The Espy’s will be airing on July 11th and Kings fans be advised to tune in and cheer on your Stanley Cup Champions as they go head to head with some of the worlds best athletes!
Best Championship Performance - King Nominated Jonathan Quick
MVP (Flickr/ Bridget Samuels)
The Contenders -
David Freese, St. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
Lebron James, Miami Heat (NBA Playoffs)
Eli Manning, New York Giants (Super Bowl)
Tony Stewart, Nascar? (Sprint Cup)
Who should win? Without a doubt the winner should be Jonathan Quick, the stats he put up during the playoffs are unmatched, especially by the contenders in this category. I could go through all of his stats and make fun of Lebron, but that has been done before, so I am going to refrain from any of that.
Best Upset - King Nominated The Los Angeles Kings (duhh)
The Contenders -
Iowa State over Oklahoma State
Lehigh over Duke
Norfolk State over Missouri
Who should win? This category should be a no brainer for voters, the 3 upsets the Kings are up against were single game upsets. The Kings however upset the Stanley Cup Playoffs! Which happen to be the most grueling in all of sports! I rest my case, use your head people.
Best NHL Player – King Nominated Jonathan Quick
The Contenders -
Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers
Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers
Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins
Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning
Who should win? This is a really tough call, of course I would love for Jonathan to get this honor, but did he have a better overall season then each of these contenders? Thinking as a hockey fan and not simply a Kings fan, I would actually pick Stamkos to take this award. Stamkos scored 60 goals this season, which has only been achieved by Alexander Ovechkin since 1996. Not any easy task just ask Evgeni Malkin who only had 50 goals this year, but led the league in points. Unfortunately I think Jonathan is out gunned in this one, Stamkos or Malkin is my guess.
Best Team – The Los Angeles Kings
Clean shaven Kings! (Flickr/Prayitno)
The Contenders -
Alabama Football
Baylor Women’s Basketball
Kentucky Men’s Basketball
Miami Heat
New York Giants
St. Louis Cardinals
Who should win? Obviously I believe what the Kings did in the playoffs this year was one of the most amazing runs in cup history, which of these other teams was an 8 seed, that had to go through the 1st, 2nd and 3rd seed just to get to the Championship? The answer is none of the above! The Cardinals did have a great run as well as the Giants, but if the Heat win this category I will NOT be happy! This one will be interesting to watch since viewers can continue to vote during the show, and can also vote using twitter. So Kings fans remember MY @ESPYS vote for #BestTeam is the LA Kings!
Darryl Sutter was also Nominated in the Best Coach/Manager category. I do not know enough about the contending coaches, so I will wish Darryl good luck and hope that Erik Spoelstra (Miami Heat coach), does not win.
In other Kings News things are progressing nicely with the Organization and Quick to take care of his contract. He has 1 year remaining that will pay him 1.7 million next year (Can you say underpaid? Bargain?). Quick cannot officially sign an extension until Sunday, July 1st, so look for more on this topic next week!
