The Hockey Unknows : Dave Babych

David Michael Babych (born May 23, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played 19 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). He is currently an assistant director of player personnel with the Vancouver Canucks.^[1] He played in two NHL All-Star Games and played for the Winnipeg Jets, Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks, Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings. He is the younger brother of former NHL player Wayne Babych. He was the first NHL player to wear the number 44 on a permanent basis.

Playing career

 

 

Winnipeg Jets

Considered a franchise talent after a standout junior career in the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Portland Winter Hawks, Babych was selected second overall in the 1980 NHL Entry Draft by the Winnipeg Jets. At the time of his selection, Babych and his brother Wayne (taken 3rd overall in 1978) were the highest-drafted pair of brothers in NHL history, a record since broken by Pierre and Sylvain Turgeon and the Sedin twins (Daniel and Henrik). Babych stepped into the Jets lineup immediately as a teenager during the 1980–81 season, turning in a stellar rookie campaign in which he finished second on the club with 38 assists and led all Winnipeg blueliners with 44 points. Babych went on to lead all defenders on his team in scoring in each of his first 10 NHL seasons.

In 1981–82, Babych emerged as a star on a revitalized Winnipeg team which improved by 48 points with the addition of superstar rookie Dale Hawerchuk, setting franchise records for defencemen with 19 goals and 68 points in helping the Jets to their first-ever NHL playoff berth. Key to his improvement and development was the acquisition of veteran Serge Savard, a future Hall of Famer, to serve as his partner on the blueline. 1982–83 would be better yet, as he led the Jets with 61 assists and broke his own club record for defensive scoring with 74 points. He was also voted in as a starter for the Campbell Conference at the 1983 NHL All-Star Game.

Babych played in the All-Star game again in 1984, and turned in another excellent season, although he missed 14 games due to injury. In 1984–85, the Jets would have their best season ever, finishing fourth in the NHL with 96 points, and Babych - now forming a dynamic partnership on the blueline with former Norris Trophy winner Randy Carlyle - finished the year with 62 points to lead the team's defenders in scoring for the fifth consecutive season. He excelled in the 1985 playoffs, leading the team in scoring as they won their first-ever playoff series before being ousted by the Edmonton Oilers.

 

Hartford Whalers

Despite registering 16 points in his first 19 games to start the 1985–86 season, Babych was dealt to the Hartford Whalers for Ray Neufeld. Unpopular with Winnipeg fans at the time, the move would be a terrible one for the Jets as Neufeld was never more than a depth player for them and was out of the NHL by 1989, while Babych continued to excel for nearly another 15 years.

In Hartford, Babych continued his stellar play, finishing the season with 69 points - the second-highest total of his career - and was named the team's top defender. In 1986–87, he missed time with injury and finished with a career-low 41 points. However, he bounced back the following year to record another 50-point season, good for second on the Whalers in scoring. He was named the Whalers' top defender again in 1988–89, and led the team in playoff scoring with six points in four games. In 1989–90, he finished the year with 6 goals and 43 points, his 10th consecutive season over 40 points.

Babych suffered a serious wrist injury in 1990–91, requiring surgery shortly after the start of the season, causing him to miss 40 games. He then suffered a severely broken thumb almost immediately after his return, ruling him out for the rest of the campaign. He only appeared in eight games all season, recording six assists.

 

Vancouver Canucks

After missing almost all of the previous season to injury, Hartford exposed Babych in the 1991 NHL Expansion Draft, where he was selected by the Minnesota North Stars. However, he was almost immediately dealt to the Vancouver Canucks for Tom Kurvers.

While Babych was no longer the front-line defender he was earlier in his career, he continued to be a steady and valued contributor during his seven years in Vancouver, capable of showing flashes of his former offensive ability. Babych became the only defender in Canucks history to record a hat trick during the regular season, a feat he accomplished on November 22, 1991, against the Calgary Flames (Doug Halward also recorded a hat-trick for the Canucks in a playoff game). He finished the 1991–92 season with five goals and 29 points (second amongst Vancouver defenders, behind Jyrki Lumme), and was a key factor on a vastly improved Canuck team which won their division for the first time in 17 years. He also added eight points in 13 playoff games.

Injuries limited Babych to just 43 games in 1992–93, but he bounced back in 1993–94 with 32 points, his highest total since 1990. He continued to play inspired hockey in the playoffs as Vancouver reached the Stanley Cup Finals, scoring the biggest goal of his career on June 9, 1994, in Game 5 of the Finals against the New York Rangers. After the Rangers came back from a 3–0 deficit to tie the game, Babych jumped into the rush and buried a pass from Pavel Bure to score the game-winning goal. It sparked a comeback in the series for Vancouver, who would narrowly lose the series in seven games.

Babych continued to toil steadily on the Canucks' blueline for another four seasons, although the team's fortunes went into decline. Most notable for Babych was a surprise offensive resurgence at the start of the 1995–96 campaign, which saw him amongst the league's highest-scoring defenders through the first month of the season.

 

 

Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings

With the Canucks well out of the playoff race at the end of the 1997–98 season, the team dealt Babych to the Philadelphia Flyers for a low draft pick in order to give him a chance to play for a contending team. However, Babych missed a substantial amount of time after breaking his foot blocking a slap shot soon after his arrival in Philadelphia, and the Flyers were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round.

Babych continued to serve as a depth defender for the Flyers in 1998–99, before being dealt to the Los Angeles Kings at the trade deadline. He finished his final season with two goals and 8 points in 41 games between Philadelphia and Los Angeles. He had a brief stint in Switzerland in 2000 before retiring.

Babych finished his career with 142 goals and 581 assists for 723 points in 1195 NHL games, along with 970 penalty minutes. He added 21 goals and 41 assists for 62 points in 114 playoff games.

