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Blackhawk Blades

June 22nd, 2010 admin No comments

Blackhawk Blades

NHL – History of Los Angeles Kings

The Los Angeles Kings were founded on February 9, 1966 when Jack Kent Cooke was awarded an NHL expansion franchise for Los Angeles. Prior to the Kings arrival in LA, both the Pacific Coast Hockey League and the Western Hockey League had several team in the California area. These teams included the Los Angeles Monarchs of the 1930's and the Los Angeles Blades of the 1960's.

The NHL decided to expand for the 1967-68 season, Canadian entrepreneur Jack Kent Cooke paid the NHL $2 million dollars to place one of the six expansion teams in LA. Cooke was awarded this placement along with the other franchise expansion teams which included: the California Seals, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the St. Louis Blues. Cooke named his placement team the Kinds and picked the colors of purple and gold because they were traditional colors of royalty. The same colors were also adopted by the LA Lakers, which Cooke also owned.

In their first season, the Kings finished in second place in the Western Division right behind the Flyers. In their second season, the Kings finished fourth place in the West Division and were eliminated by the St Louis Blues in the second round. After these two successful seasons, the Kings came upon some very hard times and much of it is blames on the poor management of the team. The King's attendance at the games also suffered at this time.

The kings went from being the worst defensive team to one of the best in 1972 when the Kings acquired Ken Dryden and Rogatien Vachon. It took the Kings just two seasons to be back in the playoffs and in 1974, they played the Chicago Blackhawks, and were eliminated in five games of play. The team had three successful seasons, the most successful in franchise history including the 105 point season in 1974-1975. This is still a franchise record.

The Kings were not able to get out of the first round of the playoffs until 1982. The team played the Oilers, which was led by a young fast star named Wayne Gretzky. Game 3 of this playoff bout between these two teams has gone down into NHL history and many refer to it as the "Miracle on Manchester". The kings game back from a huge deficit and brought the game to an overtime situation. They ended up having an overtime victory which is still counted as one of the greatest comebacks in NHL history. The Kings ended up beating the Oilers in five games.

Wayne Gretzky joined the Kings in 1988 and won the MVP award and helped the Kings rank fourth in the NHL overall. Gretzky led the team to its only regular season division title in franchise history in the 1990-1991 season. The Kings did make it to the Stanley Cup, but were defeated by the Canadiens. When Gretzky came to town, the NHL was buzzing about the Kings and it brought a new appreciation to the world of hockey in California. The team has had its highs and lows, but has still never to this day, won a Stanley Cup Finals.

About the Author

Brian Jordan writes reviews on various sporting events including the different sportsbook websites. In this piece of write up he highlights on some of legends of NHL and NHL Betting odds.He also takes the readers thought on how to bet on hockey.