For the Coyotes, it will mark the first time they have played in the conference final. As for the Kings, they have reached the conference final on one other occasion. They won that series, but fell to the Montreal Canadiens during the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals.
During the regular season, the Kings and the Coyotes met six times, with each team winning three games. Only one of the games was decided by more than one goal and three of the games were decided outside of regulation time.
Besides close games, there has also been some rough stuff, especially during the February 16 meeting between the teams, when four fights took place, including one between the team captain’s Shane Doan and Dustin Brown.
Kings head coach Darryl Sutter offered his take on the potential for emotions getting the best of the players during the upcoming series:
The intensity of it, if you saw it in one game for two or three minutes, I think it doesn't have as much bearing on playoffs, and then it comes up to the top players. We talked about Dustin Brown and players like that, it becomes up to them to create a rivalry based on how hard they play against each other.
The fights have been one of the main talking points surrounding this series. The other, of course, is the stellar play of the goaltenders Jonathan Quick and Mike Smith.
Quick is tops in the NHL with a 1.55 goals against average and a .949 save percentage and while Smith’s numbers trail those of Quick, they are not that far off the mark, as he sports a 1.77 GAA and .948 save percentage.
Quick’s play has not been a surprise; he is after all, in the running for the Vezina Trophy. On the other hand, Smith has effectively made the Phoenix ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Kings