 

 

Retirement

Babych made his home in North Vancouver^{[disambiguation needed]}, British Columbia, following his retirement.^[1] In December 2009, he was hired to work in a part-time capacity with the Vancouver Canucks as an assistant specializing in defencemen to director of player personnel Dave Gagner.^[1]

 

 Lawsuit against the Flyers

Babych sued the Flyers and the team's orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Arthur Bartolozzi, in 2002, claiming that improper medical care for his 1998 foot injury shortened his career. Bartolozzi misdiagnosed the injury as a bone bruise rather than a fracture, and gave Babych painkillers so he could suit up for the first round of the playoffs. Babych claimed for many years that playing through the injury caused permanent damage which prematurely ended his career. Claiming that the Flyers and Bartolozzi had defrauded him, he sued for $2 million in lost wages. The Flyers were dismissed as a defendant before trial when a judge ruled there was no evidence of fraud on their part. While a jury found no evidence of fraud Bartolozzi's part either, it found that he failed to follow accepted standards of care and awarded Babych US$$1.02 million in lost wages and US$350,000 for pain and suffering in November 2002.^[2]

Personal life

Babych, who is of Ukrainian ancestry,^[3] was born in Edmonton, Alberta.
Dave and Wayne Babych are also brothers-in-law, as they married twin sisters. They have since divorced their first wives and started new families.
Babych had a small role in the movie Slap Shot 2.^[4]

STATS :

LNH : Monsieur «Match numéro 7» récompensé

source : Tvasports.ca

Monsieur «Match numéro 7», monsieur «Clutch»… Appelez-le comme vous voulez, mais appelez-le monsieur. Justin Williams mérite amplement son titre de meilleur joueur des séries.

L’attaquant a reçu le trophée Conn Smythe, vendredi après la conquête de la coupe Stanley des Kings de Los Angeles.

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Williams a terminé les séries avec huit buts et 16 aides pour un total de 24 points, deux points derrière son coéquipier Anze Kopitar au sommet du classement de la LNH à ce chapitre.

Mais ce qui distingue l’ailier ontarien, c’est qu’il a inscrit au moins un point dans chacun des trois matchs numéro 7 auxquels ont participé les Kings avant d’accéder à la finale. Williams a toujours été performant dans sa carrière lors de rencontres ultimes.

C’est la troisième coupe Stanley de la carrière de Williams, après le triomphe des Kings en 2012 et celui des Hurricanes en 2006, à l’époque où l’attaquant portait les couleurs de la formation de la Caroline du Nord.

Henrik Lundqvist brilliant (and lucky) as New York Rangers force Game 5 with 2-1 win over Los Angeles Kings

source : faceoff.com

Hands up, anyone who thought the Los Angeles Kings, after toiling the maximum 21 games getting to the Stanley Cup final, were going to finish it in four.

You, Henrik Lundqvist?

No?

King Henrik of Sweden votes no.

Lundqvist, who faced 41 shots, including a lopsided third period in which the Kings outshot the home side 15-1, was both brilliant and incredibly lucky — yes, there’s that word again — in erecting a wall that just barely held, allowing the New York Rangers a 2-1 victory that let them live to see another day in the Stanley Cup final.

They still trail the series 3-1, with Game 5 in L.A. on Friday, but the journey of a few thousand miles begins with a single step and Lundqvist, so downcast after the Rangers’ 3-0 Game 3 loss, rebounded with a performance for the ages Wednesday before his adoring constituents at Madison Square Garden.

Martin St. Louis’s second-period goal, on a puck that deflected onto his stick between the pads of Jonathan Quick, was the winner in a game that saw two similar deflections elude Lundqvist but sit on or within inches of the goal line before being spirited away by Ranger skaters.

New York managed just 19 shots at Quick.

It was, after three games of ill fortune, probably only fair that Alain Vigneault’s team should profit from a couple of breaks.

“Maybe,” said the former Vancouver Canucks coach, “the luck is changing a little bit.”

The Rangers were outshot 11-8 in the first period, but two events gave them hope that they might finally get their share of bounces.

The first was a point shot by defenceman John Moore that struck two sticks on its way past Quick for the period’s only goal. It hit L.A. defender Jake Muzzin’s stick shaft, then was tipped out of the air by Benoit Pouliot with a borderline high stick that the league evidently never even looked at twice. Not before the puck was dropped again, at least.

The second was an Alec Martinez shot that squeezed between Lundqvist’s pads but lay on the goal line, where the Kings’ Jeff Carter whiffed on it before Anton Stralman swept it out of danger.

Then, 6:27 into the second, St. Louis was at the corner of the crease to shovel in a pass that had gone off both his linemate Chris Kreider and, possibly, Martinez and between Quick’s legs and New York had the dreaded two-goal lead.

Sure enough, two minutes later, New York defenceman Dan Girardi, who’s had one of the all-time hard-luck finals, had the handle of his stick break off in his hands at the L.A. blueline and Dustin Brown blew past him to break in on Lundqvist and beat him with a pretty forehand deke.

From that point on, the Rangers knew they were in for a war. Nor were they mistaken.

The Kings swarmed them in the latter half of the game, rolling in on the New York defence in waves, but time and again Lundqvist — usually in heavy traffic, with bodies strewn around in heaps — held firm against the tide.

“He’s been our best player all year, one of the best goalies in the world. It’s huge to have him be the backbone of this team,” said forward Rick Nash, who played a big, strong game for the Rangers.

“We were that close. If we tap those in, it’s a whole different hockey game,” said Kings rookie Tanner Pearson, who was the most dangerous skater on either team, and had eight shots on goal. “We were trying to close it out, we knew they would come with a pretty big push. We bounced back but we just couldn’t get that second one.”

“We had a lot of good opportunities,” said L.A. coach Darryl Sutter. “But you got to finish. Only going to get a handful most nights against the New York Rangers. You got to finish a couple of them.”

