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For Los Angeles Kings, when does rest become rust for Stanley Cup Final? (Puck Daddy)

It's late May. You've played three rounds of hockey. The bumps and bruises are there, but you're playing for the Stanley Cup, man. The three teams left in the race for the Cup are all feeling the effects of playing an extra month and a half of hockey. And while the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers will be playing their 18th and 20th games of the playoffs (respectively) tonight, the Los Angeles Kings have breezed their way through three rounds with a meager 14. The Rangers played that many through the opening two rounds and according to STATS, LLC., no Cup-winning team has ever played more than 18 games to get to the Final. By eliminating the Vancouver Canucks in five games and the St. Louis Blues in four, the Kings are used to having time off between series. With eight days between Game 5 against the Phoenix Coyotes and Game 1 of the Final, is that too much rest for the Kings?

 

Dominik Hasek wants NHL return; Tortorella on Game 6; Nash to Boston? (Puck Headlines) (Puck Daddy)

Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media. • We love this photo from Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. We also can't imagine how many people mistook Chad Smith of the Chili Peppers for Will Ferrell. • Dominik Hasek, 47, would like to play in the NHL again. As a backup? As a training camp invitee? Doesn't say. But we'd love to see it happen. Preferably in Tampa Bay in a tandem with Dwayne Roloson, so he can have someone to reminisce with about the discovery of fire. [ Malik ] • Steve Yzerman doesn't rule out trading for a goalie for the Tampa Bay Lightning: "My preference," Yzerman said Thursday night, "is to go with a little bit younger guy that maybe has a little less experience that can step up and play well for us now." [ TB Times ] • Coveted NCAA prospect Justin Schultz is reportedly leaving Wisconsin, giving the Anaheim Ducks a 30-day window in which to negotiate exclusively with him before he joins the Leafs, errrr, becomes a free agent. [ Ducks Blog ] • Rick Dudley has left the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Montreal Canadiens as an assistant GM. Tim Wharnsby of CBC on Dudley's mixed results. [ CBC Sports ] • Joe Haggerty breaks down a Rick Nash the Boston Bruins scenario: "Fact: The Blue Jackets are asking for too much for Nash at this point. This hockey writer can only see the superstar winger coming to Boston if Columbus is willing to take on Krejci or Tim Thomas in exchange for their franchise cornerstone. That may or may not happen." [ CSNNE ] • Glendale councilwoman calls Canadians interested in the Phoenix Coyotes' relocation "poachers." Mark Spector pounces. [ Sportsnet ] • John Tortorella on Game 6: "I thought we were on our heels, and you have to give credit to Jersey, too, a little bit, for putting us on our heels. But I think as we've been going here, I think entering tonight's game we're in the right mindset and that's going to be very important for an important game." [ NYDN ]

 

Doughty enjoying playoff breakthrough for LA Kings (The Associated Press)

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) Drew Doughty began this season holding out for a $56 million contract from the Los Angeles Kings, demanding and getting an enormous sum for a kid with more potential than accomplishment.

 

Blues assistant Mellanby won't be back next season (The Associated Press)

ST. LOUIS (AP) The St. Louis Blues say assistant coach Scott Mellanby won't be back next season.

 

Eulogy: Remembering the 2011-12 Phoenix Coyotes (Puck Daddy)

(Ed. Note: As the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue, we're bound to lose some friends along the journey. We've asked for these losers, gone but not forgotten, to be eulogized by the people who knew the teams best: The fans who hated them the most . Here are Sam Fels and Matt McClure of Second City Hockey fondly recalling the 2011-12 Phoenix Coyotes. Again, this was not written by us ... OK, by all of us. Also: This is a roast and you will be offended by it , so don't take it so seriously.) By Sam Fels and Matt McClure of Second City Hockey Ladies and gentlemen, we've come here today to bury the Pho….wait a sec, are we sure they're dead? Sure they're not just lying about for effect? This is Mike Smith's and Michal Rozsival's team after all. Do we want to bring the doctors and trainers out, just to make a big show of it for effect? You're sure? Guess the game misconducts for losing classlessly indicate no pulse. What's funny about the fact that we've been brought here to eulogize the Phoenix Coyotes is that we were asked. Bloggers for a team that up until recently regarded the Yotes as nothing more than something to fill out the schedule four times a year, and will feel that way again next year. We have it on good authority that bloggers from all four division opponents on Phoenix were asked to do this, and they all responded with "Sure Wysh, we'd love to. Wait, for who? Sorry, doesn't ring a bell." But it all came to an end, as the Homer Simpson boxing approach to hockey finally ran out of luck when the Coyotes came up against the Drederick Tatum of the Western Conference in the Kings. The extra fluid padding the brain -- known as Mike Smith -- that let the rest of the Yotes pretty much get pummeled for large portions of the playoffs without a knockout finally succumbed. It was fascinating hockey for all. Or no one. Take your pick.

 

Kings stun Phoenix in OT to reach Stanley Cup final (AFP)

The Los Angeles Kings continued their road to success in the 2012 NHL postseason, punching their ticket to the Stanley Cup finals by eliminating the Phoenix Coyotes in five games.

