2014 Stanley Cup Game 4 vs Los Angeles Kings

Lore & Background

The Kings were founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent Cooke was awarded an NHL expansion franchise for Los Angeles on February 9, 1966. They won two Stanley Cups in three years: 2012 over the New Jersey Devils, and 2014 over the New York Rangers. Jonathan Quick and Justin Williams respectively won the Conn Smythe Trophy.

In Their Own Story

The American Airlines Center hummed with a particular kind of silence—the kind that falls over a crowd that has seen too many games end the wrong way. The ice was a pale, hard mirror under the arena lights, and the Stars' sticks tapped in unison as they lined up for face-off. Across the ice, Niemi crouched in his crease, his mask catching the light, and something in his posture said *not tonight, not ever.* The puck dropped. The Stars came forward, layered their shots, pressed and pressed. And the puck kept finding the same Finnish hands, the same quiet, immovable certainty. The crowd's roar thinned to a murmur, then to nothing. Somewhere in the third period, a Kings forward buried the empty-netter, and the sound that erupted from the visitors' bench was the sound of a franchise being born. The Stars skated off the ice in a daze, their sticks dragging, their season already a memory. Above them, the arena lights held steady, indifferent, as if the ice had simply done what ice does: it froze everything in place.

Reader's Guide

The Kings play their home games at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles, their home since the start of the 1999–2000 season. Prior to that, they played for 32 years at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

Did You Know?

• The Kings' 'Triple Crown Line' of Charlie Simmer, Dave Taylor and Marcel Dionne was one of the highest-scoring line combinations in NHL history.
• The Miracle on Manchester was a 1982 playoff game where the Kings erased a 5–0 deficit in the third period to upset the Edmonton Oilers.
• Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, and Rob Blake led the Kings to their first Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1993.