With Quick on the bench for an extra skater, the Kings attacked feverishly trying for the equalizer, and with 1:11 left another deflection trickled between Lundqvist’s pads but, so late in the game, ground to a halt a couple of inches short of the line in the snowy ice and forward Derek Stepan swept it under Lundqvist’s pads with his glove.

“I knew I couldn’t cover the puck with my hand,” said Stepan, who managed to get the job done with Kings’ bodies and sticks all around him.

“I saw it on the Jumbotron,” said Kings defenceman Drew Doughty. “There were two like that tonight. That was the difference in the game.

“Our team game was good. We had a lot of good opportunities. We didn’t really give up too much against. Both (New York) goals were pretty bad bounces. But the bottom line is that we didn’t score goals when we needed to and that’s why we lost the game.”

“Don’t fool yourself. Hank stood on his head,” Stepan said. “He’s a big part of why we’re going back to L.A. He just competes. That’s one thing I’ve learned about Hank, that he never seems to stop competing. He loves to win and he hates to lose.”

“I knew it wasn’t in because the light wasn’t going on,” Vigneault said, of the last of the Rangers’ great escapes. “I didn’t know exactly where it was. I was able to see the replay after.

“Thank God for soft ice.”

Los Angeles vs New York - Kings take stranglehold on Cup final #hockey #playoff #kings #rangers

source : faceoff.com

Preconceptions about the lopsided potential of this Stanley Cup final — hastily revised after the first two games — appear to have been correct after all.

The Los Angeles Kings, arguably lucky to win either, let alone both, of their home games to start the series, dominated every phase of Game 3 Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

It was 3-0 on the scoreboard, it is 3-0 in games, and soon, to use an old newspaper symbol for “end of story” it will be -30- for the New York Rangers.

Jeff Carter supplied the dagger — opening scoring with 0.8 seconds left in the first period — and goalie Jonathan Quick the exclamation point.

Jake Muzzin and Mike Richards added second-period goals, and the Kings shut it down after that.
New York outshot the visitors 32-15 and it couldn’t have mattered less, because the Kings got three exceptional bounces, one on each of their goals, and Quick was there to clean up their rare mistakes with a performance reminiscent of his 2012 Conn Smythe Trophy form.

“That was our hockey, that was our team tonight,” said Kings centre Jarret Stoll. “We wanted to get the lead and stifle them, stay on top of them.

“The games have been so back-and-forth and nail-biting, I’m sure for fans, people watching the games. But we were feeling it, we were rolling our lines, 25-35 seconds (shifts), just keeping the tempo high.”

The coast-to-coast change of venue altered the tone almost immediately, and the teams settled into a tight-checking pattern more familiar to both.

“This is the game that we want to play,” said defenceman Matt Greene. “We don’t want to get into shootouts. Obviously the come-from-behind wins are not going to last.”

The shots were 3-3 through the first period until its very last split-second when Justin Williams — yes, him again — found Carter unchecked in the slot and Carter’s snap shot glanced off the skate of a sliding Dan Girardi and in and out of Henrik Lundqvist’s glove.

The clock showed 0.0 but the red light was on, and the replay revealed the puck crossed the line with 0.8 seconds left. The Garden went quiet as 18,006 jaws dropped simultaneously. Make that 18,007, because New York coach Alain Vigneault’s did, too, and he cast his eyes heavenward as if to say:
“Aren’t you finished yet?”

On Muzzin’s goal, his shot glanced off Rangers’ Marty St. Louis, who was trying to block it, and handcuffed Lundqvist. Richards scored on a 2-on-1 late in the period when his attempted pass to Kyle Clifford was batted right back onto his stick by defenceman Ryan McDonagh and Lundqvist could ony watch helpessly as Richards buried it … and very likely, buried the Rangers along with it.

“Well, you try to stay positive right now, but it’s tough,” said Lundqvist, who simply has not got a break in this series. “We are doing a lot of good things but you look at the goals and we put two in our own net and it was just a tough play on the third one.

“At some point, you are going to need some puck luck and we don’t have any right now. It feels like they have all of it.

“It doesn’t matter what you think you deserve out there, you just have to find a way to win games, and that’s what they have been doing.”

Quick, meanwhile, made two other-worldly stick saves, one on Mats Zuccarello in the first period, another on Derick Brassard in the second, and was all over the puck, tracking it through traffic, gambling and winning when he charged out to cut angles, never giving up on scrambles.

Zuccarello could have changed the feel of the game had he scored 12 minutes in, with Quick down and out. But with an open net at his feet, the diminutive Norwegian was foiled by Quick’s desperate dive, and the puck glanced off the goaltender’s paddle and out the other side.

“I don’t know how … did he save it?” said Stoll. “Empty net, it was 0-0 at the time, those are saves you need, and that’s the type of goalie he is. He’s the best in the world. He’s going to come up with those saves sometimes, it doesn’t surprise us.

“He was great for us tonight, he did everything we needed him to do, when we needed it. The power plays that they had (Rangers were 0-for-6), coming up with pucks, battling like he was, side to side and out, challenging …”

L.A. captain Dustin Brown thinks the size of the stage appeals to Quick.

"I think it definitely plays a part, being on this type of stage, being from this area," said Brown. "I think it's a big deal to anybody who plays here. I think also the guy at the other end of the ice is a very good goaltender as well and I think that motivates Quickie because he's a competitor."

The Kings, looking fresher than in either of the two games in L.A., kept the pedal down in the third period and didn't allow the Rangers even a breath of life.

“Well, we’re used to the travel the day before. Obviously, being in the West, we do it a lot. We moved past all that fatigue part of it a couple of days ago,” said L.A. coach Darryl Sutter.
Now, it’s just about finishing.

The Kings had New Jersey down 3-0 in games two seasons ago, and had to go six games to win it.
“I haven’t even thought about that,” Sutter said. “Has nothing to do with this series. I mean, hell, we
got thrown under the bus by everybody on earth seven weeks ago.”

