NHL - Kings Clean Sweep Way to Conference Finals
The Los Angeles Kings left little doubt their intentions to hoist the Stanley Cup high this NHL season, after they crushed rivals the St Louis Blues 4-0 in their recent series, which has propelled them into the NHL Western Conference finals.
On their way to a clean sweep of their Missouri rivals over the last couple of weeks, the team from California surprised pretty much everyone - not least their fans - considering they came into the NHL playoffs as the number eight seeds.
Los Angeles Kings players that stood out in their series against the St Louis Blues included goalkeeper Jonathan Quick, who more than lived up to his name, by stealthily making a total of 23 saves, as well as Dustin Brown, who scored two goals in fine style.
Second Time Kings Made West Conference Finals
What makes the Kings' victory particularly impressive is that this will be just the second time in the team's history that it will progress to the Western Conference finals - not a bad achievement considering it hails from essentially a desert city that only sees ice in the form of ice cubes.
But now that the Los Angeles Kings have secured a coveted finals berth, all NHL eyes will be on the two teams who will battle it out for the remaining Western Conference finals spot. Those two teams are, of course, the Phoenix Coyotes and the Nashville Predators.
In their series, the Coyotes currently lead the Predators 3-1, and in tonight's game (Mon, May 7) Phoenix will obviously do everything in their power to close out the series 4-1, and secure their place in the Western Conference finals.
From an NHL betting standpoint, leading Canadian-friendly online sportsbook Bodog has laid the Coyotes as the slight favorites, as they prepare to host the Predators at Jobing.com Arena in Phoenix this evening.
Phoenix Coyotes vs Nashville Predators Odds at Bodog
| H - Phoenix Coyotes | 6/4 |
| Draw | 14/5 |
| A - Nashville Predators | 8/5 |
However, judging by the scorelines in the series so far, the Coyotes will have their work cut out for them especially when you consider that last time out on Friday night, they only won by a narrow 1-0. It won't be lost on the home team or their fans that if the Predators manage to make it 3-2, they'll have a big confidence boost and a home advantage in game six of the series.
For this reason, we predict Phoenix will pull out all the stops this evening and make sure it is them who faces the Los Angeles Kings in game 1 of the NHL Western Conference finals seven-game series later this month.