 

From coach throwing to fan celebrations, Russia seems fairly pleased with gold at IIHF Worlds (VIDEO) (Puck Daddy)

Here is Russian national team head coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov at his Bar Mitzvah. No, check that: This is Russian national team head coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov being thrown in the air by his players after they defeated Slovakia and captured the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship on Sunday. Is hip-hip-hooray people tossing a staple of Russian celebrations? Frankly, we wouldn't mind seeing this after a team wins the Stanley Cup. Preferably the New York Rangers ("Enough with the [expletive] [expletive] [expletive] tossing, you [expletives]") or the St. Louis Blues, a Herculean test of strength. Here's are the Russians, throwing the old man: Dude caught some air on that. Luckily for the coach, that went better than when Semyon Varlamov attempt to raise the IIHF trophy at center ice: ( s/t Marat Ryndin ) Best save of the tournament. Coming up, celebrations of the Russian ice hockey victory from back home and in Helsinki, as well as the scene from Slovakia.

 

What We Learned: Embarrassing LA sports media moments while covering Kings playoff run (Puck Daddy)

Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. It's possibly the greatest bit of investigative journalism conducted since Woodward and Bernstein brought down Richard Nixon. This exemplary, collective effort of sleuth work is currently ongoing in Los Angeles, Calif., where an entire media market has unearthed the NHL's shocking secret: The city has a professional hockey team. Over the past week or so here at Puck Daddy, we've tried to document every startling discovery made by the intrepid Los Angeles media, like how to properly pronounce Anze Kopitar's name (it's hard because he's from Bosnia or something), the real name of this Drew Doughty character ( it's actually Brad !) and that hockey is in fact not played with a ball, but rather a little piece of rubber known as a "puck." That last one makes me pretty uncomfortable because of the word it rhymes with. ("Duck" — sorry, I just don't trust 'em; they have weird beaks). Just how villainous is this team, operating as a sort of sporting sleeper cell? They got all the way to the Western Conference Finals without one local noticing. That takes real criminal talent. And not only that, but, the NHL had the diabolical idea to hide it right under the Los Angelinos' noses, by having their home games played at the Staples Center. You know, where the Lakers play. Further, they named the team the Kings to intentionally confuse even the savviest media organization into thinking they are the NBA's Sacramento Kings. Astonishingly devious stuff. More twists and turns than the Da Vinci Code, which I've read three times just to make sure I understood it all. The best bit of this journalism on this pressing issue comes, of course, from the city's paper of record, the Los Angeles Times, winner of 44 Pulitzer Prizes since 1942, including three in 2012. It was for that towering beacon of journalistic excellence that columnist Chris Erskine successfully scruted several of the team and sport's most inscrutable mysteries . For instance, that thing I said earlier about the puck (again, yuck… oh and that's another gross word it rhymes with), I learned it from Erskine. Apparently they even freeze the thing. And that's a huge point of concern, because, "The hardest shots can reach 110 mph and tear flesh, crush bone, even kill you if you're not careful." Yikes, you guys! ( Coming Up: Rick Nash to Boston?; Tororella defends Prust; Ryan Suter faces his future; Evegni Malkin is having a pretty good season; why Lundqvist is King; why the Capitals can't win with Ovechkin; the Islanders know how to party; Canucks might keep Luongo; Ryan Miller on the CBA; Flames and Oilers coaching news; and are the Kings in trouble?)

 

This Jonathan Quick sex joke is our favorite ad of 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs (PHOTO) (Puck Daddy)

You've got your stick in hand and all you want to do is score, but someone is denying you that moment of euphoria. Husbands of the world, the Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues and the Phoenix Coyotes feel your frustration … and this display ad outside of Staples Center around LA Live during Game 4 of the Western Conference final is hilarious. Over the last two years, the Boston Bruins offered some hilarious (and hilariously offensive, to some parties) display advertisements. For example: "Never, Ever Date A Flyers Fan. Even If She Shaves Her Moustache." Whoever put this Jonathan Quick tribute up — the Los Angeles Kings? Reebok? Some mysterious goalie-loving benefactor? — is giving those Boston ads a run for comedic genius in playoff display advertising. Although, a word of advice for that frustrated husband: Try shooting from center ice. s/t @bloodyeyeballs, via @hockeydoc21 and @tonybova Related NHL news from Yahoo! Sports:

 

On brink of Stanley Cup Final, LA Kings not looking ahead (Puck Daddy)

The Staples Center in Los Angeles has been busy this weekend with six playoff games in four days between the Clippers, Kings and Lakers with Sunday featuring a day/night hockey/basketball doubleheader. And while arena workers change the surface from ice to a basketball court sometime Sunday afternoon, at the same time, there could be some celebrating going on in the home locker room. The Stanley Cup Final awaits the Kings with a win Sunday over the Phoenix Coyotes. It's been 19 years since they've been at this point in the postseason, but there are plenty of players on the roster that have played this late in a season before. Despite that experience, there will be nerves and likely some minds looking ahead before the puck drops on Game 4. "Everyone talks about getting to the Stanley Cup Final, but I can only speak really for myself, playing in that game tomorrow [Sunday] night is pretty fun, as well," said Kings captain Dustin Brown on Saturday. "It's one of the things where you gotta really enjoy the journey. We're one game away from the Cup Final. But it's one game we have to win." It's only human nature for Brown and his teammates to picture what a celebration might be like in front of the home crowd after another series sweep. And, in Brown's case, he may have taken a moment to ponder whether or not he touches the Clarence Campbell Bowl out of superstition. Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, however, were a bit more cautious.