That’s when they were down 0-3 to San Jose, the first of their seven-game marathons.

They hadn’t done anything the easy way yet … until Monday night.

Vigneault was asked what he would tell his players, considering what they face in Game 4.

"Well," he said, "I'm going to take the night to figure it out."

Los Angeles vs New York : Puck luck? Kings masters of the breaks #hockey #nhl #playoffs #rangers #kings

source : faceoff.com

The topic was luck. Puck luck, hit-the-goalpost luck, go-in-off-a-defenceman’s-skate luck, referee’s-mistake luck.

Craig Simpson tells the story of the 1990 Stanley Cup final in Boston, Game 1, the Bruins and Edmonton Oilers tied 2-2.

“It was the long game, remember?” said Jim Hughson’s Hockey Night in Canada sidekick.
“Sure, the Petr Klima, triple-overtime game,” a reporter said.

“Yeah, well in the second overtime, I was backchecking on, I think, Randy Burridge, and I remember being behind him on the perfect angle to see his shot going toward the net, and I said, ‘S—t, it’s over,’” Simpson said late Saturday evening.

“It was going in, Billy (Oiler goalie Ranford) never saw it coming, and all of a sudden it hit the knob of his stick…”

The conversation had started because of the Los Angeles Kings’ seemingly inexhaustible resourcefulness in winning from behind in these playoffs — coming from 2-0 down in three straight games now, and winning them all, including Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Final over the luckless New York Rangers.

But what about the Kings? If the Rangers are luckless, what part of the bigger picture of L.A.’s fairy tale series of comeback wins is played by pure, unadulterated luck?

Reporters are reluctant to give it the credit it deserves now and then, when it is a particularly integral part of turning a key game or even a whole series on its ear.

And it always sounds a little weak when a player or coach on the losing side speaks of luck, so not many go there. But every one of them knows it decides plenty of games.

Two playoff seasons in a row, Chicago captain Jonathan Toews has referred to bounces, and how the Hawks just had to keep grinding on, because sooner or later the bounces were going to go their way.

A year ago, they finally did, in the final against Boston.

This spring, not so much. Not against the Kings, anyway, who won Game 7 of the Western Conference final out of nowhere, it seemed, on a random Alec Martinez shot through a maze of bodies in overtime that struck Chicago defenceman Nick Leddy on the hip and deflected upward, over goalie Corey Crawford, sending the Kings on to the Cup final.

This, after going down three games to none against San Jose in the first round, and trailing Anaheim 3-2 in the second.

And now, they are doing it again — not lucking their way to 4-3 and 5-4 overtime wins in the first two games against New York, exactly, but ….

Think about the odds of Ranger defenceman Dan Girardi losing his balance and falling down, handing the puck to Mike Richards, who changed his mind while heading for the bench and accepted the gift, feeding Justin Williams for the winner in Game 1.

Think about the width of the goal’s frame by which two Rangers failed to score on Jonathan Quick in Game 2, and the two non-calls that went L.A.’s way: the goalie interference on Dwight King’s goal early in the third period, and the puck-over-the-glass by Martinez moments before Dustin Brown deflected Willie Mitchell’s point shot past Henrik Lundqvist in double overtime.

It has happened over and over again. The Kings are being outplayed badly early, then like magic the puck’s in the other team’s net, and they rally.

And they know it’s playing with fire, and they keep on doing it.

“I guess you look at the results, but … are we playing good or are we not?” veteran centre Jarret Stoll said, in a near-confession Saturday.

“Right now we’re doing a lot of things that aren’t in our game, haven’t been in our game for years here. We’re getting away with it, I think, right now. We’ve got to be honest with how we’re playing.”
One man’s luck is another man’s moxie, but what the Kings are doing is historic. They’re the first team ever to win three straight playoff games after being down 2-0. They’re the first team to be up 2-0 in a Stanley Cup final without ever having held the lead. They have not led in their past 229 minutes and 15 seconds, since midway through the third period of Game 6 against Chicago.
That’s no formula for success, and neither is playing the maximum 21 games to get to the Cup final, then going to overtime in the first two against New York.

Both teams looked dead on their feet in the second OT Saturday, and even L.A. coach Darryl Sutter said he was concerned about fatigue.

“Darn right. Thought about it late in the third, and I thought about it in the first overtime,” Sutter said. “Takes its toll. Always does. There’s a lot of guys that played a lot of minutes. It’s like, what have we played, 23 games? That’s a lot.”

By any fair standard, the Rangers ought to have at least split the games in L.A., if not won them both.
They have put the Kings on their heels early with speed and opportunism, forced them to turn over pucks and mishandle routine passes, and like every other team L.A. has faced in these playoffs, they have exposed a shockingly ordinary team defence — shocking, because L.A. won the Jennings Trophy as the league’s top defensive team in the regular season.

“I don’t know what the heck is going on,” admitted defenceman Jake Muzzin. “I don’t know what it is. Having a lot of experience, a lot of belief and confidence that we can come back. And we’ve been doing it.

“Having Quickie in the net helping us when we need him is huge, and gives us momentum and we’ve been able to capitalize.”

But even Quick has been porous by his 2012 Conn Smythe Trophy standards. The same goalie who backstopped the Kings’ run to the Cup with a 1.41 goals-against average and .946 save percentage, allowing just 29 goals in 20 games that spring, is now sitting at a 2.80 GAA, .906 SV percentage and has surrendered 65 goals in 23 games.

The one thing he has done is make timely saves late.

But two games in, this year’s final has been a gloriously error-filled, randomly-played treat to watch, and much like the Kings’ previous series, has featured a spate of end-to-end trading of chances and precious little defence.

“They’ve been in three Game 7s and come out on top. They were Stanley Cup champions a couple years ago. They know what it takes to win. They’re getting those good bounces, those good plays in front,” said Girardi.

