An Ending Fit for a King

The Los Angeles Kings played their first game in 1967. They played their last game last night. Their first game was a win over the Philadelphia Flyers, en route to a second place finish in the West Division and a berth in the 1968 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

After such a promising start for an expansion team, one would expect that a Stanley Cup victory celebration may have taken place in Southern California decades ago. With Hall of Famers such as Marcel Dionne, Luc Robitaille, and Wayne Gretzky having donned Kings uniforms in the following decades, it would stand to reason that the Kings would enjoy the final skate of the NHL season with the Cup in hand at some point in the future of the franchise.

The Kings’ last game was a 6-1 drubbing of the visiting New Jersey Devils to clinch the club’s first ever Stanley Cup in Game 6 of the series. It took 45 years, but the Kings finally seized the fruits of the promise of their inaugural season.

1968 L.A. Kings 1

LONG IMPROBABLE JOURNEY

The Kings have defied the odds in a number of ways. No NHL franchise has ever waited as long as the Kings did for a first even Stanley Cup Championship. In a sport in which, for much of its history, two-thirds to three-quarters of its teams reach the post season every year, the Kings have missed the playoffs in 18 different seasons (40% of its existence).

The Kings finally reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1993, winning the Campbell Conference behind the strength of arguably the greatest player in the history of the game, Wayne Gretzky and fellow future Hall of Famer Robitaille. Their opponent was hockey’s version of the New York Yankees, the Montreal Canadiens.

As many of you are aware, the winner of Game 1 of a best of seven series wins the series most of the time. The Kings took a late lead in Game 2 of the series, only to have Kings defenseman Marty McSorley’s stick measured at the request of the opposing coach. The stick was deemed to have an illegal curve and McSorley was penalized for two minutes. A penalty for such an infraction late in a playoff game is extremely rare. The Canadiens would tie the score to force overtime. Montreal would win three consecutive overtime games, including Game 2 and take the Cup in five games.


McSorley: BUSTED! 2

 FINALLY, A SMILE FROM LADY LUCK

The Kings finally defied probability in a good way in 2012. The Kings were seeded 8th in the Western Conference playoffs. Eighth seeded teams are usually cannon fodder for the top seeded team, an easy foe as a reward for a superior regular season. After ripping through the first three rounds of the playoffs, winning the Western Conference, in just 14 games, the 8th seed was nothing more than a number. Last night’s coronation erased any doubt to who hockey’s best was. It also may have erased the memory, to the casual hockey fan, of who the top seed in the West was (which was last year’s conference champion, the Vancouver Canucks).

The Kings became the first 8th seed in the history of the four major professional team sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL) to win the championship of the sport. For a franchise with such an unusual and improbable history, last night’s victory was fitting. Los Angeles is home to the Kings of hockey.

Kings goaltender, Conn Smythe award (Finals MVP) winner, Jonathan Quick hoists the cup in L.A., for L.A., for the first time. 3

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1) Image from http://kings.nhl.com
2) Image from www.insidesocal.com
3) Image from www.phillyburbs.com