Will he stay or will he go now? (Flickr/Bridget Samuels)

The Los Angeles Kings organization made it painfully clear to Jonathan Bernier that his future with the organization, was not really much of a future at all. Since the signing of All-Star goaltender Jonathan Quick, to a 10 Year $58 Million Contract, Bernier has made it clear he wants to be traded. I think we all know it is highly unlikely, that Quick will royally suck like Roberto Luongo and let his backup take control. Sorry to break it to you JB you are not the next Cory Schneider!

With training camp starting in a little over a month’s time, it is imperative that the Kings trade Bernier. There is nothing more awkward than showing up to training camp with a team you publicly admitted wanting a trade from. Maybe he could get a few tips from Rick Nash?

Regardless here is the Bernier breakdown: In 47 games he has a record of 20-17-5, with a .910 save percentage and 2.50 goals against average. He is clearly inexperienced and lacking a few of the qualities a starting goaltender in the NHL must possess. What I am trying to politely say is that he’s a risk. Unfortunately for Bernier, if and when he is traded, he will most likely still be a backup.

So what do the Kings do with Bernier? Right now I think they hold on to him. The Kings organization has a track record of taking care of their players. Not only do they want to make a good deal for the organization, but for Bernier as well.

BUT don’t be shocked if the Toronto Maple Leafs made a play for Bernier, since Mr. Choke Luongo has passed, they are still looking to make a move. A lot can and will happen, obviously not during August, because as we all know August is hockey’s boring month. Don’t worry the time will fly by and there will be drama left and right!! 

Keeping the team together! (Flickr/Bridget Samuels)

All it takes is a couple of great seasons and a shiny silver cup to make a deal of a lifetime! Jonathan Quick will be the first King (yes not even Wayne signed for 10 years) to be signed to a 10 year $58 Million deal. The new deal will kick in after next season, which they get him for a $1.7 Million bargain! This deal ties Quick to the Kings through the 2022-23 season.

Quick, is only the 3rd American born player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, and at the age of 26 he lead the Kings to their first Stanley Cup in 45 years, not to mention represented them in the All-Star game and was the Vezina Trophy runner-up. How’s your burger Jonathan Quick?

July 1 is the first day contracts can be signed under terms of the collective bargaining agreement.

Here is what Quick had to say in the LA Times:

“It’s a younger group,” he said. “You want to keep everyone here, keep as much of this team intact as you can. Obviously, we know it’s part of the game where some guys get moved and it’s unfortunate. But we want to keep as much of the team intact.

“We really love the group. The chemistry we have in the room is awesome.”

For a complete list of Jonathan Quicks accomplishments check out this article on NHL.com

In other Kings News:

Good Luck JB! (Flickr/ Dinur Blum)

Kings back-up goaltender Jonathan Bernier has asked to be traded. Speaking as a goaltender myself I know what it is like to be stuck behind someone that is an unbelievable goalie, but you yourself are also very talented. Now that Quick is going to be signed for 10 years it would be smart for Bernier to move on now. He is a very capable tender that can and most likely will be the starter somewhere soon!

Also the Stanley Cup Game 6 puck has been found and is making it’s return to LA! Way to go Patrik Elias!

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!

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Kings you are now officially the 2012 Stanley Cup Champions! Defeating  the New Jersey Devils with a final score of 6-1.

The most beautiful trophy in all of sports (Flickr/cupcanal)

This is going to go down in history as one of the greatest cup runs the National Hockey League has ever seen. After a disapointing Game 4 and 5, the Kings come out with a a taste for blood. The second that Rob Scuderi started bleeding the Kings did not look back! 3 power play goals came from the misconduct on Steve Bernier, a hit we will behearing about for a long time.

What an unbelievably important move it was adding Jeff Carter to the roster! Notching 2 goals tonight, he was a huge reason the Kings were able to pull of this amazing run.

Devils fans thought that saw a comback in the making when Adam Henrique put a rebound past Jonathan Quick with 1:15 left in the 2nd period. Followed shortly by a Dustin Penner penalty, but once again the Kings penalty kill shut the door. From that point on the Devils were “Done like dinner.”

No suprise Quick wins the Conn Smythe Trophy, he was definitely the MVP of these playoffs hands down. Plus what a pleasure it was to watch Dustin Brown’s magnificently greasy beard raise that unreal trophy!

