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Topic Started: Nov 2 2012, 09:45 AM (15 Views)
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Capping off a surprising, yet utterly dominant, playoff run, the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Kings downed the New Jersey Devils 6-1 in Game Six of the Stanley Cup Final Monday night. Ed Reed Womens Jersey . After losing back-to-back games, the Kings might have been feeling some pressure coming home for Game Six, their series lead suddenly in jeopardy, but the game tilted midway through the first period when Devils right winger Steve Bernier received a major penalty and game misconduct for boarding, after he flattened Kings defenceman Rob Scuderi with a hit from behind. The Kings power play had struggled throughout the postseason, going 9-for-85 (10.6%) prior to Game Six of the Cup Final, but when Berniers penalty opened the door a crack, the Kings barged right through it, scoring three times to push the Devils back on their heels. Starting to take some heat for his lack of production in the series, Kings captain Dustin Brown was a force in the deciding game, scoring a goal and two assists. Brown finished the playoffs with 20 points, tying linemate Anze Kopitar for the postseason lead. Jeff Carter scored a pair of goals for the Kings, giving him four in the Final series and he ended up as one of seven players to tie for the playoff goal-scoring lead with eight goals. Teammates Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar, as well as Devils Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise shared that goal-scoring lead with Carter. It was a tumultuous season for Carter. After being traded from Philadelphia to Columbus, Carter was shaken, then was injured and not very productive when he was in the lineup for the Blue Jackets. Acquired in exchange for defenceman Jack Johnson, Carters arrival helped spark L.A.s offensive surge in the final quarter of the season and into the playoffs. (As a side note, Carters second goal came on a bizarre play, after Dustin Browns entry into the zone was made much easier when Devils defenceman Anton Volchenkov collided with linesman Pierre Racicot. For a team already behind the eight ball at that point, it was impossibly bad luck for the Devils.) Carter wasnt the only multi-goal scorer in the clinching game. Trevor Lewis, the third-line winger who had one goal in 19 playoff games, picked up a pair, including one into an empty-net with 3:45 remaining when the desperate Devils had pulled goaltender Martin Brodeur. What made the Kings such a formidable opponent in the playoffs -- absurdly so for an eighth seed -- is that they had so many contributors. Goaltender Jonathan Quick won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Playoff MVP and its tough to argue after he posted a .946 save percentage, the best since the stat was officially tracked, starting in 1984. Quick was my pick at regular seasons end for the Vezina Trophy as the leagues top goaltender, so this performance was no fluke, but great is great and worthy of recognition. He allowed two goals or fewer in 18 of 20 playoff games. In the other two games Quick allowed three goals. Having a great goaltender obviously helps. So does having an elite defenceman and the Kings have one of the best. Drew Doughty led all scorers in the Final with six points, giving him 16 points in the playoffs to lead all defencemen. While its not surprising, given Doughtys pedigree, it was generally an uneven season for Doughty after a protracted contract negotiation caused him to miss most of training camp. But once the playoffs began, Doughty raised his game and played like the Norris Trophy-calibre defenceman that he can be, with obviously beneficial results for the Kings. While the story of winning the Cup is the Kings finally getting the franchises first, its worth noting that theyre in pretty good position going forward too. Their top five forwards (Kopitar, Brown, Carter, Mike Richards and Justin Williams) are all under contract for at least two more seasons -- much longer in the cases of Richards and Carter -- and dont face the loss of a defenceman or goaltender to free agency this summer, so the pieces should be in place for the Kings to contend again next season. Sure, the Kings are going to go into the 2012-2013 with a bulls eye on them and theyll have to deal with a Stanley Cup hangover, but these are dream problems for any franchise. Problems that were well-earned with the Kings championship run this spring. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. Joe Flacco Womens Jersey . Prince recently completed the 2011-12 season with the Ontario Hockey Leagues Ottawa 67s and helped them advance to the OHL Eastern Conference final, where they were eliminated in five games by the Niagara IceDogs. Ed Reed Elite Jersey .C. -- Brian Shriver scored in the 88th minute as the Carolina RailHawks scored an upset 2-1 win over Los Angeles Galaxy on Tuesday, knocking the MLS champions out in the third round of the U. http://www.shopthebaltimoreravens.com/jacoby-jones-jerseys . More special than that is what the leadoff hitter can do once hes on base. Schafer had two hits and scored twice, including the go-ahead run on a single by Jed Lowrie in the eighth inning to help the Astros to a 4-3 win over the New York Mets on Monday night. Ray Rice Elite Jersey . Pablo Zabaleta opened the scoring in the 40th minute and Yaya Toure found the net three minutes later. Arsenal was without Robin van Persie, its captain and top scorer last season with 37 goals in all competitions. Dennis Pitta Jersey . Brad Lincoln pitched six innings to earn a victory in his first start of the season, and three relievers protected a one-run lead with three shutout innings to help beat the Miami Marlins 3-2.Are