The Detroit Red Wings may have been knocked out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round this year, but the playoffs themselves are nothing short of incredible. With only a few games remaining in the Western and Eastern Conference Finals, the NHL could be looking at the re-emergence of hockey into major media.
The Eastern Conference has a classic Hudson River rivalry battle between the No. 1 seeded New York Rangers and the No. 6 seeded New Jersey Devils.
The team’s stadiums are less than 10 miles away from each other and both teams are led by two of the most elite goalies in the game. New Jersey is being led by arguably one of the greatest goalies of all time, Martin Brodeur, who is 40 this year, going up against the 10 year younger New York goalie, Henrik Lundqvist.
The Rangers are up by a 2-1 lead in a best of seven series and stole a win in New Jersey during game three with a score of 3-0. The Rangers have now put the Devils in a major hole, if they lose one more game they will be facing elimination. Some of the action has taken place off the ice with Rangers head coach John Tortorella’s hot headed press conferences after games.
Out in the Western Conference Finals, we are seeing a dominant surge from the Los Angeles Kings, who are a No. 8 seed. They have a 3-1 lead over the No. 3 seed Phoenix Coyotes and are looking to earn their way into the finals. This is the first playoff series the teams have ever played against each other.
The Kings have only lost two games in this post season and are 11-2. This is the first time the team has been to the conference finals since 1993 when they had Wayne Gretzky.
While the Kings are enjoying their success, the Coyotes are looking at possibly leaving Phoenix because of low attendance. They are owned by the league who is looking for a buyer for the team if they can’t pull off a comeback miracle.
The idea of a Kings vs. Rangers finals isn’t just an exciting one for the fans of the cities, but it is exciting for hockey fans in general. For the rest of the country, hockey is nowhere near as big as it is in Hockeytown and if the two biggest media markets’ teams of New York and LA make the finals, it would be a huge boost in TV ratings.
Both teams haven’t been to the Stanley Cup Finals since the early ’90s, Kings in 1993 and Rangers in 1994, but a championship win for the Kings could take LA by storm and make people forget about the basketball teams of Lakers and Clippers.
My final prediction is that the Kings win in seven games.
