L.A.’s Drew Doughty, left, and Chicago’s Jonathan Toews play during Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on June 6, 2013. For this season, the oddsmakers have Chicago opening as a 6-1 pick; L.A. is next at 15-2.Reed Saxon/The Associated Press
After it was over, after the Los Angeles Kings had gently brushed aside the New York Rangers to win their second Stanley Cup in three seasons last spring, all defenceman Drew Doughty could do was gush about a series that had happened almost two weeks previously.
It was a weirdly anti-climactic final because the series of the playoffs had occurred in the Western Conference final, an epic seven-game encounter between the Kings and the Chicago Blackhawks in which L.A. ultimately prevailed in overtime of the seventh game after a point shot by Alec Martinez deflected off defenceman Nick Leddy and fooled goaltender Corey Crawford.
It is so competitive. In the NHL's age of parity, when the salary cap was supposed to guarantee that teams at the top couldn't stay at the top, the Kings and Blackhawks are defying expectations. They've won two championships apiece over the past five seasons, and they go into 2014-15 as the favourites to win again. The oddsmakers have Chicago opening as a 6-1 pick, L.A. is next at 15-2 and the third-ranked team is the only other one to win a recent championship – the Boston Bruins.
"It's a tough time to win multiple championships in a row, but I still think it's possible," Blackhawks' winger Patrick Kane said. "I still [think] there are teams out there that can do it, including us. We feel we were close to winning last year, and that would have been a couple in a row, three in five years. So yes, I think it can happen."
Kane's Blackhawks were juggling salary-cap questions right up until the moment training camps ended in order to get under the $69-million (U.S.) ceiling for the 2014-15 season. The Blackhawks made little noise this past summer other than signing Kane and captain Jonathan Toews to monster contract extensions that will kick in at the start of next season. Beyond adding Brad Richards as a modestly priced free agent to play on a line with Kane and Brandon Saad and trading away Leddy, the Blackhawks returned essentially the same team.
So, for that matter, did Los Angeles. The Kings signed last year's key trade-deadline acquisition, Marian Gaborik, to a seven-year contract extension, but they look as if they will go into the new season with no new faces in the lineup.
According to Kings forward Justin Williams, it is their stability – and the dressing-room culture that has evolved over the past three seasons – that keeps the Kings competitive, postseason after postseason. They may not always dazzle in the regular season, but they have been a tough out in a best-of-seven series, having played in 11 of them over the past three years (winning 10).
"Our management team has done an unbelievable job of getting guys in here," Williams said, "and the guys who have been here for a while have really developed a winning culture. For the guys who come in, if they want to buy in, then we help them get there. If they don't, they don't."
For Kane, the memory of that close, flip-a-coin loss to the Kings lingered long into the summer – "and it hurts even more getting these questions about it and actually having to relive it," he said with a smile. "It's tough to lose like that, especially after the position we put ourselves in – down 3-1 and then to come back and tie it up 3-3. You get Game 7 in your building and you think you're going to come away with it for sure.
"But I think we can learn from it, and know if we get ourselves in that position again, take advantage of it and make sure it doesn't come down to a deflection in overtime again."
Resetting and regrouping after winning the Stanley Cup – or dealing with the effects of the Stanley Cup hangover – is always a challenge. As successful as the Kings and Blackhawks have been in recent years, no team has won back-to-back titles since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and '98.
"Sometimes you have to lose in order to realize how bad you want to win again," said Williams. "We won in 2012, lost in 2013 and I believe that got a little of our snarl back – because something got taken away from us. Chicago took it, so to go in and beat them last year was very satisfying.
"Now, we're the hunted. We realize that. But we relish that role."