The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs are coming to an end, and it’s just a matter of days until the all-suspenseful final round begins. So far, the Los Angeles Kings are the only team that have stamped their ticket into those finals, and they did it quite a few days before their opponents will. That short rest, along with all the other rest they’ve gotten these playoffs, is sure to help them in the finals against the exhausted team they’ll be facing.

That team will either be the New Jersey Devils of the New York Rangers, the only two other teams that are scrapping it out for their own chance at winning the revered Cup. The Rangers were the clear favorite going into the series; but they’re already down 3-2 in the series and now they must win both games in order to get their own tickets punched. The Rangers have also looked slow and sloppy against the Devils at times, especially during the first five minutes of Game 5 on Wednesday when they allowed the Devils to get two goals past them. Although the Rangers were able to make a bit of a comeback, they still lost that game 5-3.

But it’s not like the Devils haven’t had their share of troubles either; they just seemed to have come at the right end of the series for them. It was during Game 3 that they gave up one of their two losses to New York so far in this series; but it was perhaps the most painful as they didn’t get one score on the board. Now, headed into Game 6 tonight, the Devils are going to keep the lineup that they’ve changed to since – the fourth line consisting of Stephen Gionta, Ryan Carter, Travis Zajac, Patrick Elias, and Zach Parise.

So once the third round is officially over, who will face the L.A. Kings – the Devils, or the Rangers? At this point, it doesn’t seem to matter. L.A. has only lost two games during the entire playoffs; one of their series was a sweep that provided the advantage of a much-needed rest, and the other two only went to five games each. They haven’t had as much ice time, they have far fewer injuries, and they’re much better rested. Add that to the fact that they just simply look better during play than either the Rangers or the Devils, and this certainly seems to be the year of the Kings.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2012 at 2:50 pm and is filed under NHL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.