The longest postseason in NHL history, spanning a record 93 games, ended the only way it could – with its busiest team lifting the Stanley Cup after multiple overtimes in one of the year's most thrilling games and series. It took the Los Angeles Kings just over 1,676 minutes over 26 games to finish their Stanley Cup quest and claim hockey's top prize for the second time in three years, but every second of those hard minutes will have been worth it.
On Friday night, for the second time in three seasons, the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup.
It is a truism that the race for the NHL championship is a marathon and not a sprint, but even by hockey’s grueling standards, the Kings’ road to the Cup was particularly arduous. That, of course, makes the team’s victory all the sweeter, as the team and its fans finally celebrated after Alec Martinez's goal capped a thrilling 3-2 double-overtime victory over the New York Rangers in Game 5.
For the third season in a row, Los Angeles entered the playoffs as a lower seed. In 2012, when the team won the first Cup in franchise history, the Kings squeaked into the playoffs, taking the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference. In 2013, when the Kings went to the conference final before falling to the eventual champion Chicago Blackhawks, they only secured a playoff position by a meager four points.
In 2014, once again, the Kings started the postseason on the road as the No. 6 seed in the West, and the NHL’s new playoff alignment guaranteed them a brutal road to the championship.
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