The Stanley Cup champions are bound to continue on their momentum and have a great season. Almost every player from last year Cup run will be back which means that Jonathan Quick will have a very deep team in front of him. With impact players like Anze Kopitar, Mike Richards, Dustin Brown and Jeff Carter at forward and quarterback Dew Doughty on defense, the Kings are filled with star players. Los Angeles also relies on steady veterans like Justin Williams, Jarret Stoll and Simon Gagne to score goals, as well as unheralded rearguards such as Rob Scuderi, Matt Greene and Willie Mitchell to protect their net and prevent scoring chances. Quick should be the #1 consensus pick among goalies next season.
Would be nice, one could only hope. Obviously next season will be met with more optimism than any other Kings season in history. Can't wait. What's your prediction?
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"It has not been a good day. I lost my glasses early this morning and I had to go buy a pair of 79 dollar reading glasses today. 79 bucks. You can literally get them at Costco, three-for-20." - Darryl Sutter's response to going up 2-0 in the series.
Looks like The Hockey News is officially on the Kings' bandwagon. First their top 10 list which features three Kings, and now this. I think they'll be a top 3-4 team in the Conference, but as they proved this past season, it doesn't matter where they finish so long as they're a playoff team. The Kings proved that anything can happen during playoff hockey.
EDIT: Actually, the link you provided is for The Hockey Writers. Different hockey site.
2nd IMO. Many teams are going to get up to play us knowing we are the champions, they'll also want to get that buzz from beating the Kings in their home rink. The target will be on our backs. As such, it will be very difficult, although possible to finish 1st in the West.
2nd IMO. Many teams are going to get up to play us knowing we are the champions, they'll also want to get that buzz from beating the Kings in their home rink. The target will be on our backs. As such, it will be very difficult, although possible to finish 1st in the West.
So they'll win the Pacific, but not the Presidents trophy?
I would like to think they will put together a solid regular season, I want to say the Pacific is ours. I don't know about the WC, but surely Pacific Champs, right?
They will be in a dog-fight with San Jose and Dallas for the Pacific division title. They'll finish either 3rd, or somewhere in the 7th-10th pack of teams. Probably 4-5 points will separate 10th from 3rd. St Louis should be strong with the rest of the division sliding back and Chicago their only real threat, and Vancouver's only real competition will be the Wild. Two easy divisions = 1st, 2nd finishes.
Edit: whoops, thought this was the hockey general discussion forum not the LA forum, I'll show myself out...
They will be in a dog-fight with San Jose and Dallas for the Pacific division title. They'll finish either 3rd, or somewhere in the 7th-10th pack of teams. Probably 4-5 points will separate 10th from 3rd. St Louis should be strong with the rest of the division sliding back and Chicago their only real threat, and Vancouver's only real competition will be the Wild. Two easy divisions = 1st, 2nd finishes.
Edit: whoops, thought this was the hockey general discussion forum not the LA forum, I'll show myself out...
This post is all kinds of ridiculous. If the Kings have to worry about the Stars then well, they will have to worry about a lot more.
The only two teams I seeing that can possible keep up with the Kings are the Sharks and Canucks.
very much doubt the Kings finish there. They just aren't built for the reg season. Its tough to play an up tempo, in your face, hit everything that moves game style, night after night. I think they will win the Pacific by default of the Pacific not looking great, but will probably finish 3rd in conference and something like 7th in league, then look to do damage in the playoffs again, something they are built for
EDIT: Actually, the link you provided is for The Hockey Writers. Different hockey site.
Bleh, you're right, someone sent that to me as The Hockey News and I didn't even notice the link Just busy and distracted today. The question still stands on what does everyone predict is in store for us this upcoming season.
If the Kings win half of the games they lost 1-0 last year, they're up near the top of the conference.
It really doesn't matter to me though. For this group of Kings, it's now only about the cup. Winning the division had value before last spring. Being near or at the top of the conference had meaning before last spring. If the Kings do either of those things, great. I'll take another cup or two from the 8th seed if need be though.
It doesn't matter what seed the Kings are, I would very much doubt they will go up 3-0 in all 4 series they play again. I would doubt very much they'll pull off 10 straight wins on the road again, or even at home, if they had the chance to do that.
I don't care if they win the conference/division. If they make the playoffs, they are one of the favourites (because of the style of play). This years playoffs proves my point.
Last edited by TheSlovenian: 08-15-2012 at 06:45 AM.
I'm a dyed-in-the-wool pessimist... so seeing this prediction made me wince and think that the Kings will finish no higher than 7th, and maybe out of the playoffs altogether, since we know how reliable most pre-season predictions are...
ETA: ...and that's if there's a season at all. If a lockout kills two-three months of the season... well, that many fewer games would have been enough to prevent the Kings from making the playoffs at all this past season, IIRC.
Think so. Coupled with St. Louis dropping back down to Earth and Vancouver's regular season tiger syndrome, slots us right in at #2.
I think St. Louis is going to continue to be very dominent. They have some studs coming up through the system that will help out depth wise, and their division got a lot weaker (Detroit, and Nashiville both lost key pieces).
If Vancouver can play well while Kesler is on the shelve they will be looking good to be on top of the west again.
2nd IMO. Many teams are going to get up to play us knowing we are the champions, they'll also want to get that buzz from beating the Kings in their home rink. The target will be on our backs. As such, it will be very difficult, although possible to finish 1st in the West.
I'll be happy with a division title. People forget about the fatigue factor. It's going to be very hard to win the division, much less #1 in the conference.
Ironically a shortened season would help the Kings.
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"In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened." - Vin Scully being clairvoyant in 1988.
The Los Angeles Kings - 2012 Stanley Cup Champions
I'll be happy with a division title. People forget about the fatigue factor. It's going to be very hard to win the division, much less #1 in the conference.
Ironically a shortened season would help the Kings.
The Pacific isn't bad enough to make the Presidents trophy a strong possibility. SJ is still strong. Anaheim is not going to suck as bad offensively as they did last year, and the young D have another year under their belt. Plus, their neighbors won the cup. Phoenix, while losing a couple guys, are always better than expected. They went to the WCF for a reason. Dallas, to me, is an enigma, but I expect them to be around 7-10.
Winning the division would be expected now, and that's a good enough goal for me.
One thing I don't buy is that the Kings are fatigued. It might be tougher to get up for games, but not because they are tired. It's not like they have a crazy, uptempo style. The biggest difference is since Sutter took over, they are incredibly efficient at getting the puck moving from the back end to the forwards, with minimum turnovers. They ran 4 lines for most of the playoffs, and no one was really beat up at the end of it all (with the exception of Scuderi's face). The Kings avoided long OT's and played under 45 minutes of OT over 20 games. The NYR played more minutes than the Kings did.
2nd IMO. Many teams are going to get up to play us knowing we are the champions, they'll also want to get that buzz from beating the Kings in their home rink. The target will be on our backs. As such, it will be very difficult, although possible to finish 1st in the West.
Just busy and distracted today. The question still stands on what does everyone predict is in store for us this upcoming season.
