Stanley Cup Final Heads Back to Los Angeles

((HT: NHL on NBCSN/Sportsnet))

And the New York Rangers have Henrik Lundqvist to thank- considering he had to stand on his head for the entire third period in a 2-1 survival against the Los Angeles Kings.

Curtis Joseph talks about King Henrik and his 40 saves
And for those of you who want to be readily awake now, here's the highlights with Doc, Edzo, and Pierre...

Jeff Carter Plays "Beat The Clock"

((HT: NHL on NBCSN))

It was one that Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist should have kept in the glove, but it entered the net with less than a second to go in the first.

The only .7 of a second that the Kings had led in regulation in the Stanley Cup Final before the second period began...

THIS MIGHT BE THE WILDEST ENDING TO REGULATION IN MODERN MEMORY

((HT: CJZero/NHL on NBC))

This was the end of regulation for Game One of the Stanley Cup Final


Absolute, bat-s*** crazy ending and they headed to overtime...

Pens Lose 3 In A Row To Rangers, Head To Golf Course...

((HT: Sportsnet))

Henrik Lundqvist stopped 102 of the last 105 shots he faced in the Rangers-Penguins series. Because of that, an anemic offense that Sidney Crosby had nothing to do with, a power play that didn't exist, and shaky goaltending by Marc-Andre Fleury the New York Rangers won the last three games in the Round 2 Eastern Conference series and will play either Boston or Montreal in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Pens head coach Dan Bylsma has now lost three big series in a row (if you count the Olympics as a series) and may be out of a job. He hadn't thought that far ahead when asked after the game...
Here's Crosby speaking the obvious... The team rallied around Martin St. Louis after the loss of his mother and you could tell the series and the series win meant a lot to him being a part of his new team... ((HT: CBC/NHL)) And here's how it happened...

Something Of A Hockey Preview

((HT: Sportsnet))

There is an amazing amount of pressure put on the home team to win a gold medal...

And the Russians will have an interesting chemistry issue to deal with. The KHL players on the squad all practiced together before the NHL players even arrived in Sochi, so there is almost two factions at play here...

The Kovalchuk/KHL faction and the Ovechkin/NHL faction and how they will interact will be an interesting subplot to the whole thing...

There are four teams (maybe five, if you include the Czechs) that will be fighting for the medal stand- USA, Canada, the Russians, and the Swedes...

The HQ believes in defense first when putting these squads together, so goaltending will keep teams in the medal race long before any other aspect of togetherness...

Thus, we look at Lundqvist and Miller over Fleury...

Hockey Central discusses...