“We’re just going to have to find a way to, when we have the lead, to hold on to it. We know they’re going to be coming. We need to be ready for that.”

“We played a much better game than in Game 1,” said Ranger D-man Marc Staal. “We had a lot of chances. We hit a couple of posts, a couple that went cross crease and we were an inch or two away from putting the game away.”

There’s an expression curlers use, and golfers: “We were just on the wrong side of the inch.”
That’s the Rangers, two games into this Stanley Cup final, wondering if the luck really does even out in the end.

Of course, there’s another expression that goes: “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
The Kings ought to have that one painted on their dressing room wall. It’s their stock in trade, and the stock is trending upward.

Rangers lament letting Game 1 slip away to ‘vulnerable’ Kings #nhl #rangers #kings #hockey #playoffs

 New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault challenges his players to bring their A game to Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final during a press conference on Thursday. The Rangers were 3-2 losers to the Los Angeles Kings in Game 1 on Wednesday.

source : Faceoff.com

Rule No. 1 in this Stanley Cup final: when you’ve done interviews in both places on the same day and have to choose between Santa Monica or El Segundo as a placeline on your column, choose Santa Monica.

Rule No. 2: If your team loses Game 1 after leading 2-0, don’t sugar-coat it.

“One thing that’s real evident to me, and it should be to our whole group, is we’re not going to beat this team if we do not all bring our A game,” New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault said Thursday, on the morning after Game 1.

“It is that strong of an opponent that we’re playing against. We had Hank (goalie Henrik Lundqvist) that brought his A game last night. We had a couple guys. I don’t want to name who. But we’re not going to win if we bring our B game to the table.

“They’re one of the best teams I’ve seen in a long time. Areas to exploit, they don’t jump out at you. We’re going to have to be better than we were.”

Coming from Vigneault, that’s like Hamlet’s soliloquy.

But given the circumstances — his team fresher, the L.A. Kings seemingly wearing “gumboots” at the start, as defenceman Willie Mitchell put it — squandering a 2-0 first-period lead and losing 3-2 in overtime Wednesday night was just about the worst possible way to begin a Stanley Cup final.
It was the exact opposite for the Kings, who looked as though they’d just knocked over Fort Knox,
and got away with it.

Even a team as accustomed as the Kings are to shrugging off an early deficit, in a game or a series, and just getting on with it, has to wonder sometimes at its own ability to recover.
Kings coach Darryl Sutter said he knew his team might be especially vulnerable in Game 1.

“Yep. Obviously with the turnaround, guys are not machines,” he said Thursday morning. “It was an emotional series against Chicago, and Game 7. You know, you play seven games, you’re actually playing three overtime periods in there, so when you add that in there, you’re close to eight games when it’s all said and done.

“It was tough, and then we got home in the middle of the night and had the whole media day and had to practice in the afternoon, which is not their normal schedule. Hopefully this’ll recharge us a little bit.”

‘This’ being two off-days before Saturday afternoon’s 7 p.m. ET start of Game 2 at Staples Center.
You shouldn’t feel too horrible for the Rangers. Their hotel, right on the beach a few hundred metres from the Santa Monica pier, offers stunning views of the ocean, sand and … er, wildlife passing by in the human parade.

A couple of early-arriving reporters encountered Vigneault sitting on his balcony, half-reading a paper, preoccupied. The Belmont Stakes could have been happening below him and he’d have been thinking about the hockey game — that one, and the next one.

Each team had seen the other on video, extensively. Yet each was taken aback by some aspect of the opponent’s game.

For the Kings, it was the speed of the Rangers’ forwards, notably Carl Hagelin, which caused a good deal of havoc, early and late, and forced goalie Jonathan Quick to be a game-changer. Marty St. Louis had three or four gilt-edged chances that Quick stopped.

“We’ve talked lots about (their speed), but you still have to engage in it,” said Sutter.
For the Rangers, it was the Kings’ implacable stick-to-itiveness.

“They were a good team in the years past. They’re a real good team now,” said Vigneault, whose Vancouver Canucks lost in five games to the Kings during L.A.’s 2012 Cup run.

“Nothing jumped out at me in the sense that everything that I expected, everything that we had talked to our players about what to expect, they did it down to a T. They keep doing it. They stay with it. They don’t deviate. It’s tough to exploit any areas because they’re that good.”

In truth, though, the Kings haven’t been anywhere near as airtight as in the past, and have given up some horrific turnovers and Grade A chances in these playoffs.

Through the Chicago series, and to an extent in Wednesday’s opener of the Cup final, it has seemed as though the games got away from the coaches and just played their own tune, which was probably why they were so entertaining.

Almost from the get-go Wednesday, Sutter was mixing and plugging different centres into different lines, even juggling defence pairings, looking for energy.

Eventually, the Kings found some, but it took a while.

“Partway through the first period, once I recognized guys didn’t have their game, it wasn’t just Mike (Richards) and Willie (Justin Williams), it was a lot of guys. Jeff (Carter) played a lot with Kyle (Clifford) and Trevor (Lewis). Stolly (Jarret Stoll) played with everybody. Basically we were trying to manage (Anze Kopitar’s) game.”

As usual, they managed.

But no matter how many times they do it, starting in a hole is not the preferred method of winning playoff games.

Like a dog that chases cars, one of these days they are apt to end up under the wheels. But it hasn’t happened yet.

“Well, you can’t chase leads all the time,” said Sutter. “It’s the National Hockey League. It’s the best league in the world. There are two teams left out of 30, which means that they’ve both come a long ways, and they both had to be resilient. You don’t get any award for ‘resilient.’

“So we can play a lot better. And it’s way better when you’re not chasing the lead.”

Williams strikes in OT as Kings rally past Rangers for Game 1 win #kings #rangers #nhl #hockey #stanleycup #playoffs

 Justin Williams #14 of the Los Angeles Kings and teammates celebrate Williams overtime game-winner against the New York Rangers during Game One of the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Final at the Staples Center on June 4, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.

source : faceoff.com

 The L.A. Kings didn’t have much time to come down aftertheir Sunday night, Game 7 overtime win in Chicago.

