With the NHL regular season finally underway, every person who pays attention to the league has been wondering one thing: Who will win the Stanley Cup?
I'm fully aware that this exact topic has caused full-fledged fist fights in bars and pubs (and offices) all across the nation. However I still feel that I should make my own prediction.
And while I'm an Edmonton Oiler fan, no, I will not be saying that it's finally their year. After all, I'm not an idiot.
So without further ado, here is my prediction: The Los Angeles Kings will become the first team since the Detroit Red Wings in 1996-97 and 1997-98 to repeat as Stanley Cup champions.
Think about it. The Kings return nearly everyone from their 2013-14 Championship team, with the exception of veteran blueliner Willie Mitchell who is now the captain of the Florida Panthers.
But replacing Mitchell is an equally skilled defenceman in Brayden McNabb who, while younger, will also add a little bit more size as well as offence to the Kings.
Offensively the Kings remain the same. Anze Kopitar, arguably the best centreman in the NHL, returns as do Jeff Carter and playoff hero Justin Williams.
Dustin Brown will most likely have a better offensive season than he did a year ago and get back to his average of 55 points in a season while a healthy Marian Gaborik will cause all sorts of problems for opposing goaltenders.
Increased playing time for Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson will also see their point totals rise.
Defensively Drew Doughty will once again lead the way for a Kings team that led the league with the lowest goals against in the regular season last year at 2.05 per game.
Slava Voynov will continue to pick it up offensively from the point, while the rest of the defencemen will be just as good as they were last season.
Quite often a team will only go as far as their goalie can take them. That was evident in last year's SJHL playoffs when Isaiah Plett led the Melville Millionaires to the SJHL final despite having a weak team in front of him.
Keeping that in mind the Kings should once again go all the way, especially if Jonathan Quick can remain healthy.
Having Quick between the pipes for the Kings is a game changer. He's arguably the best goaltender in the league with only Montreal's Carey Price and New York's Henrik Lundqvist posing any threat to that title.
However Quick isn't the only very capable goalie that the Kings boast. Should Quick, the native of Milford, CT, require a night off in 2014-15 then Martin Jones will step in and not look out of place.
In fact Jones' numbers last year, while in a smaller sampling of games, were stronger than Quick's. Jones was 12-6-0 with a 1.81 GAA and a save percentage of .934 while Quick was 27-17-4 with a 2.07 GAA and a .915 save percentage (not bad numbers by any means either).
And don't forget Yorkton's own Jarret Stoll. Stoll, along with Kopitar and Mike Richards are three of the top centremen in the NHL. That means that no matter where the faceoff takes place, the Kings will more often than not come up with the puck.
And when possession is nine-tenths of the law Well, you know.
Sure, the Kings didn't exactly turn heads in their first game of the season, a 4-0 shutout loss to the San Jose Sharks. But that's kind of expected, seeing as they had their banner raising ceremony and all. That always charges up the opposing team.
And I'm sure some of them were still a little bit tired from an offseason of celebrating their second Cup in three seasons.
But hey, that's fine. Because that just means that they'll know what not to do in the summer of 2015 when they once again get to celebrate with Lord Stanley's Silver Grail.
Kings repeat as Stanley Cup champions in the 2014-15 season.
