Pittsburgh have waited the longest, winning the Stanley Cup back in 2009, and gaining revenge over Detroit for the previous season. The Penguins have a golden generation of players at their disposal right now, but the fact they only have one Stanley Cup to their name is criminal. The likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin should be winning multiple championships given their status in the game, and surely both of these players should be hungrier than most at winning a second championship. Maybe the Penguins hierarchy feel the same way and the time to act is now. Why else would they have made such big trades for Jerome Iginla, Brendan Morrow & Jussi Jokinen? By adding Iginla you have a player hungry to win his first ever Stanley Cup, signing someone who went close, very close in fact with Calgary in 2004 and who was the face of that franchise over the last 15 years or so. Despite spending so many years in Alberta, Iginla has decided at the veteran stage of his career that now is the time to win that first elusive Cup. At one stage he looked like making his way to Boston, only to double-back to Pittsburgh with the chance of playing alongside his former Team Canada line mate Crosby. The hunger doesn’t stop there, what of Brendan Morrow? Making his Dallas Stars debut in the 1999-2000 season, just months after the team had won the Stanley Cup with Mike Modano, Brett Hull, Jere Lehtinen et al. Morrow probably thought he was joining the team at the most perfect of times, especially considering they made it back to the Finals later that year. However, there was to be no repeat in Dallas, as the Stars lost to New Jersey and Morrow came so agonisingly close, missing out on the win in 1999 then playing a part in the defeat in 2000. Both Iginla & Morrow have played on the losing side in a Stanley Cup Finals series, and now both players want the chance to get their hands on the cup later this month.
What of the support cast Pittsburgh can call upon? Well Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz have formed a very productive line with Crosby, While James Neal, has been scoring goals for fun this season alongside Malkin and now Iginla. Brandon Sutter acquired during the trade with Carolina for Jordan Staal has the gritty Matt Cooke and Morrow alongside him. Then you have Jussi Jokinen looking for his first real chance at winning the Stanley Cup and Tyler Kennedy, who are, both competing for spots in the line-up, and that is just the forwards. With guys like Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik & Paul Martin on defense, it is no wonder Pittsburgh are so highly fancied.
Going back 3 years to 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks burst onto the scene with a really exciting line up, as they powered their way to the Stanley Cup. While Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are not quite at the Crosby/Malkin level both are amazing players and also should be winning multiple championships. If you throw in the names of Marion Hossa (twice a loser in SCF with Pittsburgh 2008 & Detroit 2009 before winning it third time around with the Hawks in 2010) & Patrick Sharp, you have one of the best 4 forward units in the league. Chicago like Pittsburgh have looked like they mean business this season, both dominated their respective conferences and both have waited long enough to add a second Cup to their ‘Golden Era’.
While Boston have not had to wait as long for a second chance at winning the Cup they are just as determined as Pittsburgh and Chicago this season. All 3 teams had disappointing first round exits in the playoffs last season, Pittsburgh to arch rivals Philadelphia, Chicago to eventual WCF Phoenix and Boston to Washington. With a common trend across the league to have good young players burst onto the NHL and win a Stanley Cup early on in their career, for Crosby & Toews read Tyler Seguin. Seguin has quite simply been a revelation at Boston, but don’t stop there you have David Krejci, Milan Lucic and the experienced ex Penguin Jaromir Jagr who only left Dallas for Boston because his old team signed Iginla form under their noses!
Los Angeles still continues to surprise everyone. Only just finishing 8th last season and sneaking into the playoffs seemed the hard part for the Kings, as once they made it to the post-season party they were the last to leave. The Kings were the first team to ever win the Stanley Cup after finishing eighth in their Conference, after they set about eliminating all 3 Division winners. In the first round they shocked President’s Trophy winners and previous year’s finalists Vancouver Canucks who won the Northwest Division at a canter, next up they beat the Central Division winners, the St Louis Blues, and finally in the Western Conference Final they beat another Surprise team the Phoenix Coyotes who had topped the Kings own, Pacific Division. Even playing New Jersey in the finals, who themselves were a lowly sixth seed, meant the Kings won the Cup ‘on the road’. A lot of people said there was no way LA could repeat such a thing, well maybe they don’t have to. Finishing a lot higher in the standings, fifth, meant they still had some work to do but also it was going to be a bit more comfortable. A re-match with the Blues in Round 1 saw the Kings come from behind 0-2 in the series to meet San Jose in an all, Californian clash. This was the first time LA would have ‘home advantage’ in a playoff series and just as well. The series went to 7 games as each team won all their home games, LA just edged through to meet Chicago. As I write this the Kings are 0-2 down in their series with Chicago, but who would bet against LA making another surprise comeback and going all the way again. Certainly they want to be the first team since Detroit in 1997 & 1998 to win back-to-back Stanley Cups.
What you have is a very exciting mix of 4 teams all battling for the greatest prize of all and also all 4 teams showing different reasons for their hunger. It is going to make for one awesome end to the season.
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