Playoff Hockey

The insanity begins tonight with half the contenders from each conference squaring off, and you can get lots of perspective from both ESPN and Yahoo! Sports on the overall picture...but most importantly, tomorrow night is Game 1 for the Kings in Vancouver.

There's no question the Kings have their work cut out for them, even though they clocked in with only three less points than the 3rd seeded Canucks. Rich Hammond assembled the tale of the tape in some of the most high-profile statistical categories this season, including the league ranking:

POINTS: Kings 101 (tie 9th); Canucks 103 (5th)

GOALS FOR: Kings 241 (7th); Canucks 272 (2nd)

GOALS AGAINST: Kings 219 (10th); Canucks 222 (11th)

SAVE PERCENTAGE: Kings .907 (18th); Canucks .910 (tie 14th)

POWER-PLAY %: Kings 20.8 (7th); Canucks 20.9 (6th)

PENALTY-KILL %: Kings 80.3 (20th); Canucks 81.6 (18th)

HOME-GAME POINTS: Kings 50 (tie 17th); Canucks 63 (2nd)

ROAD-GAME POINTS: Kings 51 (tie 2nd); Canucks 40 (17th)

PENALTY MIN./GAME: Kings 11.9 (tie 14th); Canucks 15.5 (26th)

MOST GOALS
Kings: Anze Kopitar, 34; Canucks: Alex Burrows, 35

MOST ASSISTS
Kings: Anze Kopitar, 47; Canucks: Henrik Sedin, 83

MOST POINTS
Kings: Anze Kopitar: 81; Canucks: Henrik Sedin, 112

GOALIE WINS AND GOALS-AGAINST AVERAGE
Kings: Jonathan Quick, 39, 2.54; Canucks: Roberto Luongo, 40, 2.57

Some "experts" have the Kings going down in 5 to 7 games, which at least comforts me that none of them think it'll be a sweeping blowout. But giving Los Angeles some love are John Buccigross (in 7), Scott Burnside (in 7), Dmitry Chesnokov (in 7), Tom Murray (in 6) and Scott Pianowski (in 6). Clearly, the expectation is there will be a bigger battle for the Kings to get into the next round, but it's not an unheard of opinion.

Only in the most recent of four match ups did the Kings beat Vancouver, but it was a sound drubbing. Again Rich from LA Kings Insider has the data:

Oct. 29 at L.A.: Vancouver 2, Kings 1 (shootout)
Shots: Kings 31, Vancouver 15
Kings’ power play: 0-3
Kings’ penalty kill: 2-2
Goalies: Jonathan Quick, Andrew Raycroft
Goals: Scott Parse (LA), 11:27 first period; Mikael Samuelsson (VAN), 18:36 first period

Nov. 26 at Vancouver: Vancouver 4, Kings 1
Shots: Vancouver 34, Kings 32
Kings’ power play: 0-4
Kings’ penalty kill: 5-5
Goalies: Jonathan Quick, Roberto Luongo
Goals: Alex Burrows (VAN), 7:35 first period; Wayne Simmonds (LA), 19:17 second period; Henrik Sedin (VAN), 3:54 third period; Tanner Glass (VAN), 7:18 third period; Kyle Wellwood (VAN), 19:54 third period

Dec. 14 at Vancouver: Vancouver 3, Kings 1
Shots: Vancouver 28, Kings 25
Kings’ power play: 0-5
Kings’ penalty kill: 4-5
Goalies: Jonathan Quick, Roberto Luongo
Goals: Ryan Kesler (VAN), 1:04 first period; Sami Salo (VAN), 17:15 first period; Alexander Frolov (LA), 19:43 first period; Mason Raymond (VAN), 14:48 third period

April 1 at L.A.: Kings 8, Vancouver 3
Shots: Vancouver 30, Kings 29
Kings’ power play: 2-5
Kings’ penalty kill: 2-3
Goalies: Jonathan Bernier, Roberto Luongo
Goals: Alexander Frolov (LA), 5:26 first period; Anze Kopitar (LA), 14:01 first period; Dustin Brown (LA), 18:02 first period; Jarret Stoll (LA), 3:37 second period; Dustin Brown (LA), 9:20 second period; Kyle Wellwood (VAN), 12:43 second period; Ryan Kesler (VAN), 13:22 second period; Dustin Brown (LA), 3:31 third period; Kyle Wellwood (VAN), 4:49 third period; Justin Williams (LA), 6:38 third period; Michal Handzus (LA), 15:42 third period.

I'm looking forward to the first playoff series in close to a decade, and the season's already a success by virtue of the outcome of this year's campaign compared to years past. It's all gravy now, but that doesn't mean we're not hungry.