Just enough to catch their breaths, appear at a StaplesCenter media day for the Stanley Cup and read, hear and see everywhere theyturned that they would certainly make short work of the New York Rangers.

It was the perfect formula for a hangover and the Kingshad a beauty in the early going of Game 1. They were outskated, outhustled,outbattled and in all ways outplayed by the Rangers, who raced to a 2-0 leadthat could have been much, much bigger if they had buried some of their Grade-Achances.
“I think they had a lot of energy and were fresh. If youlook at their playoffs in the first periods, they've had really good firstperiods every game,” said L.A. coach Darryl Sutter. “I think … I know that wewere not on full tanks.”

But this was, after all, the Kings.

As reliably difficult to put away as ever, the team thatsurvived three straight Game 7s on the road just to get here eventuallyrecovered its legs and screwed its head back on and then poured it on againstthe Eastern winners, finally prevailing 3-2 on Justin Williams’ goal at 4:36of overtime.

The Rangers let it get away and they know it. They werethe fresher team and this was the game they had to have.

It’s going to be all uphill from here.

“I liked the waywe played the first two periods. It was a hard-fought first 40 minutes by bothteams. Not quite sure what happened there in the third,” said Rangers coachAlain Vigneault.

“Not sure if it was them being that good or us stoppinggoing north-south. I feel when you play against such a good opponent that hasall that strength, you need to play a full game and for whatever reason,tonight we just weren’t good enough in the third.”

The game-winner was a comedy of errors: first L.A.forward Tanner Pearson fanning on a pass 3-on-2, then New York blueliner DanielGirardi doing the same after falling down. The puck ended on the stick ofthe Kings’ Mike Richards, who was trying to get to the bench to change — and withGirardi’s defence partner Ryan McDonagh cheating on offence, Williams was allalone to accept Richards’ pass and fire a short wrist shot over HenrikLundqvist’s shoulder.

“He’s a really good player for our hockey club. He’s ourbest right winger every night, consistently,” said Sutter.

But he wasn’t the Kings’ best player.

That was goalie Jonathan Quick, who stopped 25 of 27shots, early and late, many of them dangerous. The Kings fired 43 at Lundqvist.

In a third period in which the Kings outshot the visitors20-3 and really ought to have won the game in regulation time, Lundqvist wasthe Rangers’ best player by a mile.

“He was the reason we went to overtime. He gave us achance,” said Vigneault. “A lot of times in overtime, it’s a bounce, a shot,and tonight, they got it.”

The Kings were sloppy and slow to start and the Rangersjumped on them for a breakaway goal by Benoit Pouliot, who took the puck offDrew Doughty and another by speedy Carl Hagelin, whose first shot was stoppedby Quick but the rebound was kicked into the net by L.A. defenceman SlavaVoynov.

“We kind of got away with an ugly one,” said Kings defencemanWillie Mitchell. “Quickie was outstanding to let us find a little bit of legs.I think maybe the trainers put gumboots in our stalls instead of skates today.

“Sometimes, there is no rhyme or reason behind it. We justbattled. Like I said, we relied on our goaltender way too much. We need to getbetter in that.”

The first twitch of life the Kings showed was whenfourth-liner Kyle Clifford converted Jeff Carter’s pass from behind the net toget L.A. out of the first period down only a goal.

By then, Sutter had already put his lines and defencepairs in the blender, trying to produce some semblance of energy.

Then Doughty atoned for his earlier mistake, weaving inaround the Rangers defence and beating Lundqvist at 6:36 of the second to tiethe game.

The Rangers hung on through the second half of the gameto get it to overtime, although the few shots they managed in the third allseemed to be gold-plated chances that required big saves by Quick, notably onMarty St. Louis, who could have had a handful of goals on the night, andHagelin, whose speed gave the Kings fits.

In the end, the least surprising event all evening wasthat it was Williams getting the job done with the game on his stick.

“We screwed up a 3-on-2 royally, fortunately theirdefenceman couldn’t get the puck out, and I was sitting right in front,” said Williams,who has been the hero of so many Game 7s, he wears the nickname.

“It was certainly not our best game by any standards,especially ours, but we were able to get it done.”
"I'd like to call him Mr. Game 1, 2, 3 and 4. Ittakes four wins,” said Mitchell. “If he can do that three more times, thatwould be really nice."

It was not, in any way, a convincing win, but it showedthe truth of what Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville had said after histeam lost the Game 7 heartbreaker.

“I know one thing: they find a way, L.A.,” saidQuenneville. "They're never out of ahockey game, they're never out of a series. They're dangerous.”

They could be even more so after two off-days before Game2.

Kings stun Hawks in OT, advance to Stanley Cup final #hawks #kings #hockey #icehockey #playoffs

source : faceoff.com

The Cockroaches live.

They looked dead enough, down 2-0 early to a Chicago team riding a wave of United Center emotion, but the Los Angeles Kings --- the toughest out in hockey --- rallied from behind three times, and became the first team in NHL history to win three Games 7 on the road in the same playoff year Sunday night, beating the Blackhawks 5-4 in overtime.

It was a shocking end to a series that the Kings once controlled then seemed to have lost, giving up all momentum to the Hawks in Games 5 and 6.

But they simply refused to go away.

Someone calculated that the players in L.A.'s lineup entered Sunday's series finale with a combined Game 7 record of 64-2. They needed every ounce of that savvy and grit, and a little bit of luck, to get past the defending champions.

In the end, it was an innocent-looking wrist shot from the point by Alec Martinez that hit two players --- almost certainly teammate Tyler Toffoli, then Chicago defenceman Nick Leddy's --- before eluding goalie Corey Crawford at 5:47 of overtime.

