NEWARK, NJ – Before each hockey season begins, predictions are made for which teams will win divisions, make the playoffs and challenge for Lord Stanley’s Cup. It is a fun, but difficult process in that all thirty teams are slotted and depending upon the pundit, call for teams to end up anywhere in the process from top to bottom. For instance, not one writer picked the St. Louis Blues to challenge for the first overall spot, but they did, eventually finishing third overall and were picked to go far in the playoffs. Once they clinched the division, many prognosticators had them coming out of the West to reach the Final. The Blues ended up a sweep victim of the #8 playoff seed Los Angeles Kings, the West’s entry in the Final. In the East, the Penguins were eyed as one of the most dangerous teams to enter the playoffs with Sidney Crosby returning from a concussion to join dominant MVP candidate Evgeni Malkin and solid backstopper Marc-Andre Fleury. The Flyers dispatched the Penguins in six games after taking a 3-0 series lead and then bowed to the #6 playoff seed New Jersey Devils in five games. Predictions become a little easier when the field has been whittled from thirty teams to two when suggesting who will win the Stanley Cup. Still, there is much to examine when analyzing the 2012 finalists in what should be a magnificent, tight-checking defensive battle. New Jersey enters the Final having played eighteen games, losing six of them. They have trailed in each series, twice against Florida, once against Philadelphia and twice against the New York Rangers, but have battled back to win each series. The adversity and struggles presented the Devils with an opportunity to see what the players are made of during the most important time of year. Collectively, the team has responded gaining extra contributions from unlikely sources with each player contributing to the team’s maturing progress. Essentially, New Jersey is battle-tested. Los Angeles arrives at the Final with a 12-2 record, never trailing in a series and never having even been tied in a series. In not having experienced struggles in this post-season, one has to wonder how a team who has had so much success for six consecutive weeks will respond when they meet a team as solid as New Jersey. The goaltending is interesting as well. New Jersey has Martin Brodeur, the winningest goaltender in NHL history with 656 regular season wins and 109 playoff wins. Brodeur’s 24 playoff shutouts fall just one short of the amount of NHL playoff wins his Kings counterpart, Jonathan Quick, has to his young career. Although the future Hall-of-Famer is nearing the twilight of his goaltending life, it would be off the mark to give the upstart Quick the edge. After all, Brodeur has as many Stanley Cup Final appearances as Quick has seasons played. There is something to be said for a goaltender with lots of experience and talent to win over a goaltender with little experience and lots of still developing talent. In terms of team play, the large and fast Kings come equipped with a punishing forecheck, one the Devils will have to find a way to overcome. Brodeur’s puck-handling skills should be a different look for the Kings as New Jersey will attempt to transition the play out of their own zone more effectively than the Kings previous opponents were able to achieve. This disruption for the Kings should spell trouble for them. New Jersey scored an average of 2.83 goals in their eighteen playoff games while Los Angeles scored 2.93 goals per game in their fourteen post-season contests. Los Angeles was the only team to average less than two goals a game against (1.57) while New Jersey finished with a respectable 2.33 goals against average per game. New Jersey possesses one of the best power plays in the playoffs (18.2% success rate) while Los Angeles counters with one of the best penalty killing units (91.2%). New Jersey’s penalty kill and Los Angeles’ power play were near the bottom of the list in playoff results. The Devils must score first. If Los Angeles scores first, it will be tough for New Jersey to overcome. They not only must score first, but penetrate the Kings defense early in the game, set the tone and then find their spots as the game goes on. Los Angeles seems to thrive on getting peppered with shots. The Devils must get one past Quick early to get the edge, something Los Angeles has not allowed to this point. In an extremely tight series, expect the teams to split the first two games as well as the second two games. Home ice does not have as much impact as it used to and it won’t in this series until after the first four games are played. New Jersey will take Game Five while Los Angeles will take Game Six. As for Game Seven, just like the predictions as compared to the results, anything can happen. Contact: dennis.morrell@prohockeynews.com Follow me on Twitter at DMMORRELL