Congratulations!! Enjoy the Cup boys and try not to break it!!

Post Script will someone tell the LA camera guys to get out the way of the cup!

Tonight is the night hockey fans, finally we have to the Stanley Cup Finals. How many Kings fans thought this was possible in February? Did I just hear crickets? Good joke I know!

I have been chatting with people about this all week and everyone seems to think this is going to be an epic battle of the goaltenders Jonathan Quick and Martin Brodeur.

King Quick (Bridget Samuels/Flickr)

Martin being Martin (C.P. Storm/Flickr)

They just might be right, but there is one fundamental difference between these two goaltenders, one has been to the Stanley Cup Finals and the other has not. Only time will tell if this is going to be a factor or not. I personally don’t think it will be a very big deal. Herb Brooks said that, “great moments are built out of great opportunities,” that’s what the Kings and Quick have earned.

Finally he has arrived (bloodyeyeballs/Flickr)

Welcome to the Los Angeles Kings Jeff Carter! How about that the depth of the Kings gets deeper every single game. The Kings win Game 2, 4-0 Carter gets a hat trick and Quick gets a shutout… not too shabby! I was overly excited to say the least when I saw that Carter finally was able to get on the board again. This team just continues to get better and elevate their game to new levels, I love being a Kings fan!

I would say that I feel bad for the Coyotes, but I really don’t. I am actually happy they are becoming collateral damage.

As stated before I was unable to pysically watch the game, instead I looked at my phone every 5 minutes looking for updates, and thanks to Steve Jobs I had no problem getting them. So I am not really going to over analyze because I think it is pretty obvious, the Kings are just simply out playing the Coyotes from top to bottom.

Now the two teams head back to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Thursday. The Coyotes will be without Martin Hanzel, the department of player safety released today that he will be suspended for 1 game. I have seen the hit and the explanation and definitely agree that 1 game is a sufficent punishment for this hit. I think Game 3 will have no shortage of penalties either, the Yotes are frusterated and if the Kings continue to out work and out play them then the tension will just be elevated between these two teams.

Since I did not see the complete game I will not being doing Highs and Lows, I know sad.

On the road again (Moyan Brenn/Flickr)

The Kings are looking to extend their win streak on the road to 7-0, tonight in Phoenix. I can tell you one thing the Kings will not be taking their foot off the gas. If they extend their streak tonight they will have yet another single postseason record.

Game 1 was very interesting because it was the first time in the Playoffs that Jonathan Quick was not the best player on the ice, but they still found a way to win the game. This is a team game and the Kings were able to show what kind of a team they really are, which is a hell of a good one!

Here are my 3 Highs and 3 Lows vs the Phoenix Coyotes:

High #1- Dustin Brown’s preformance was once again stellar, he had a goal and an assist, took 7 shots and had 6 hits. Oh and he scored the game winner again! The Brown-Kopitar-Williams line is just really playing well right now, I honestly don’t know how they can be stopped. Good thing they are on our team!

High #2- 48 shots on net! The Kings are shooting the puck and that’s definitely what you have to do against a good goalie like Mike Smith. If you get pucks on net they will eventually go in and the Kings did a great job of that in Game 1.

High #3- The Kings forecheck. When you have great defense and a productive offense you are able to take a few more risks with your forecheck and that is the luxury the Kings have right now. They are able to attack the puck like a shark attacks chum. They just don’t stop attacking. Look for them to be even more aggressive tonight and I bet they will be rewarded for it.

Low #1- Jonathan Quick’s performance, I am not at all worried about this, but it was a fact he did not play well. That being said he did improve his play in the 3rd period so I do not think he will be giving up another soft goal any time soon.

Low #2- No conversion on the Power Play, the Kings went 0-4 on the Power Play (They also killed all 5 of the Coyotes PP’s), both teams have great defense, whoever can break through on the PP will have a big advantage over the other.

Low #3- Stay out of the box, this is simple we need to stay out of the box.

Game time is 8:00 pm, CT. This will be the first game I am not going to be able to watch. I will be attending the Black Keys concert at the Target Center! I am sure that I will have no problem staying updated! The Lucky shirt is also still undefeated and unwashed. I will be wearing it to the concert like a dirtball!

