Stanley Cup Playoffs 2012: Breaking Down Los Angeles Kings vs New Jersey Devils

On Wednesday, the New Jersey Devils will host the Los Angeles Kings for Game 1 of the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals.

It wasn't the matchup most of us were expecting when the postseason got underway seven weeks ago, but it's a series with plenty of potential intrigue.

Neither team attracted much attention over the course of the regular season, and neither the sixth-seeded Devils nor the eighth-seeded Kings has had home ice advantage in any of their previous series.

Here's how the matchup breaks down:

Regular Season

New Jersey and Los Angeles met twice during the 2011-12 regular season, and the Devils won both those games.

On Oct 13, the Devils beat the Kings 2-1 in a shootout at the Prudential Center in Newark. On Oct 25, the Devils shut out the Kings 3-0 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Those games don't mean much right now. They happened early in the season, when the Kings were still being coached by Terry Murray. Also, marquee goalies Jonathan Quick and Martin Brodeur only faced each other in the first period of the first game. They each gave up one goal in that period, before Brodeur left the game with a shoulder injury. Johan Hedberg was perfect the rest of the way. Hedberg also recorded the shutout in the second game, facing off against Kings' backup Jonathan Bernier.

It's safe to assume that neither team thought these games were key moments to plan their spring Stanley Cup strategy.

Shots on goal over the two series slightly favored the Devils, 60-58, and faceoff wins were exactly even at 47 apiece.

Overall in the regular season, New Jersey finished seventh in the league with 102 points. However, they finished fourth in the Atlantic Division behind the Rangers, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, which dropped them to the sixth seed in the East. The Devils had a better year than you might have realized.

They were 15th in goals-for and eighth in goals against. Fourteenth on the power play, but first overall on the penalty kill.

The Kings' second half under Daryl Sutter was stronger than the first under Murray, but they still just squeaked into the postseason on the second-to-last day. They lost their last two games against San Jose to drop to eighth place when they had a chance to grab the third seed from Phoenix. They finished with 95 points, good for 13th overall.

Behind the great goaltending of Quick, the Kings were second in the league in goals-against, but a woeful 29th in goals-for, ahead of only Minnesota—scoring was supposed to be their playoff Achilles heel. They were 17th on the power play but fourth overall on the penalty kill.

Regular season stats favor the Devils quite clearly. But the Kings have been proving throughout these playoffs that their regular season meant nothing.

Playoffs so Far

To sum up the 2012 playoffs for both teams: success!

Los Angeles has rolled over the top three seeds in the Western Conference and lost only two games in the process. They're back in the finals for the first time since the Gretzky era in 1993. The Kings have never won the Stanley Cup.

New Jersey had its toughest series in Round 1, going to double-overtime of Game 7 before vanquishing the much-maligned Florida Panthers. They didn't get a lot of respect heading into their series against either the Flyers or the Rangers, and dropped the first game of both series before roaring back to win convincingly. They're back in the finals for the first time since they won the Cup in 2003, and have triumphed three times in four prior appearances.

In 18 games so far, the Devils have scored 51 goals and surrendered 42. In 14 games, the Kings have scored 41 times and given up a mere 22. That's about the same as what Nashville and St. Louis surrendered in just two rounds, and significantly less than the 30 goals that Pittsburgh gave up in the first round alone!

The Devils' power play has been cooking along at an impressive 18.18 percent, but their regular season penalty kill has abandoned them, dropping to just 74.19 percent efficiency. The Kings are still having trouble scoring with the man advantage, capitalizing at just 8.11 percent, but their penalty kill has been stellar, at 91.23 percent so far.

Additionally, the Kings have five backbreaking shorthanded goals to their credit, while the Devils have just one. The teams have been called pretty evenly, with the Devils taking 62 penalties to the Kings 57 thus far.

The Kings have been a juggernaut so far in these playoffs. If past performance is an indicator of future performance, they'll hoist their first Cup in two weeks.

Goaltending

The most intriguing matchup of this series will focus on the two goaltenders.

Jonathan Quick has been the backbone of the Los Angeles Kings all season long. The first-time Vezina Trophy candidate has posted an amazing 1.54 goals-against average so far in the playoffs and a .946 save percentage. The Kings' success has been a direct result of the top-flight netminding of the 26-year-old Connecticut native.

Quick was nine years old when Martin Brodeur won his first of three Stanley Cups back in 1995. The 40-year-old holds countless all-time playoff records and has surprised in backstopping New Jersey to another Finals appearance.

So far in these playoffs, Brodeur has a 2.04 goals-against and a .923 save percentage. He has also played over 200 minutes more so far than Quick.

Brodeur matched up well against the Florida tandem of Theordore and Clemmensen, and he had an edge over the Flyers' Bryzgalov. But the skeptics said he'd never out duel the Rangers' "King" Henrik Lundqvist.

