Out of the Eastern Conference are the New York Rangers (just one year after firing HC John Tortorella and hiring the man Torts replaced in Vancouver-Alain Vigneault), and out of the Western Conference are the amazingly resilient Los Angeles Kings. These Kings played in three game 7's in the first three rounds (coming back from 3-0 down against San Jose in the first round on top of that) and won them all on the road. Having teams from the two biggest media markets in the country play for the Stanley Cup has got to have NHL bigwigs drooling over the potential media exposure over the next 1-2 weeks (and seriously, how far is that horseshoe shoved up Bettman's ass right now? Some clowns have all the luck).
Now I'd normally try to keep the schadenfreude to a minimum, but when it comes to the Blackhawks and their mouth-breathing idiotic bandwagon fanbase, that's just not going to happen-call it "Chi"-denfreude if you want. So suck it, Chicago. Another especially gratifying point about the Hawks bid to repeat as Cup champs getting derailed: the 1997-1998 Detroit Red Wings are still the last team to hold the honor of repeating as Stanley Cup Champs. Again: suck it, Chicago.
Snap prediction: the popular pick would be to go with the LA Kings, seeing as they played in a much more dominant conference and they are one hell of a hockey team. But the Rangers have been playing well the last few weeks, and they've also gotten stellar goaltending (as usual) out of Henrik Lundqvist. Jonathan Quick is also a great goaltender but he sure hasn't played like it in these playoffs. I think this is going to be a great series, and the Kings are going to have their hands full with this Rangers squad...but it's still the West in the end. Kings in 7, because they simply wouldn't have it any other way.
If you've got predictions, let's see 'em.
Now I'd normally try to keep the schadenfreude to a minimum, but when it comes to the Blackhawks and their mouth-breathing idiotic bandwagon fanbase, that's just not going to happen-call it "Chi"-denfreude if you want. So suck it, Chicago. Another especially gratifying point about the Hawks bid to repeat as Cup champs getting derailed: the 1997-1998 Detroit Red Wings are still the last team to hold the honor of repeating as Stanley Cup Champs. Again: suck it, Chicago.
Snap prediction: the popular pick would be to go with the LA Kings, seeing as they played in a much more dominant conference and they are one hell of a hockey team. But the Rangers have been playing well the last few weeks, and they've also gotten stellar goaltending (as usual) out of Henrik Lundqvist. Jonathan Quick is also a great goaltender but he sure hasn't played like it in these playoffs. I think this is going to be a great series, and the Kings are going to have their hands full with this Rangers squad...but it's still the West in the end. Kings in 7, because they simply wouldn't have it any other way.
If you've got predictions, let's see 'em.
I'll have impressions for the PS3 version sometime late next week (yeah, I bought the hype but the story has looked entertaining to me for months). In the meantime, here's the launch trailer...