LA Kings win Stanley Cup over New Jersey Devils after 45 years of waiting. Congratulations!

Well
Los Angeles you have another title team in the Staples Center. It’s just not
the one you usually expect usually the basketball Lakers. After 45 years since
starting play in 1967, the LA Kings are Stanley Cup Champions and champions of
the National Hockey League.

They
defeated the New Jersey Devils in 6 games and won Game 6 going away finally by
a score of 6-1. A 5 minute major power play on the Devils where the penalty is
allowed to continue led to 3 early first period goals and the Kings never looked back. There
was a hard hit against the boards that caused blood and an ejection to the
Devils player but it led fuel to the Kings fire, The Devils and their 3 time
Stanley Cup champion and 40 year old goalie Martin Brodeur never recovered although to his credit
Brodeur stayed on the ice the whole time never being replaced. But the star of
the show was young 24 year old Kings goalie Jonathon Quick who won the Conn
Smythe trophy as the outstanding player in the Finals.

The
Kings were an unlikely champion as the eighth seed in the Western Conference,
but they went 10-1 on the road and 16-4
overall in the playoffs. It was an amazing run and another great Stanley
Cup championship. I love the trophy presentation more than any other in sports.
And the sportsmanship and postgame handshakes after the series and fighting.

It
was a season that I got to go to a live hockey game in November seeing the
Toronto Maple Leafs defeat the Dallas Stars 4-3 in Dallas. It will also be a
summer where the NHL has to work out a collective barganing agreement and
hopefully the follow pro football, baseball and basketball and get it done
quietly. They don’t want to lose a season like hockey did during what wasn’t
the 2004-05 hockey season but I think it will get done and there will be hockey
next year.

But
I’m excited for the LA Kings. They jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the series and
lost a couple games for more hockey for fans personally. But I think it was
fitting that they came back to Staples Center in Los Angeles and won the Stanley
Cup 6-1 in convincing fashion in front of their fans who are used to cheering
Lakers titles but after 45 years this time it was the Kings and congratulations
to them.

I
look forward to next year and my Toronto Maple Leafs will play the Detroit Red
Wings in the Winter Outdoor Classic at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan
on January 1, 2013. And hopefully another great NHL Hockey Season Ahead. Best
wishes and talk soon and enjoy the Stanley Cup LA Kings!