Last year the Kings were one of the biggest surprises in the league, but with hindsight being 20/20, should we have been surprised?
With a ton of young talent, the Kings had been building to burst on to the scene for a few years now. Drew Doughty emerged as a candidate to be dubbed the "prototypical defenseman" of this generation. His mobility, high-end offensive ability, instincts, and physical play propelled him into Norris Trophy contention.
Anze Kopitar exploded onto the scene with his best season to date in his brief NHL career. While the explosiveness may have calmed a little bit as the season wore on (fewer multi-point games), the consistency never left Kopitar as he finished with career highs across the board.
The Kings were also able to draw upon a mix of youth, talent, and experience up front. The defense was well balanced, possessing enough daring undertones to go for it offensively but enough defensive reliability not to get burned, and in net Jonathan Quick was certainly solid when called upon.
With all of that considered, the Kings were still a surprise. No one saw what they did coming as all eyes were drawn to Vancouver ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Bryan Thiel
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September 20th, 2010 by Bryan Thiel Leave a reply »
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