Starting tomorrow, the Stanley Cup final nobody predicted would happen at the start of the playoffs, will begin. The sixth seeded New Jersey Devils will take on the eighth seeded LA Kings for hockey's biggest prize. Both teams are deep and run four strong lines, an advantage they had over their previous opponents. In this blog post, I will break down the matchup in three stages, forwards, defence men and goaltending. From there I will offer a prediction on who will win.
Forwards
The New Jersey Devils beat the NY Rangers last round because they had four strong lines who could all score and defend. The top line was pure talent with Ilya Kovalchuck, Adam Henrique and Patrick Elias getting tons of scoring opportunities. But their second line was just as talented with Zach Parise, Travis Zajac and Dainus Zuberus. But the most impressive line though has been the fourth, with Stephan Gionta, Steve Bernier and Ryan Carter. Carter and Ginota have been scoring goals almost every game and their strong forecheck leaves New Jersey with a ton of options up front.
The LA Kings have only lost two games all playoff and a big part of that has been their forwards. Captain Dustin Brown has been a force and the others have followed his lead. Anze Kopitar, Justin William, Mike Richards, Dustin Penner and Jeff Carter form a very lethal top six offence who all score goals and kill penalties. But they also have been able to run four lines with Dwight King, Jarret Stoll, Jordan Nolan and Trevor Lewis all contributing goals and allowing coach Daryl Sutter to mix and match his lines and still find success.
Defence
The Devils added Marek Zidlicky in a trade at the deadline and his two way play has led the Devils young but strong defence. Other major contributors have been Anton Volchenkov and Peter Harrold who have killed penalties and provided offence. Andy Greene, Bryce Salvador and Mark Fayne also have been steady on the blue line by keeping the pucks away from Martin Brodeur.
The Kings have an equally strong blue line, headed by young superstar Drew Doughty and his offence. In the fifth game against Phoenix, Doughty had three points to lead his team. Other strong contributions have come from Rob Scudari, Alec Martinez, Willie Mitchell and Matt Greene. And youngster Slava Voynov has had no problems stepping in after the Jack Johnson trade. This defence corps has a strong mixture of young and veteran players who have all successfully helped goalie John Quick get wins.
Goaltending
The Devils have seen an emergence of veteran goalie Martin Brodeur, who at age forty is showing no sign of slowing down. Brodeur has out duelled Jose Theodore, Ilya Bryzgalov and Henrik Lundqvist by shutting the door during big opportunities. Many have doubted this record holding goaltender, saying he was to old to win another cup. But this year his strong play has proven all naysayers wrong. If the Devils win, Brodeur has a good chance of winning the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP.
The Kings long playoff run has given John Quick some much needed exposure to the East coast fans and he is continuing to impress. With a record of 12-2 in the playoffs so far, Quick is "quickly" (pun intended and frequent) emerging as one of the best goalies in the game. He was the main reason LA was able to sneak into the playoffs and has remained a big part of their winning ways in the playoffs.
Prediction
After carefully evaluating both teams rosters and their performances so far, I am picking the LA Kings to win the Stanley Cup. They have been a force all season and surprised Vancouver, St. Louis and Phoenix with their sudden ability to score goals. Though the Kings finished in 8th, they have always had a strong roster who has just clicked at the right time. And with John Quick in net, even New Jersey's strong forwards are going to have a tough time scoring. Their will be some competitive and exciting games in this series, but in the end I am picking the Kings to finish the Devils off in six games.
As always you can send me feedback by commenting below or emailing josh@jbenny.com. You can follow me on twitter at @jbenny15 and please make sure to visit my website, www.jbenny.com. Thanks for reading.
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