Kings In Their Castle

With the Senators looking like they are on their way out of the playoffs and the St. Louis Blues deciding to start to play well after they had already been all but eliminated from the playoffs it is nice to see those Kings in LA at least putting up a fight versus the Vancouver Canucks. They are currently 2 games a piece but there are lots of hockey left to be played between these two teams. The Kings Power Play is keeping the team in the games but unfortunately scoring at 5 on 5 is proving to be a difficult task for this team with not a whole lot of natural goal scoring. I usually root for the Canadian teams to succeed during the run for the Cup but since I have adopted both the St. Louis Blues and the LA Kings as my Western favorite teams I have to put all them cheering behind the somewhat surprising Kings. Sure it is early and I will be very difficult for them to get past Vancouver but after the struggles they had finishing out the season and the difficulty to score 5 on 5 it is nice to see them doing so well.

Watching games at the Staples Center in LA is a nice treat. The fans may not be for lack of a better term knowledgeable as the die hard Canadian fans but give them a winner or something to cheer for and they are just as loud and passionate as any building in the league. After being starved for playoff hockey during a lengthy rebuilding period they have made it back to the post season, not only with a decent team but also an organization with depth. A rare thing for the Kings. There is a pipeline of young players and prospects at both the AHL and junior level and hopefully they will have a successful draft this year to further solidify the coffers. The youth may prove to be both cap busters for value and talent but also may be used as leverage to acquire some legitimate scoring threats in the top 2 lines. They do have a bit of flexibility in terms of the cap as well so hopefully they use that space wisely in the off season and continue to get stronger deeper and better.