The Reasons Arizona Hates the Los Angeles Kings
Okay. We all know that the Los Angeles Kings have won two Stanley Cups (2012, 2014) in the past three seasons.
As a divisional rival, it’s easy to drink the haterade made from the fruits of their success- BUT you can’t deny that they are one heck of a hockey club to have accomplished that feat.
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Add in the fact that since the 09-10 season they’ve made two unsuccessful appearances to the quarterfinals (’09-’10, ’10-’11), and lost once in the Western Conference Finals(’12-’13) to go with those two aforementioned Stanley Cups? Yeah. Hate away, Coyotes fans.
To Further Dissect Their Incredible Success:
In the 2011-2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, they won an amazing 16 games out of 20 for a .800 winning percentage. Now, in their ’13-’14 run, they had to win three consecutive seven games series to hoist the Cup that year… a true sign of a champion.
As Coyotes fans, of course, seeing the Kings win yet another stung more than ever- since the ‘Yotes went to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since arriving here from Winnipeg in 1996… only to lose to, you know. The Los Angeles Kings.
Losing the first two games at home by the scores of 4-2 and 4-0 respectively, they dug their own grave, losing the series 4-1. With Jonathan Quick performing like a circus trapeze artist during this Cup competition, it was difficult to beat his stats: 16 W, 4 L, GAA 1.41, Sv % .946
Just as the Coyotes had ridden on the back of Mike Smith during that season with his great numbers ( 38 W, 18 L, 10 OTL, GAA 2.21, SV% .93), the L.A. Kings did likewise. A hot goaltender during the playoffs is like money in the bank… SOLID.
I have always agreed with the analogy that much like good pitching wins baseball games, good goaltending can have a HUGE factor in your success on the ice. For example, look how Mike Smith is playing this season, and how it affects the success of the Coyotes. I’m the first to note that Smith has had terrible defense in front of him, and that has led to his demise — but I’m also aware that he is NOT playing up to the standards that earned him a $5,666,667 contract through the ’18-’19 season.
Back to the Kings HATE-O-METER
Sometimes the style of play used by the Kings can really infuriate a Coyotes fan. Like for instance when Dustin Brown hit Michal Rozsival in the ’11-’12 series vs the Yotes.
He was injured on a play just seconds before Dustin Penner’s overtime series winner after a hit from Brown, and had to be assisted off the ice. It took the wind out of the Coyotes sails, but the sad part was.. most everyone who witnessed it thought that Brown’s hit was dirty, since he hit around his knee; despite this, he was NOT penalized on the play! You be the judge:
Of course, with all the L.A. Kings success of late, most teams want to emulate their style of play. It’s always easy to hate another team’s success; it’s a normal jealousy kind of thing. All I have to say is the Kings/Coyotes games are always well fought, hard hitting, competitive games, and as a hockey fan you can’t ask for much more…SO, let’s cheer on our Yotes on as the Kings come to town, and hope we can de-throne them, and stay in the hunt for the CUP.
GO YOTES ! !
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