.
They have handled the Bruins well. They have won the past six regular-games between the teams and the past six in Boston, too. Note that the Bruins did not have to face the Penguins on their way to the Cup in 2011, when Crosby and Malkin were injured and the Pens lost in the first round.
Pittsburgh has faced the least adversity of the final four. The Pens haven’t trailed in a series yet. The Blackhawks and Kings each have faced two-game deficits, and the Bruins have faced a three-goal deficit in the third period of a Game 7.
That said, the eighth-seeded New York Islanders came back twice to tie their first-round series with the Penguins and had a chance to do it again before falling in overtime of Game 6. Even though Tomas Vokoun has calmed the crease since replacing Marc-Andre Fleury, there is still a chance that leaky defense and goaltending could put the heat on the NHL’s Heat.
In short, they looked like a Cup contender for the first time since they shipped out half their 2010 Cup team in a salary-cap purge. The core has been supplemented by a strong supporting cast again, including top-notch goaltending.
But that 2010 Cup team didn’t cruise through the playoffs, falling behind in two series and coming back, battling through a tough final against the Philadelphia Flyers, and this team wasn’t tested until the second round against the Detroit Red Wings.
The ’Hawks hadn’t lost three in a row all year; they lost three in a row to the Wings. They hadn’t been shut out all year; they were shut out in Game 4. Suddenly they faced a 3-1 deficit.
But they came back with a dominating victory in Game 5. They came back from a one-goal deficit in the third period of Game 6. They came back when the apparent winning goal was wiped out by a penalty call in the final moments of regulation in Game 7, and they won the series in overtime.
Jonathan Toews still has to score more. One goal is not enough, no matter how much he contributes in other areas. The power play remains brutal. How a team with Toews and Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp and Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook cannot score more often with more players on the ice is one of hockey’s great mysteries.
But this is a team with mojo now. While Jimmy Howard was outstanding for Detroit, Corey Crawford was outstanding for Chicago. When he did allow a soft goal, he shook it off. While Toews wasn’t noticeable at times, guys like Bryan Bickell and Andrew Shaw seemed all over the place. After struggling badly and seeing his ice time dwindle, Seabrook recovered later in the Detroit series, played well and ended up the OT hero.
And boy, has it been different. The Kings fell into a 2-0 hole in their first-round series against the St. Louis Blues. They got into a seesaw second-round series with the San Jose Sharks. In the first two rounds last year, they played only nine games. In the first two rounds this year, they played 13 games. Another way to look at it: They have played only one less game in two rounds than they played in three last year.
But after falling into that 2-0 hole against the Blues, they won four straight, and at the end of that seesaw series with the Sharks, they finished on the upswing in Game 7. They became the first defending champion to make a conference final since the Wings did it in 2009.
And through it all, there was one striking similarity to last year – the performance of goaltender Jonathan Quick, the reigning winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ most valuable player.Click on their website www.smartcardfactory.com for more information.
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