Music to listen to: Blood On The Motorway by DJ Shadow
In this all-California series, you have two franchises that have underachieved in the past few years. The two squads will face each other for the first -time ever in the playoffs and the Pacific division rivals will try to fare better in this postseason than others in the past.
The Los Angeles Kings haven’t won a playoff series since 2001 and haven’t advanced past the second round since 1993. In fact, this is only the Kings’ sixth playoff appearance since 1993.
The San Jose Sharks have gotten past the second round only two times since 2006 despite posting at least 99 points each of those seasons, including a league-high 117 points in 2009. That year, the Sharks lost in the first round to the Anaheim Ducks. The Sharks hope the other southern California team doesn’t deal them the same fate this time around.
Keys to the Series:
1) Will experience be a good or bad thing for the Sharks?
San Jose made a long run in the playoffs last season, losing the Western Conference finals to eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Chicago Blackhawks.
Furthermore, previous playoff goats such Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau played well last year, so there shouldn’t be many questions about their performance in the postseason.
Was that enough success to exercise the past playoff demons?
2) Who will score for Los Angeles?
The Kings have one of the worst offenses in the NHL, scoring only 2.5 goals per contest which was 25th in the league.
Things got worse when center Anze Kopitar, their best offensive player, got hurt and won’t be playing in this series.
The Sharks are going to get at least three goals per contest so unless the Kings can find a way to increase their offensive production as a unit, San Jose may run away with this series.
3) Do the Sharks have enough defense to make a championship run?
The blue-line of the Sharks will most likely not be contested greatly by the Kings but San Jose fans should have a slight cause of concern for the unit.
The Sharks have always had the offense to contend for a title but the defense has lacked. This season, defensemen such as Jason Demers and Marc-Edouard Vlasic have emerged and the addition of Ian White was excellent but until we see these guys do it in the playoffs, doubt has to be present.
4) Can Jonathan Quick steal the series for the Kings at goalkeeper?
If the Kings have any kind of advantage, it may be at goalkeeping, where Jonathan Quick, who had 35 wins on the year and a goal against average of 2.24, may be equal or maybe slightly better than San Jose’s goalkeeper, Antti Niemi.
Sure, Niemi led the Blackhawks to the title last year, but he may have a bad series against the Kings and Quick has the talent to shine over his opponent under the right circumstances.
Prediction: Sharks in five
If there’s a series in the entire playoffs that has the potential to be a sweep, its this one. The Kings lack scoring and are going against a squad that has been outstanding all season.
The Sports Inquirer 
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