Best Coast vs. the West Coast: The Kings-Rangers Stanley Cup Final Preview

The Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers have four wins standing between them and the corporeal manifestation of success, a 34-pound ornate silver cup. For both of these teams, destiny has been lobbed back and forth for the better part of the past month.

On June 4, when the puck is dropped onto a clean sheet of ice at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, destiny gets thrown out the window. Someone has to lose.

Both teams, in their march to this point, have overcome seemingly impossible odds. The Kings rallied from a 3-0 deficit in their opening round series against San Jose Sharks while the Rangers knocked off the top-seeded Penguins despite being down 3-1 in their second round series.

So, whether it takes four games or seven, it all starts with the first game of the Stanley Cup Final.

"I don't think I've been more determined to win a hockey game, you know? To put ourselves in a spot where we can play for the Cup is extremely special," Henrik Lundqvist said, after clinching a spot in the Stanley Cup Final. "I've been here for nine years and this is my first year in the Final. So I'm extremely proud of how we did it, to be in this spot."

On the other side, the sentiment was the same in the Kings' locker room after beating the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 7.

"I'm pretty excited," Kings winger Tyler Toffoli said. "It's my first chance to win a Stanley Cup, play in the Stanley Cup Finals. The guys in the room are excited. We just want to get it going."

Forecasting based on such a small sample size is an arduous task. Between these two teams, there's not as sizable gap. In fact, it's smaller than most are suggesting.

The Rangers and Kings play a similar style of hockey, dependent on possessing the puck for extended periods of time, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Sometimes, it seems like the puck will never go in when one of these teams is on the ice. With both of them together and a combination of pure size from the Kings and a penchant for getting in the way of pucks from the Rangers, don't expect a bonanza of scoring. The inexplicable shooting luck-both teams finished in the bottom five in shooting percentage-and possession-derivative hockey could make for some extremely tight games.

While both teams have seen more fortuitous bounces in the playoffs-and some regression to the mean with the Rangers shooting 8.8 percent at even strength, up from 6.7 percent in the regular season and the Kings shooting 9.4 percent in the playoffs, up from 6.6 percent in the regular season-some of their luck also comes from facing inconsistent goaltending.

Both teams also tried to rectify their perceived "finishing" issues at the trade deadline. The Rangers acquired winger Martin St. Louis, a former Hart Trophy winner, from Tampa Bay at the expense of their captain and theretofore life-long Ranger Ryan Callahan. St. Louis has been the team's leading goal scorer in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and failed to miss a game after the tragic and sudden passing of his mother in the middle of the team's second round series against Pittsburgh. That's been cited as a rallying point for the Rangers.

"It means a lot," St. Louis said, of making the Finals after the Rangers knocked out Montreal. "Obviously, it's been a tough year for me. This makes it pretty cool. Being somewhere for 13, 14 years and changing teams and to get a chance to play in the Stanley Cup Finals with these teammates of mine, who have been nothing but great through my tough time in the past few weeks, it makes it even more special. I am proud to be a Ranger and do it alongside these great teammates."

The Kings, on the other side of the continent, traded for Marian Gaborik, coincidentally a former Ranger himself, of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Gaborik, currently standing at 12 goals, leads all skaters in the tournament.

The Rangers and more specifically Lundqvist are extremely familiar with Gaborik's scoring acumen. Before joining the Rangers as a free agent, Gaborik scored five goals in a single game against Lundqvist, the man they call The King.

Gaborik, is one of the more maligned goal scorers in Ranger history. He joins Hockey Hall of Fame members Jean Ratelle and Mike Gartner as the only players to score 40 or more goals in more than one season while serving as a Ranger. That's in about 90 years of the franchise's existence. Gaborik managed to do it twice in three full seasons and was, still, unceremoniously traded at last season's trade deadline.

The Kings, like the Rangers, have depth. One thing both teams will have to decide is how to divvy up defensive assignments. The Rangers, all season, were typically more dependent on the zone start than the individual matching. In these playoffs, they moved away from that, especially in the first two rounds, trying to match Ryan McDonagh, their top defenseman, against elite centerman Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux in series' two and one, respectively.

Expect the Rangers to match McDonagh with the line centered by Anze Kopitar and the defensive pairing of Marc Staal and Anton Stralman to match with the line centered by Jeff Carter.

Conversely, the Kings will have to find a way to match the Rangers' team speed and have the perfect multi-tool defenseman in Drew Doughty to handle the task. Doughty and his defensive partners excel at progressing play and keeping the puck away from Ranger attackers, which will make it even more difficult for their opponents to utilize their speed on the ice to create space in the offensive zone. Especially because they won't have the puck in the offensive zone a lot.

For the Kings, on paper, they have the advantage offensively, defensively, and in the possession department, although the disparity isn't huge: the Kings finished first in even strength shot attempt differential in the regular season and the Rangers finished sixth.

Where the Rangers really have an advantage is in goal, as Lundqvist is arguably the best goaltender of the past decade. Los Angeles netminder Jonathan Quick may already have his named engraved on Lord Stanley's Cup, but he's been downright unimpressive in the playoffs this year, looking even less than pedestrian with the season on the line as the Chicago Blackhawks came roaring back from a 3-1 series deficit in the Western Conference Final. The Rangers need to get to Quick early and often. The key is never letting him settle in.

Quick, in 21 games, has played to a 91.2 save percentage at even strength, while Lundqvist has backstopped the Rangers with a 93.7 save percentage at even strength.

Whie it seems easy to point to the Kings as favorites, head coach Darryl Sutter is not taking the Rangers lightly.

"Great goaltending. Great defense. Great forwards. Great special teams," Sutter said of the Rangers, after the Kings clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup Final.

All that's left to do now, is play the games.