Surprising Kings are on a roll
If you’re looking for the major upset(s) of the postseason, the Los Angeles Kings’ seven victories in their first eight games are a slam dunk.
The No. 8 seed Kings needed only five games to eliminate No. 1 overall Vancouver in the first round. Thursday’s 4-2 win over the No. 2 seed St. Louis Blues leaves the Kings needing only one more victory to move on to the Western Conference final. Remarkable, really. Give the Kings credit for saving their best for the postseason. Nobody expected them to handle the Canucks, and their 3-0 series lead over the Blues is even more astonishing, starting with winning the first two games on the road.
It led Blues captain David Backes to suggest: “It’s good to get away from home and all the people that told us how good we were all year. We’ve had a little trouble dealing with success, with all the talk about Presidents’ trophies and Jennings trophies. Now we’re stumbling on our toes.”
He added: “We’ve had times in the season where we’ve all bought in, and we’ve had times when we’re half in, half out. That’s where we are right now. Enough is enough, and we’ve got to determine as a group if we’re going to attack this thing, or if we’re going to tuck tail and run.”
However, this one was written in the stars when St. Louis lost goalie Jaroslav Halak with a lower-body injury suffered in Game 2 of the conference quarterfinals against San Jose. The loss of defenceman Alex Pietrangelo in Game 1 of Round 2 also hurt.