It was the first Game 7 overtime in a conference final since 1994, when Stephane Matteau was the hero for the New York Rangers.

Martinez was still being credited with the goal long after the game, but whoever got it, it was fittingly a pinballing puck that produced the winner, after an evening of wild, weird bounces accounted for almost every one of the goals.

"It's part of the game," said Kings goalie Jonathan Quick. "The puck was bouncing both ways. We got a few, they got a few."

"We had an opportunity in Game 5 in overtime. That would have been a little easier. But we knew they weren't going down easily. We were fortunate to get out of it. Now we have to get our legs under us."

After three seven-game marathons, it might be tough to do.

"We just have to reset again," said Kings coach Darryl Sutter. "We did it during the regular season. We did it before the Olympics. We did it after the Olympics. We did it before the playoffs started. We did it after Game 7 of the first round, second round. We just have to do it again. Certainly it's a challenge. You play a fresh team."

The Kings return home to face the Rangers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final Wednesday at Staples Centre.

"Great goaltender, great defence, great forwards, great special teams," Sutter said, asked what he knew about the Rangers.

"So, basically you have no chance?" said a reporter.

"Yup. We're up against it again," he said, with the smallest of smiles.

The track meet the Kings said they could not afford to get into with Chicago commenced almost as soon as the puck dropped.

It began the way Game 6 ended, with the highly flammable Patrick Kane dangling and the Kings chasing. Kane set up Brandon Saad from behind the net with a pass out the far side that Saad hammered home before Jonathan Quick could get across.

Then, as these things go, Kane was hit in the back of the legs by Brent Seabrook's shot and the puck caromed right to Jonathan Toews for an open-net tap-in and a 2-0 lead on the power play. It was Kane's ninth point in three games.

But these were, after all, the Kings, and they began to get their licks in from about the time Toffoli hit the goalpost in the 16th minute. In a 51-second stretch, Crawford failed to handle a Dustin Brown shot from the wing and Jeff Carter batted the high rebound out of the air to bring L.A. within one, and Justin Williams --- Mr. Game 7 himself --- had a blocked shot land right on his stick in the slot and scored his seventh Game 7 goal to tie it.

A mere 12 seconds later, a wide-angle shot by Chicago's Patrick Sharp hit Drew Doughty's stick and took a bizarre high bounce over Quick's pad to restore the Hawks' lead.

Quick stopped four shots, and three got past him.

And that was just the first period.

The Kings had just about nothing going on in the second - they were outshot 16-4 --- but put away one of their few chances when Michal Handzus's attempted block of Matt Greene's point shot bounced straight onto Toffoli's stick for another tap-in, and another tie.

Sharp again gave Chicago the lead, scoring through a screen from the point after Quick lost his stick with two minutes left.

But if the series was too good not to have a Game 7, then Game 7 was just too wild and unpredictable not to have overtime. So of course, it did.

Crawford couldn't capture another fairly harmless wrist shot by Brown, and all the Hawks ignored the playoffs' leading goal scorer, Marian Gaborik, who cruised through the crease and deposited the puck into the net with 7:17 left to make it 4-4.

And somehow, thanks mostly to a couple of ninja-like saves by Quick, one of them on Andrew Shaw with 5.3 seconds left in regulation, the Kings got it into extra time.

There were 51 goals scored in the series, and the Kings gave up 23. They surrendered only 30 in their entire 20-game Stanley Cup run in 2012.

But they're at 21 games and still kicking.

"This was probably the most emotional seven games I've ever played, because of how games were won and lost and series leads back and forth," said Brown, the Kings' captain .

"I mean you have the last two Stanley cup champions and a great result for the NHL because the hockey was good. I mean it was sloppy but it was exciting.

"I think last year they smacked us around. Five games but it could have been four. I think we are a better team this year and evenly matched. I don't think it was revenge. It's weird in the sense that we played them back to back years but I think the respect on each side is very high."

"I don't know if that game shows that it's tough to repeat as a champion," said Sharp. "I think everybody knows it's tough to win a Stanley Cup, whether you won it the previous year or not. Tonight was two good teams with a lot of guys who've gone the distance and won Stanley Cups before. Both sides had that experience and it was a pretty entertaining game."

"That was an amazing series, it really was," said Doughty, the best player in the series. "It's even better that we won it, obviously, but that was just a hard fought battle out there. Both teams played pretty honest, there wasn't any diving, there wasn't guys cheating. It was just an honest series, battles in the corners, a lot of goals. There was everything in this series. It was a lot of fun. I hope the next series can feel the same way."

Player of the day : Dave Babych #player #defense #day #hockey #icehockey

David Michael Babych (born May 23, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played 19 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). He is currently an assistant director of player personnel with the Vancouver Canucks.^[1] He played in two NHL All-Star Games and played for the Winnipeg Jets, Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks, Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings. He is the younger brother of former NHL player Wayne Babych. He was the first NHL player to wear the number 44 on a permanent basis.

Playing career

 

 

Winnipeg Jets

Considered a franchise talent after a standout junior career in the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Portland Winter Hawks, Babych was selected second overall in the 1980 NHL Entry Draft by the Winnipeg Jets. At the time of his selection, Babych and his brother Wayne (taken 3rd overall in 1978) were the highest-drafted pair of brothers in NHL history, a record since broken by Pierre and Sylvain Turgeon and the Sedin twins (Daniel and Henrik). Babych stepped into the Jets lineup immediately as a teenager during the 1980–81 season, turning in a stellar rookie campaign in which he finished second on the club with 38 assists and led all Winnipeg blueliners with 44 points. Babych went on to lead all defenders on his team in scoring in each of his first 10 NHL seasons.

