EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — As the Kings prepare to face the Rangers in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals Friday night at Staples Center, they really have seen just about everything during their quest to lift the Cup for a second time in three years.
They began it by becoming just the fourth team to come back from a 3-0 deficit in the first round against the Sharks. Then, after winning the first two games of their second-round series with the Ducks, they dropped three in a row to force themselves to have to win Games 6 and 7 to advance to the Western Conference final against the Blackhawks.
Once there, the Kings made sure to keep their flair for the dramatic, going up 3-1 in the series before losing Games 5 and 6 to once again force themselves to win Game 7 — their third straight on the road — and advance to face the Rangers in the finals.
So, after the long and winding road, sitting just one win short of a championship, you can understand why Kings coach Darryl Sutter would dismiss the idea the Rangers, or any team, can carry over momentum from any one game to the next after the Blueshirts stayed alive in this series with a 2-1 win in Game 4 at the Garden Wednesday night.
“I think the question was asked several times last night about momentum,” Sutter said Thursday before adding with a smile, “I know it’s usually media-created … there’s momentum during games and momentum with penalties, momentum with scoring chances, things like that.
“But if it was always about momentum from game-to-game, then most series would be over in four, and it wouldn’t be called four-out-of-seven — it would be the team that won the first game must have the momentum, and the team that won the last game must have the momentum.
“I don’t think you get to that point ever, quite honestly. I’ve never been a believer in that because it bears itself out.”
So with that in mind, the Kings took to the ice for a brief skate at their practice facility about 15 miles away from Staples Center, where they will hope to lift the Cup Friday night on the same ice they did against the Devils two years ago.
But despite dominating play for the final 30 minutes of Game 4 — the Kings outshot the Rangers 26-3 after Dustin Brown’s breakaway goal made it 2-1 midway through the second period — and being unable to come away with the game-tying goal, the Kings said any frustration about being unable to finish off their first chance to close out this series was already behind them. Their focus, they said, is squarely on taking advantage of the next opportunity Friday night.
“It’s about being harder in the hard areas,” Brown said. “It’s hard when two pucks lay on the goal line [and don’t go in]. That’s a hard area, that blue paint. We’ve got to be harder there, and pucks go in for us.
“It’s about just [having to] keep going for it.”