In the end, Brodeur's experience paid off and he gave a solid performance in triumphing over the much more lauded New York netminder.

Can he do it again versus Quick? Don't count him out.

Redemption Stories

One of the great things about seeing two lower-profile teams in the Finals is that we won't be listening to the same old stories about the same old stars.

In a couple of weeks, one of these groups will have Stanley Cup rings, and their agents will have new opportunities to market their clients as the 'next' face of the NHL. Until this spring, the ink spilled on a lot of these players veered more towards what they couldn't do than what they could.

Take Ilya Kovalchuk, for instance. He was perceived as a selfish, one-dimensional offensive player who only cared about his own stats when the Devils acquired him from the Atlanta Thrashers, then signed him to a massive long-term deal.

Before this year, Kovalchuk had only appeared in four playoff games, and had never won a single one. Now, the 29-year-old is heading into the Finals as the leading postseason scorer, with 18 points in 17 games.

The Devils' lineup is littered with other teams' castoffs who are now playing the best hockey of their careers, from Minnesota's Marek Zidlicky and St. Louis's Bryce Salvador on defense to the powerhouse fourth line of Ryan Carter, Stephen Gionta and Steve Bernier, who almost single-handedly took out the Rangers with their timely scoring.

As for the Kings? One word: pancakes.

Dustin Penner cast off his reputation as an overpaid, lazy slacker in one shot when his overtime goal in Game 5 advanced Los Angeles past the Phoenix Coyotes. Suddenly, his press is all about his cup-winning experience back in 2007 with Anaheim.

Mike Richards and Jeff Carter have left the swirling innuendos surrounding their departure from Philadelphia behind. They're getting another chance to play for the Cup, while their old teammates are playing for bragging rights on the golf course.

Dustin Brown has become a household name. As has Drew Doughty. And after nearly retiring two years ago due to concussion-related symptoms, Willie Mitchell has become one of those wily blueline veterans who's logging 25 minutes a game in every situation on his 35-year-old legs.

Both coaches also have something to prove. Peter DeBoer missed the playoffs all three years he was behind the bench in Florida, and each regular season was worse than the one before. He's managed to change the style in New Jersey to something more entertaining than their traditional defense-first philosophy, and can clearly motivate his team in the playoffs.

Darryl Sutter was out of the coaching game for five years before agreeing to take on the Kings, as he had been the General Manager of the Calgary Flames. Sutter never made the finals as a player, and In twelve previous seasons as a head coach, he'd only previously been past the second round once, when he took the Flames to the 2004 Final.

Even the franchises themselves will benefit enormously from the hoopla surrounding a Finals appearance. The Kings' marketing department has done an enviable job in raising the team's profile throughout the playoffs. Now that the  Lakers and Clippers have both been eliminated from the NBA Playoffs, they might even finally get some play in the California sports pages.

Meanwhile, despite their past successes, the Devils have had trouble maintaining a fanbase and have often been in precarious financial shape. Earlier this season, rumors swirled that the team was close to bankruptcy. The Devils denied the rumours, and with each successful playoff round, they get a little more solvent. A Stanley Cup Finals appearance is great news for any bottom line.

Rookie Sensations

New players make a name for themselves in every playoff, but the Kings' Dwight King and the Devils' Adam Henrique have done it with particular panache.

For all the talk about Los Angeles's top six forwards, it was King who was clutch against Phoenix. The 6-foot-3, 234 pound left winger scored four times against the Coyotes. His five playoff goals in total now match his complete output from 27 regular-season games.

The Coyotes couldn't find an answer for the hulking forward; it will be interesting to see if the Devils can contain him better.

On New Jersey's side, their rookie center Adam Henrique is showing why he's a Calder Trophy finalist. Henrique potted the overtime winner in Game 6 to beat the Rangers, and back in Round 1, he also scored the double-overtime goal to advance the Devils past Florida. According to Elias Sports Bureau, he's only the second player in NHL history to accomplish this feat, after Martin Gelinas of Calgary in 2004.

Verdict: Devils in 7

Los Angeles is big, physical, forecheck like demons and have unbelievable goaltending. They're well-rested and, as far as we know, perfectly healthy.

So, I'm taking New Jersey.

Easy money is on the Kings for sure. Even though the Devils have home-ice advantage, Los Angeles looks like the favorite coming into this Final, simply due to how they've bulldozed their way through the first three rounds.

Jersey showed me a lot with their systematic approach to dismantling the Flyers and Rangers, two teams built for postseason. Scouting and coaching will be huge in this series, with two teams that don't know each other very well and have never met before in playoffs. Richards and Carter played the Devils a lot in their days with the Flyers, but Peter DeBoer has this team operating in a new dimension.

At this point, I can't go against the Devils' history and Martin Brodeur's Stanley Cup experience.

I don't expect a blowout at all. I think the Devils will lose Game 1 like usual, then we'll see what happens from there.