Montreal Canadiens Best Hope to Quash Canada Cup Drought

During last season’s playoffs, Canadiens players couldn’t help but wonder how Montreal might respond if the team won the Stanley Cup.

“The way the city reacts when we win one playoff round, it’s almost shocking,” Max Pacioretty said. “We joke around like, ‘Could you imagine winning a Stanley Cup there and what the reaction would be?'”

P.K. Subban has thought about it.

“It’s scary,” the 2013 Norris Trophy winner said. “It’s scary in a great way. How passionate those fans are, the province, it’s scary.”

Oddsmakers think the current landscape across Canada is scary in a bad way and are betting that the country’s Stanley Cup drought will extend to 21 seasons. But among the seven teams, the Canadiens have the best odds of ending it at 18 to 1, according to the online sportsbook Bodog.ca, which is no surprise given they were the only club to make last season’s playoffs.

The Vancouver Canucks (33-1), Toronto Maple Leafs (40-1), Edmonton Oilers (50-1), Ottawa Senators and Winnipeg Jets (66-1) and Calgary Flames (75-1) aren’t inspiring much confidence to bring the trophy back to Canada for the first time since the Habs did it in 1993.

Montreal came the closest in last year’s playoffs by reaching the Eastern Conference final before losing to the New York Rangers. Beating the rival Boston Bruins to get there was what Pacioretty called the best feeling he’s had in hockey to this point.

Pacioretty knows winning a Cup would be the pinnacle. The stage is set for the Habs to at least be in the running to get back to the same spot with goaltender Carey Price healthy, Subban locked up to a long-term contract and the East looking as wide open as ever.

Phenomenal L.A Kings Beat Rangers To Lift Stanley Cup

The longest postseason in NHL history, spanning a record 93 games, ended the only way it could – with its busiest team lifting the Stanley Cup after multiple overtimes in one of the year's most thrilling games and series. It took the Los Angeles Kings just over 1,676 minutes over 26 games to finish their Stanley Cup quest and claim hockey's top prize for the second time in three years, but every second of those hard minutes will have been worth it.

 

On Friday night, for the second time in three seasons, the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup.

It is a truism that the race for the NHL championship is a marathon and not a sprint, but even by hockey’s grueling standards, the Kings’ road to the Cup was particularly arduous.

New York Rangers Eked Out A Win Over LA Kings in Game 4

The coronation is going to have to wait for these Kings. But perhaps not long.

The New York Rangers eked out a win in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final by the thinnest of margins on Wednesday night, getting two goals early and then hanging on for dear life as the Los Angeles Kings came roaring back.


New York Rangers defenseman Anton Stralman (6) reaches to save the puck from crossing the goal line as Los Angeles Kings center Jeff Carter (77) tries to score from behind New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30) in the first period during Game 4 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final, Wednesday, June 11, 2014, in New York. (Bruce Bennett/AP)

It had started with the same script as earlier in the series, when the Kings pulled off two-goal comebacks repeatedly – four times in all – to win the first two games in overtimeThe champagne the Los Angeles Kings had ready for a coronation stayed in boxes. The New York Rangers suddenly have some life in the Stanley Cup finals.

Stanley Cup: L A Kings Wins and Lead Series 3-0

It turns out Jonathan Quick and the Los Angeles Kings are just as good with the lead as they are without it.
  
That leaves the New York Rangers with little hope of making much of a series out of the Stanley Cup Final.

Quick stopped 32 shots in his best start of the series, Jeff Carter scored in the final second of the first period, Jake Muzzin and Mike Richards added goals in the second, and the Kings beat the Rangers 3-0 on Monday night to move within one victory of their second Stanley Cup title in three years.
  
Los Angeles leads 3-0 and can claim the Cup on Wednesday night in New York. The Kings have already survived three Game 7s on the road, so this amount of success has their confidence soaring.
  
Quick hardly showed it when he took the podium wearing a black hooded sweatshirt.
  
"I don't think it would be any different if we were down 3-0," Quick said. "We're just trying to win a game in a couple days here. That's the focus."
  
After the Rangers blew two-goal leads in each of the first two games of the championship round in Los Angeles, they came home and couldn't get anything going against Quick.

LA Kings On Way To Clinch Stanley Cup With 3-2 Over Rangers

Justin Williams (14) ended yet another remarkable Kings comeback in Game 1. (USATSI)

The Los Angeles Kings don't take the easy road. They haven't all postseason. So when the New York Rangers jumped all over them in the first period, got out to a 2-0 lead and looked for a good stretch the better team, it was just another night for the Kings. This script had played out time and time again this postseason. It even played out just a few days ago. It wasn't a matter of if they would score, it was when.

They of course scored three unanswered goals, earning a 3-2 overtime win in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. Typical.

The first time "when" came around turned out to be 2:33 after Carl Hagelin scored a potentially demoralizing shorthanded goal on a breakaway midway through the first period. Kyle Clifford got in on the forecheck, got help from Jeff Carter, who beat out Anton Stralman for a puck. Carter dished to Clifford, who got the puck up and over Henrik Lundqvist. Once that game got to 2-1, it was again not only a matter of if they would score again, but when.

"When" came again 6:36 into the second period when Drew Doughty pulled one of the more creative moves of the postseason when he accepted Justin Williams' pass, put it between his own legs and fit a shot through Lundqvist to tie the game in a rather fashionable way.

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The LA Kings are heading to the Stanley Cup Finals as LA beats Chicago 5-4!

Alex Martinez wins the game with a OT winner! LA Kings heading to the Stanley Cup Finals

Tyler Toffoli gets the credit for the game-winning goal. 

What a thrilling Game 7! The LA Kings prevailed in OT as they won their 3rd Game 7 on the road in the same postseason.

Alex Martinez scored the game-winner in OT and sent the Kings to the Stanley Cup Finals. The Kings fought back three times from behind to eventually take down the defending champion Blackhawks.

The Kings will face off against the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup Finals.  Kings are 1st team in NHL history to win three Game 7s prior to Stanley Cup Final. The LA Kings are heading to the Stanley Cup Finals as LA beats Chicago 5-4