The 1st period of last nights game saw 4 Kings goals. Shocking because as Kings fans we’ve become accustomed to seeing maybe a goal, 2 if we’re lucky! The 2nd period started with a quick goal from the Blues, but the Kings fired right back. With a 5-2 final score the Kings handed the Blues their first back to back losses of the Playoffs.

King Quick (Bridget Samuels/Flickr)

One of the biggest reasons the Blues were not let right back into the game last night, was yes you guessed it and not because there is a big picture of him right above where I am typing. The answer = Jonathan Quick!! 

For the first time in a long time Quick’s teammates gave him some breathing room, but had a few bounces gone differently the game would have been much closer…

yeah… he is UNREAL

The point I am trying to make here is that if the Kings offense keep this up they are going to be very difficult to beat. The veteran players are starting to step up, Dustin Penner has been great against the Blues with a goal and 3 assists. Anze Kopitar, Jeff Carter and  Mike Richards got back on the board last night, which I loved seeing! 

So here it is plain and simple keep scoring keep winning and bring the cup to LA! 

The Los Angeles Kings emerge victorious in Rogers Arena, from a Jarret Stoll goal in overtime! The final score was Kings 2 Canucks 1… SEE YA SEDIN’S!!!

The Canucks already have Tee Time's

Once again Jonathan Quick was the difference maker, shutting down numerous scoring opportunities. I also have to give Cory Schneider props he did a great job taking over for the always brutal Roberto Luongo!

Like I said before the Kings are dangerous defensively, but I do not think they played up to their full potential the last two games. Hopefully they can take this time to recompose and take down another top seeded team. The Kings will be facing a relatively inexperienced St. Louis Blues team, this has the potential to be a great series with a lot of young talent on the ice!

The most important thing is the Kings are on to the next round and the Canucks will once again not be raising the Stanley Cup… Sorry Canada hold out for Ottawa.

BIG D!!

So far in these playoffs the Los Angeles Kings have exceed almost all expectations, even the most loyal of fans did not see this coming… or maybe they did? Nonetheless here we are up 3 games to zip against the Presidents Trophy winning Vancouver Canucks. It almost seems as though they can do nothing right and we can do nothing wrong. What those of us don’t realize is that the Kings defensive abilities are amongst the best in the league and they should not be taken lightly.

The Kings ended the 2011-2012 Regular Season ranked 13th in the NHL, and as you begin to dissect their team statistics quite a few stand out.

First they ranked 4th in the league in Penalty Kill % at 87.03%. Right now one of the main reasons they have the Canucks on the brink of elimination is because they have completely shut their Power Play down. They have successfully killed all 17 of the Canucks PP’s, this is just impressive! The reason is two-fold because the Kings have a clearly demonstrated a great kill all season, so that is the first thing. The second thing is the Canucks are without Daniel Sedin, which has put everything out of sync for them. If the Kings take care of business tomorrow night then we will not see D. Sedin in these playoffs. I would be 100% okay with that!

Second the obvious Jonathan Quick is playing at the top of his game. He is moving laterally, controlling rebounds, challenging shooters and taking away everything down low. What makes him and the rest of the Kings dangerous defensively is that they are used to playing very tight games. 41 games they played in this season were decided by 1 goal in either regulation, OT or a shootout. As we all know and have seen these playoff games are tight, and typically decided by 1 goal. Clearly the Kings have been well trained and are accustomed to the pressures of these situations.

The Kings defensively are the most dangerous team in the playoffs, plain and simple.

Lastly, the statistic they have seemed to turn around is their ability to put the puck in the net. They ranked 29th out of 30 teams in the NHL, the only team worse is none other than the Minnesota Wild, way to go State of Hockey. Thus far in the playoffs they rank 4th, this is a definite improvement. The reason for this boost in scoring is pretty basic actually, when they added forward Jeff Carter to the line-up they evened out their lines. Making their 1st and 2nd lines dangerous to opponents, while also taking the pressure off the first line. This allows for the scoring to become spread amongst the lines and also takes the pressure off your goaltender and defensemen!

What it really comes down to is the will to win and peaking at the right time, and the Kings are definitely doing exactly that! We will see what happens tomorrow at 9:00 pm central time!