It's good to be the Kings

[yave1964]

My take on the 2013-14 Los Angeles Kings

Wonderful team, has to be considered on the short list in any given year for a Stanley Cup finalist out of the West.

It starts with Quick, one of the top three goalies in the game. The scary part is he had a off season, looking disinterested at times. He woke up come post season but was not enough to get past Chicago, nonetheless they traded Bernier finally for needed forward depth and Ben scrivens who will serve as the backup goalie and Quick will be tested more this season.

The blue line is patrolled by Drew Doughty and he underrated Slava Voynov, both smart puck moving d-men who make the offense go. Nasty veteran hitters and young guns like Jake Muzzin make this an elite corp.

Forwards are led by long time Kings Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar. Kotitar has established himself as a near point a game finesse player while Brown has become a great team leader ad rugged forward. Jeff Carter came over in the trade that helped both teams for Jack Johnson from the Jackets as the final piece of the Stanley Cup championship team a year ago. Richards came from the Flyers and has found his home in laid back big city smaller market L.A. after the fish bowl in Philadelphia. Just like on the blue line, a solid bunch of veteran forwards like Stoll, Trevor Lewis and Colin Fraser compliment a bunch of good young kids like Nolan, Toffoli, Clifford and King for playing time. Matt Frattin came over to replace Dustin Penner and will try not to have a PRA (Pancake related injury) and was an under the radar pickup, as was Anthony Stewart.

Solid hard working club with the right GM and coach, the whole organization is on the same page. Look for them to contend for the foreseeable future and another cup or two with this core is certainly not out of the question.