Take Heart, Leafs Nation

What a devastating loss for the Maple Leafs last night! A 4-1 3rd period lead over the heavily favored Bruins in Boston in Game 7 after erasing a 3-1 series deficit became a 5-4 overtime loss.

But look to history and you will see that epic playoff collapses in recent history have seen rise from the ashes to find the ultimate glory.

The anguish of watching a huge lead get blown and a series lost is not unique. The gut-wrenching feeling has been shared by many a fanbase but it's not the end of the world. In fact, sometimes it's the beginning of something great.

Home Ice Advantage

Tomorrow night, Staples Center is going to play host to Game 1 of the Kings-Sharks Western Conference Semi-Final series. The Staples Center opened on October 17, 1999 (my 20th birthday, not that anyone cares), but 14 years later, this is the first Game 1 of a Stanley Cup playoff series that has been played there (there might have been one or two or 26 NBA Playoff series openers played there). That's because the last time the L.A. Kings started a playoff series with home ice advantage, some guy named Wayne Douglas Gretzky was their captain and George H. W. Bush was president.

The year was 1992…

Die Hard

If the blog and all the Kings gear weren't enough, I think my waking up at 5:15 this morning so I could get to work early enough to leave at 3:30 and get home in time to watch the game probably just proved that I am a die hard Los Angeles Kings fan.

Playoff Predictions

I did pretty damn well last year in predictions, but then again I always go with the Kings to win the Cup. Here's how I've got this year's playoffs:

West: Round 1
Hawks over Wild in 5
Wings over Ducks in 6
Sharks over Canucks in 7
Kings over Blues in 6

East: Round 1
Pens over Isles in 5
Sens over Habs in 6
Caps over Rags in 5
Leafs over B's in 7

West: Round 2
Hawks over Wings in 6
Kings over Sharks in 6

East: Round 2
Pens over Sens in 5
Caps over Leafs in 4

West Finals
Kings over Hawks in 6

East Finals
Caps over Pens in 7

Stanley Cup Finals
Los Angeles Kings over the Washington Capitals in 6 games to win back to back Stanley Cups

Final Re-Alignment Standings

Here are the final NHL standings based on next season's re-alignment.

Pacific
1) Anaheim Ducks: 66 pts in 48 games (24 ROW)
2) Los Angeles Kings: 59 points in 48 games (25 ROW)
3) Vancouver Canucks: 59 points in 48 games (21 ROW)

Midwest
1) Chicago Blackhawks: 77 points in 48 games (30 ROW)
2) St. Louis Blues: 60 points in 48 games (24 ROW)
3) Minnesota Wild: 55 points in 48 games (22 ROW)

Western Conference Wild Card Standings:
1) San Jose Sharks (Pacific): 57 points in 48 games (17 ROW)*
2) Winnipeg Jets (Midwest): 51 points in 48 games (22 ROW)*
3) Phoenix Coyotes (Pacific): 51 points in 48 games (17 ROW) 
4) Dallas Stars (Midwest): 48 points in 48 games (20 ROW)
5) Edmonton Oilers (Pacific): 45 points in 48 games (17 ROW)
6) Calgary Flames (Pacific): 42 points in 48 games (19 ROW)
7) Nashville Predators (Midwest): 41 points in 48 games (14 ROW)
8) Colorado Avalanche (Midwest): 39 points in 48 games (14 ROW)

Playoff Match-Ups
Chicago v. Winnipeg
St. Louis v. Minnesota
Anaheim v. San Jose
Los Angeles v. Vancouver

Atlantic
1) Pittsburgh Penguins: 72 points in 48 games (33 ROW)
2) Washington Capitals: 57 points in 48 games (24 ROW)
3) New York Rangers (Atlantic): 56 points in 48 games (22 ROW)*
         *New York and Detroit are tied in points and ROWs so the next tiebreaker would be season series. Since they didn't actually play each other this season, I'm just going to give this spot to New York for now because they are both in either way.

Northeast/Southeast (Looking forward to Bettman's "Senisble Geographic Division Name")
1) Montreal Canadiens: 63 points in 48 games (26 ROW)
2) Boston Bruins: 62 points in 48 games (24 ROW)
3) Toronto Maple Leafs: 57 points in 48 games (26 ROW)

Eastern Conference Wild Card Standings:
1) Detroit Red Wings (N/SE): 56 points in 48 games (22 ROW)*
2) Ottawa Senators (N/SE): 56 points in 48 games (21 ROW)*
3) New York Islanders (Atlantic): 55 points in 48 games (20 ROW)
4) Columbus Blue Jackets (Atlantic): 55 points in 48 games (19 ROW)
5) Philadelphia Flyers (Atlantic): 49 points in 48 games (22 ROW)
6) New Jersey Devils (Atlantic): 48 points in 48 games (17 ROW)
7) Buffalo Sabres (N/SE): 48 points in 48 games (14 ROW)
8) Carolina Hurricanes (Atlantic): 42 points in 48 games (18 ROW)
9) Tampa Bay Lightning (N/SE): 40 points in 48 games (17 ROW)
10) Florida Panthers (N/SE): 36 points in 48 games (12 ROW)

Playoff Match-Ups
Pittsburgh v. Senators
Washington v. Rangers
Montreal v. Detroit
Boston v. Toronto

The only changes in terms of teams making the playoffs are that with Detroit moving east they take the Islanders' playoff spot and the Jets get in out West replacing them.

Re-Alignment Standings: Done Out West!

The West would be all set under next season's re-alignment but back East there is still a lot on the line with tomorrow's Ottawa-Boston affair.

Playoff Time: The Kings and the Blues Rematch

The Kings got themselves the 5th seed with their win over the Fish tonight (Let's not mention that they lost themselves the 4th seed by losing in Minneapolis and Detroit earlier in the week. What's that, I did just mention it? Moving on…) and will start the playoffs in St. Louis next week.

How about some fun Kings-Blues playoff facts?