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2012 NHL Playoffs

The Los Angeles Kings Struggle Out Of The Gate

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The Los Angeles Kings start what’s going to be a TV gala of sports for the city of Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. The Kings visit Detroit for an NBC game against the Red Wings (12:30 PM ET), shortly before we have consecutive games with the city’s basketball teams, as ABC’s doubleheader of Clippers-Knicks followed by Lakers-Heat begins a half-hour late. The Kings don’t give you the soap opera drama of the Lakers, or the recent struggles of the Clippers, but last year’s Stanley Cup champions are off to a very slow start, and in a compressed NHL season, that can’t be taken lightly. What’s the problem?

NHL Playoffs: Los Angeles Goes OT To Take Control Of Finals

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The fans at the Meadowlands saw overtime in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, but they got the same result—a loss for the home team. The Los Angeles Kings beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1, and not only prevented the Devils from tying the series at a game apiece, but left the home fans with no guarantee their team will be back again, as the Finals now go west with Los Angeles having a chance to close out their first-ever Stanley Cup this coming week.

Stanley Cup Finals Preview: New Jersey-Los Angeles

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The Stanley Cup Finals begin tonight when the New Jersey Devils host the Los Angeles Kings. It’s not the matchup anyone would have predicted when this postseason began in mid-April, but it rarely is in the NHL. The Devils were seeded #6 in the East, while Los Angeles was #8 in the West, only the second eight-seed to make the Finals since the league went to the current playoff format back in 1994. TheSportsNotebook previews the series…

NHL Playoffs: Lundqvist Meltdown Hands New Jersey Game 5

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All season long, Henrik Lundqvist has been money as the New York Rangers’ goaltender, and at key points during the first 2 ½ rounds of the playoffs he’s been the same. But Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the New Jersey Devils was not one of those times. Lundqvist was positively awful as the Devils won 5-3 and took a 3-2 lead in games.

NHL Playoffs: LA Kings Win The West

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The Los Angeles Kings made their first Stanley Cup Finals since 1993—and just the second in franchise history—when they went overtime in Phoenix last night to beat the Coyotes 4-3 and capture the Western Conference finals in five games. The win completes a run where the #8 seed Kings not only beat the top three seeds—Vancouver, St. Louis and Phoenix—in their postseason run, but went 12-2 in the process. The NHL playoffs is unpredictable and the elements of random chance play a bigger role here than in most sports, but there’s nothing random about winning 12 of 14 games at the most important time of year. The Kings have peaked at the right time

NHL Playoffs: Brodeur Wakes Up The Echoes

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I love Martin Brodeur. I know, if you read through the commentary on the NHL playoffs I’ve made more negative than positive comments about the New Jersey goaltender, but that’s not out of spite, just that the numbers say he’s far from the goalie he once was. But even as a Boston fan he’s a goalie I root for and I absolutely love a night like Monday when, in a must-win spot, he wakes up the echoes of his younger days, turns back 28 of 29 shots and helps his team beat the New York Rangers 4-1 and tie up the NHL’s Eastern Conference Finals at two games apiece.

NHL Playoffs: Phoenix Lives To Play One More

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The Phoenix Coyotes weren’t able to stop the shot barrage that the Los Angeles Kings have putting on this season, but they were able to mitigate it and redirect it, and that was enough for goalie Mike Smith to deliver the Coyotes a 2-0 win in Game 4 of the NHL’s Western Conference Finals and avoid a sweep.

NHL Playoffs: Los Angeles Within One Of The Sweep

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The Los Angeles Kings moved to within a game of sweeping of the NHL’s Western Conference Finals with a 2-1 win last night in Phoenix. The Coyotes came out and played hard, even got a brief lead, but in the end there’s too much talent on Los Angeles for this series to turn around.

NHL Playoffs: Sharp New Jersey Defense Ties Series

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The defenses were sharp last night in Madison Square Garden as the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers hooked up for Game 2 of the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals. But the Devils were the sharper of the two and they got the big goal when then they needed it to tie up the series at a game apiece with a 3-2 win last night.

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