Quick Work: Kings Goalie Bolsters Conn Smythe Bid, Moves Team Within Win Of Cup

Taiwanese animators have finally tackled the Stanley Cup Finals, with Next Media Animation releasing one of their famed cartoons following the Kings’ 4-0 Game 3 victory over the Devils Monday evening.

The video is exactly what we’ve come to expect from these: Kings that look like actual kings (or perhaps the Burger King), a Devil with a voodoo doll, people drowning after falling through ice, gangs shooting up a Sports Authority store, etc. And somehow it all makes sense. It’s safe to say the Taiwanese do things differently than we do.

The Devils scored 2.8 goals per game during the regular season. They’ve scored two through three games in the Stanley Cup Finals. They scored three goals per game during the first three rounds of the playoffs. They’ve beaten Quick just twice in 11 periods in the finals.

The Devils actually played solidly in Game 2 and opened Game 3 like a team that could finally disrupt the Kings’ 14-2 (now 15-2) merciless march through the playoffs. Instead, although Quick’s dominant team hasn’t needed epic goaltending performances through much of these playoffs, Quick stepped up to them in the last two games.

On the heels of an eventual 4-0 victory, the Kings are up 3-0 in the series.

In Monday night’s Game 3, it was the play of the Kings’ special teams that brought about the shift in momentum.

The Stanley Cup will be in the building Wednesday night for Game 4 and, suddenly, people care that the game will be on NBC Sports Network rather than NBC.

The practice of Games 3 and 4 airing on cable -- now NBCSN, previously Versus -- has been in place since 2009, and Los Angeles fans clearly aren’t satisfied by the chance that they could hoist the Stanley Cup on a network with inferior market penetration as compared to NBC proper or a network like ESPN.

The Los Angeles Kings are making the Stanley Cup Finals look a little too easy. The Kings won Game 3 Tuesday night in dominating fashion over the New Jersey Devils, putting themselves in position for a sweep following the 4-0 victory.

The potential closeout game will happen Wednesday night at the Staples Center as the Kings attempt to go from barely making the postseason as the eighth seed to sweeping the championship series.

The Devils can look around and try to blame anybody they’d like. The truth is that there’s nobody to blame but Jonathan Quick. Even when New Jersey’s been the better team, Quick has ripped their hearts out just like this:

Hope you’re not expecting anybody else to win the Conn Smythe.

The Kings are just playing like a juggernaut. They were outplayed early in Game 3 and were probably the lesser team in Game 2, but the way they’ve come alive in the latter two periods of Game 3 has been impressive. Barring a miracle, the Devils are going to fall into a 3-0 series hole, and while Al Michaels might be in the house, he’s an L.A. Kings season ticket holder. New Jersey is in trouble.

Stick with SB Nation’s dedicated NHL hub for full Stanley Cup finals coverage. For more on the New Jersey Devils, check out Devils blog In Lou We Trust. For more on the Los Angeles Kings, check out Jewels From The Crown and SB Nation Los Angeles .

The New Jersey Devils have scored two goals in the Stanley Cup Finals. For the first time in those same Stanley Cup Finals, a team has scored two goals in a period — and, in a non-shocking turn of events, it’s the Los Angeles Kings, who scored twice in the second period of Game 3 to build a 2-0 lead heading into the final period.

L.A.‘s special teams continue to be dominant: the Kings are now 6-for-6 on penalty kills on the night.

It was likely the prettiest goal of this Stanley Cup Finals, and it featured the Los Angeles Kings completely picking apart the Devils defense on the rush with unbeatable precision.

Stick with SB Nation’s dedicated NHL hub for full Stanley Cup finals coverage. For more on the New Jersey Devils, check out Devils blog In Lou We Trust. For more on the Los Angeles Kings, check out Jewels From The Crown and SB Nation Los Angeles .

“Bullshit. Hey, you can’t make that call. ... Enough. Fuck. It was right under my pad. He was fuckin’ whacking at it.”

Again, not much of a lip reader, but you get the point either way. Marty wasn’t happy, and he very well could have a solid case. Unfortunately for the Devils, it’s all ancient history now. That goal isn’t coming off the scoreboard.

But early in the second period, that wasn’t the case. Los Angeles found themselves pinned back in their own zone yet again. Quick was the only reason the Devils didn’t take a 1-0 lead, really.

And that’s how a great goaltender wins you hockey games. You’re getting outplayed, you’re getting outworked and your goaltender makes a series of big saves to keep the opposition off the board. Then, you go down the other end and get four whacks at a puck in the crease to take the lead.

The Devils have been able to outskate the Kings deep in the Los Angeles zone, and it seems to be getting to the Kings a bit. Take this Mike Richards elbowing penalty, for example, which put the Devils on the game’s first power play.

Then, less than a minute later, the jokes write themselves as Jeff Carter joined Richards in the penalty box for this high-stick on Adam Henrique. The officials did a solid job of quickly making sure Henrique wasn’t bleeding, which would have caused a four-minute double minor penalty.

That’s because the Devils had chances in the first 20 minutes of play: two Kings penalties gave the Devils 4-on-4, 5-on-4, and 5-on-3 situations late in the period, but none of their seven shots in the period got by Quick, and 10 more missed. Los Angeles’ defense stepped up on the penalty kill, stifling New Jersey despite the man advantage.

Stick with SB Nation’s dedicated NHL hub for full Stanley Cup finals coverage. For more on the New Jersey Devils, check out Devils blog In Lou We Trust. For more on the Los Angeles Kings, check out Jewels From The Crown and SB Nation Los Angeles.

Great shift by New Jersey’s line of Elias, Henrique and Zubrus. They applied pressure to perfection and confused the Kings deep in their own end. It led to a turnover and ultimately a scoring opportunity via an Anton Volchenkov shot, but Anze Kopitar was there to get his body on it.

The Devils have been able to establish the cycle game in the early going, and for a team that’s only been able to generate two goals in the series so far, they need to be able to sustain that for periods of time. Jonathan Quick has been too good for the Devils to think they’ll have success without getting the puck in deep and creating chances from there.

The Great One has been a bit detached from the game since his divorce from the Phoenix Coyotes a few years back, but it’s always good to see him around the league. He’s a huge piece of Kings history and his presence alone is great for the franchise.

“Californication” sounds a million times better when set to Stanley Cup Finals clips, doesn’t it? Maybe not if you’re a Devils fan…

h/t Fel0096

Should the Kings win the Cup, Gagne’s inclusion in the Game 3 lineup will be enough for him to earn inscription. He hadn’t met the criteria -- at least 41 regular season games or one Cup Finals game -- to date.

Stick with SB Nation’s dedicated NHL hub for full Stanley Cup finals coverage. For more on the New Jersey Devils, check out Devils blog In Lou We Trust. For more on the Los Angeles Kings, check out Jewels From The Crown and SB Nation Los Angeles.