May 11, 2013
The LA Kings beat the St Louis Blues 2-1 at the Staples Center on Friday night to book their place in the second round of the 2013 NHL playoffs. The defending champions fought back from 2-0 down in the series to win it 4-2. They played a tough opponent and emerged as winners. Their second round opponent will be one of their two California rivals, Anaheim or San Jose, and many are already speculating about the possibility of the Kings returning to the Stanley Cup final and possibly even winning it.
Retaining the Stanley Cup is notoriously difficult to do. That fact is frequently evidenced by the reality that no team has retained the Stanley Cup since the Detroit Red Wings won it in 1997 and 1998.
However, more evidence suggests that it is actually extremely difficult to gain any sort of traction in the postseason at all one year after lifting the Stanley Cup, let alone retaining the title. Here’s a look at the six winners before LA and how they performed one year after Cup triumph.
| Year |
Champion |
Performance Following Year |
| 2006 |
Carolina Hurricanes |
Didn’t make playoffs |
| 2007 |
Anaheim Ducks |
Lost first round |
| 2008 |
Detroit Red Wings |
Reached SC final |
| 2009 |
Pittsburgh Penguins |
Lost second round |
| 2010 |
Chicago Blackhawks |
Lost first round |
| 2011 |
Boston Bruins |
Lost first round |
While the 2008 champion Red Wings managed to reach the Stanley Cup final won year after winning the title, the other five winners managed just a single series win between them and the 2006 champion Hurricanes didn’t even reach the playoffs.
Cup champions traditionally face more difficult competition. Every game the Kings played this year will have been slightly more highly anticipated than in 2011-12. Los Angeles played every game as the ‘defending Stanley Cup champions’ and that undoubtedly has an effect.
Fatigue also clearly has an effect. This can be proven by looking at how the Stanley Cup losing finalists performed across the same time span.
| Year |
Finalist |
Performance Following Year |
| 2006 |
Edmonton Oilers |
Didn’t make playoffs |
| 2007 |
Ottawa Senators |
Lost first round |
| 2008 |
Pittsburgh Penguins |
Won Stanley Cup |
| 2009 |
Detroit Red Wings |
Lost second round |
| 2010 |
Philadelphia Flyers |
Lost second round |
| 2011 |
Vancouver Canucks |
Lost first round |
The finalists enjoyed a little bit more success than their victorious opponents, but once again the pattern emerged pretty clearly. Pittsburgh was the exception to the rule winning the 2009 Stanley Cup one year after appearing in the final. Meanwhile, the other five finalists won two playoff series between them. Edmonton didn’t make the postseason at all in 2007 one year after appearing in the final.
There are factors that could aid LA’s chances of bucking this trend though. The shortened season ensured that fatigue should be less of a factor. The Kings had three additional months to rest up after their long playoff run. Most Stanley Cup champions return to training camp just two months after an emotional playoff triumph.
Another factor that the Kings didn’t have to deal with too directly was the salary cap. Several teams have been forced either to load up from the trade deadline for the playoff run to stay cap eligible, or have had young cores significantly ripped apart due to salary issues after a successful playoff run. LA was able to remain virtually identical and intact. That was clearly an advantage this season especially in a year where other teams had less time to adjust to each other with virtually no training camp.
The Kings will face a tough test in the second round. However, they are equipped to deal with it. They have a goaltender in Jonathan Quick who is playing his best hockey of the season and also has tremendous playoff experience as the reigning Conn Smythe winner.
The blue line is versatile and deep even without veterans Matt Greene and Willie Mitchell, and the forward group has a few big time scorers in the likes of Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter and Mike Richards.
An under-advertised reason that teams struggle to repeat as Stanley Cup champions is that it is just hard to win eight playoff series in two years. However, there’s no doubt that neither the Ducks nor Sharks will like the prospect of facing the deep and experienced Kings in round two.
