Tonight, the quest for Lord Stanley's Cup - the ultimate grail in the game of hockey - begins anew. The next two months will be consumed with an ever shortening list of teams battling tooth and nail for every inch in their attempts to win the coveted prize.
For the Vancouver Canucks, that journey begins tonight with their first game of the Western Conference Quarterfinal against the Los Angeles Kings. For the second year in a row, the Vancouver Canucks enter the playoffs as the top team in the West and the top team in the NHL overall. But for the second year in a row, they are facing an 8th place team that certainly isn't built like one.
We all remember the script from last year. The defending Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks snuck into the playoffs at 8th place and the Canucks ended up needed an overtime series-clincher from Alexandre Burrows to ice their most bitter nemesis before moving on. The Los Angeles Kings, similar to those Blackhawks, drastically underachieved during the regular season this year. Entering the season filled with optimism over the acquisition of star center Mike Richards, the Kings fell flat to begin the season. They only stayed in the thick of the playoff race largely on the back of sublime goaltending from Jonathan Quick and some sterling team defense. But for a team boasting offensive weapons such as Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Mike Richards, Justin Williams, Drew Doughty and (at the time) Jack Johnson, the Kings were having an alarmingly difficult time scoring goals.
They fired their head coach, Terry Murray, and brought in another familiar face that preached hard work and defensive conscience. Darryl Sutter, who is no stranger to facing the Canucks (having guided the Calgary Flames to a series victory over them in the first round in 2004, en route to a Cup Finals appearance of their own) seems to have righted the ship. To boot, the Kings then traded Jack Johnson at the trade deadline for another ex-Philadelphia Flyer and former Mike Richards teammate in Jeff Carter. Carter was injured to close out the regular season, but not before showcasing his ability to put pucks in the net. He is expected to be ready in Game 1.
Suffice to say, the Kings had hoped for better in the regular season, but that is behind them now. They are in the playoffs and they have drawn the task of trying to eliminate the Vancouver Canucks in the first round. Drew Doughty didn't wait long to confidently state that "it's going to be fun when we beat them", perhaps providing the Canucks with some bulletin board material in the process.
On the Vancouver side of the ledger, the song remains the same for much of this team. Many of the players made up the same group that fought all the way to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Final last season before losing to the Boston Bruins on home ice. They received incredible performances at various points from Ryan Kesler, Alexandre Burrows, Kevin Bieksa, Henrik Sedin and Roberto Luongo. The Canucks will need the team firing on all cylinders to beat a physical, regimentedly defensive Kings team.
The X-Factor in this series will likely be Kings' netminder Jonathan Quick. While he had a regular season to remember, he has - to this point - been unable to translate regular season success into playoff victories, as his playoff statistics are somewhat uninspiring. 4 wins, 8 loses, a 3.32 GAA and a .900 SVP are all drops from his regular season numbers. If the Canucks can rattle his confidence, it could go a long way to securing themselves the series.
The physical game will also be a matchup to watch. The Canucks love to establish an effective forecheck and set loose the likes of Burrows, Maxim Lapierre, Chris Higgins, Zack Kassian and Ryan Kesler to wreak havoc on defending players, but the Kings are no slouches in this regard. They were in the top three in the NHL in hits this year and will no doubt be trying to put the crunch on Canucks' defenders and offenders alike. This could well end up being the most physical series of the playoffs (unless Pittsburgh and Philadelphia degenerates into a street fight...which could well happen)
There are other storylines heading into tonight. What is the status of Daniel Sedin? We may not know until the Canucks take to the ice and we see if he is among them or not, but the Canucks did show their mettle by going on an 8-1-0 tear after their star winger was injured on a cheapshot (and possibly premeditated) play by the Blackhawks' Duncan Keith.
Regardless of who dresses, the Canucks simply need to get their game faces on. Every game matters, every win is critical, and tonight is the first step on what the Canucks hope will be another journey to the Stanley Cup Finals - only this time, with a different ending.
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