In 1981–82, Babych emerged as a star on a revitalized Winnipeg team which improved by 48 points with the addition of superstar rookie Dale Hawerchuk, setting franchise records for defencemen with 19 goals and 68 points in helping the Jets to their first-ever NHL playoff berth. Key to his improvement and development was the acquisition of veteran Serge Savard, a future Hall of Famer, to serve as his partner on the blueline. 1982–83 would be better yet, as he led the Jets with 61 assists and broke his own club record for defensive scoring with 74 points. He was also voted in as a starter for the Campbell Conference at the 1983 NHL All-Star Game.

Babych played in the All-Star game again in 1984, and turned in another excellent season, although he missed 14 games due to injury. In 1984–85, the Jets would have their best season ever, finishing fourth in the NHL with 96 points, and Babych - now forming a dynamic partnership on the blueline with former Norris Trophy winner Randy Carlyle - finished the year with 62 points to lead the team's defenders in scoring for the fifth consecutive season. He excelled in the 1985 playoffs, leading the team in scoring as they won their first-ever playoff series before being ousted by the Edmonton Oilers.

 

Hartford Whalers

Despite registering 16 points in his first 19 games to start the 1985–86 season, Babych was dealt to the Hartford Whalers for Ray Neufeld. Unpopular with Winnipeg fans at the time, the move would be a terrible one for the Jets as Neufeld was never more than a depth player for them and was out of the NHL by 1989, while Babych continued to excel for nearly another 15 years.

In Hartford, Babych continued his stellar play, finishing the season with 69 points - the second-highest total of his career - and was named the team's top defender. In 1986–87, he missed time with injury and finished with a career-low 41 points. However, he bounced back the following year to record another 50-point season, good for second on the Whalers in scoring. He was named the Whalers' top defender again in 1988–89, and led the team in playoff scoring with six points in four games. In 1989–90, he finished the year with 6 goals and 43 points, his 10th consecutive season over 40 points.

Babych suffered a serious wrist injury in 1990–91, requiring surgery shortly after the start of the season, causing him to miss 40 games. He then suffered a severely broken thumb almost immediately after his return, ruling him out for the rest of the campaign. He only appeared in eight games all season, recording six assists.

 

Vancouver Canucks

After missing almost all of the previous season to injury, Hartford exposed Babych in the 1991 NHL Expansion Draft, where he was selected by the Minnesota North Stars. However, he was almost immediately dealt to the Vancouver Canucks for Tom Kurvers.

While Babych was no longer the front-line defender he was earlier in his career, he continued to be a steady and valued contributor during his seven years in Vancouver, capable of showing flashes of his former offensive ability. Babych became the only defender in Canucks history to record a hat trick during the regular season, a feat he accomplished on November 22, 1991, against the Calgary Flames (Doug Halward also recorded a hat-trick for the Canucks in a playoff game). He finished the 1991–92 season with five goals and 29 points (second amongst Vancouver defenders, behind Jyrki Lumme), and was a key factor on a vastly improved Canuck team which won their division for the first time in 17 years. He also added eight points in 13 playoff games.

Injuries limited Babych to just 43 games in 1992–93, but he bounced back in 1993–94 with 32 points, his highest total since 1990. He continued to play inspired hockey in the playoffs as Vancouver reached the Stanley Cup Finals, scoring the biggest goal of his career on June 9, 1994, in Game 5 of the Finals against the New York Rangers. After the Rangers came back from a 3–0 deficit to tie the game, Babych jumped into the rush and buried a pass from Pavel Bure to score the game-winning goal. It sparked a comeback in the series for Vancouver, who would narrowly lose the series in seven games.

Babych continued to toil steadily on the Canucks' blueline for another four seasons, although the team's fortunes went into decline. Most notable for Babych was a surprise offensive resurgence at the start of the 1995–96 campaign, which saw him amongst the league's highest-scoring defenders through the first month of the season.

 

 

Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings

With the Canucks well out of the playoff race at the end of the 1997–98 season, the team dealt Babych to the Philadelphia Flyers for a low draft pick in order to give him a chance to play for a contending team. However, Babych missed a substantial amount of time after breaking his foot blocking a slap shot soon after his arrival in Philadelphia, and the Flyers were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round.

Babych continued to serve as a depth defender for the Flyers in 1998–99, before being dealt to the Los Angeles Kings at the trade deadline. He finished his final season with two goals and 8 points in 41 games between Philadelphia and Los Angeles. He had a brief stint in Switzerland in 2000 before retiring.

Babych finished his career with 142 goals and 581 assists for 723 points in 1195 NHL games, along with 970 penalty minutes. He added 21 goals and 41 assists for 62 points in 114 playoff games.

 

 

Retirement

Babych made his home in North Vancouver^{[disambiguation needed]}, British Columbia, following his retirement.^[1] In December 2009, he was hired to work in a part-time capacity with the Vancouver Canucks as an assistant specializing in defencemen to director of player personnel Dave Gagner.^[1]

 

 Lawsuit against the Flyers

Babych sued the Flyers and the team's orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Arthur Bartolozzi, in 2002, claiming that improper medical care for his 1998 foot injury shortened his career. Bartolozzi misdiagnosed the injury as a bone bruise rather than a fracture, and gave Babych painkillers so he could suit up for the first round of the playoffs. Babych claimed for many years that playing through the injury caused permanent damage which prematurely ended his career. Claiming that the Flyers and Bartolozzi had defrauded him, he sued for $2 million in lost wages. The Flyers were dismissed as a defendant before trial when a judge ruled there was no evidence of fraud on their part. While a jury found no evidence of fraud Bartolozzi's part either, it found that he failed to follow accepted standards of care and awarded Babych US$$1.02 million in lost wages and US$350,000 for pain and suffering in November 2002.^[2]

Personal life

Babych, who is of Ukrainian ancestry,^[3] was born in Edmonton, Alberta.
Dave and Wayne Babych are also brothers-in-law, as they married twin sisters. They have since divorced their first wives and started new families.
Babych had a small role in the movie Slap Shot 2.^[4]

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