you ready for Phase Two of Bryan Colangelos oft-cited plan? Because this week, Raptors fans, the curtain finally gets pulled back for a peek at ‘whats next in Toronto basketball. This week brings the NBA Draft (Thursday at 7pm et/4pm pt on TSN), the unofficial start to the off-season feeding frenzy that will dominate league headlines for the next several weeks. The draft not only brings with it the promise of 60 new youngsters entering the leagues ranks, but also a bevy of trades that will reshape the rosters of those involved as much as any teenager picked on Thursday night. How the Raptors figure into this story is the big question on everyones mind in Raptor-land, because it would be the first real tip as to where Colangelo has this team headed going into next season. The options that are currently lying at Colangelos feet are plentiful. He can use his eighth selection in the draft to pick up a promising youngster to add to the teams young core. He can use his pick as trade bait to pick up a veteran player. He can use his draft pick and a young asset to pick up a veteran player and acquire another pick elsewhere in the first round. He can use his eighth selection and then try and swing a trade to absorb a veteran player into his cap space. For a guy that lives for exploring all options, he has no shortage of them to sift through over the next few days. Already Toronto has been linked to a trade for Andre Iguodala, a trade for Rudy Gay, a promise to Syracuse guard Dion Waiters, a trade for Kyle Lowry and picks, an interest in North Carolina forward John Henson and a free agent signing that looms over all of this in Steve Nash. The Nash story looms large because every move that is discussed with relation to the Raptors always manages to get looked at through the prism of acquiring the two-time MVP. In some cases the line is clear, like asking what happens with Nash if Lowry is acquired or Weber States Damian Lillard is drafted, since both are stud point guards. In other cases the line is more tangential, like trying to acquire a veteran like Iguodala or Gay to make Toronto a more attractive destination for Nash in free agency. The potential impact that Nash could have up and down the organization, though, warrants the unending speculation. If the Raptors are in a position to get him (and they are) then they too are going to be looking at each move as it relates to Nash, which might be the closest thing that Raptors observers have to a framing device for the next couple of weeks. In fact, its the closest thing that Raptors fans have had to an idea of Colangelos new formula since it was kicked off two years ago. After Chris Bosh bolted in free agency, Colangelo began a tearing down process that saw the roster gutted to its core as he began the process of acquiring young assets and cap space so that when he was ready to flip the switch from “;rebuilding” to “winning” he would have the assets he needed to make that transition smooth and successful. Joe Flacco Elite Jersey. What the team is left with now are lots of directions that they could go in, but very little evidence as to which path they are looking to go down. Raptors fans are eager to uncover the teams path because, lets face it, Colangelo has a very poor track record in Toronto when it comes to making moves with winning in mind. The Big Three moves that define his Toronto legacy (the Jason Kapono full mid-level deal, the selling of the farm for Jermaine ONeal and Hedo Turkoglu) betray a more balanced tour of duty, but the brazenness of each unsuccessful big move significantly tilts peoples memory towards the negative in his time with Toronto. Over the last two years, though, there has been none of that, allowing for some measure of hope to creep into the conversation with regards to Torontos future. He has stuck to affordable deals with young players, he hired a defence-first coach that was the talk of the team by seasons end, and took a chance in the draft last year that could pay off huge next season and beyond with Jonas Valanciunas. His moves have been steady, defendable and inoffensive, and almost all of them yielded at least a neutral, if not positive, outcome. But that was when winning was a secondary concern. With the teams record now a factor as the club looks to challenge for a Playoff spot, Colangelo is shifting back into gunslinger mode, a role he admitted he was eager to slide back into at the teams season ending press conference. Colangelo loves making moves, and even more than that he loves making big moves. The hope amongst Raptors fans, though, is that his big moves are smart first and big second, a sort of hybridization of the Colangelo that that was unafraid of big bets and the Colangelo that was satisfied with smaller, smarter bets. This week will give fans a good idea of where Colangelo is headed. Despite all of the trade rumors the smart money today is on Colangelo keeping his draft pick and using it to grab Syracuses Dion Waiters. If he ditches it, however, in a trade for, say, Luol Deng, then you have reason to worry about whats coming down the pike in Toronto. Colangelo has earned himself a lot of goodwill over the last two years and there is an argument to be made for keeping the spirit of some of that conservatism alive in his offseason dealings this summer. As they say, just because you can do a deal doesnt mean that you should do a deal. That was a lesson the old Colangelo never seemed to learn and it may have ultimately led to him losing Bosh in free agency. The organization allowed him to hit the reset button in the aftermath of that loss and now well get the first hints of whether or not the man in charge of running the Toronto Raptors will benefit from his experiences in the recent past. ' ' '
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