I'd say that when a team's playoff goals for more than doubles their playoff goals against, as LA is currently doing, that's a pretty dominant performance. I can't think of any team in modern history who has done that though I could easily be overlooking a team. Their dominance may not be as obvious because they're not lighting the lamp as much. But aside from the crazy Flyers-Pens series, they're the best offensive club in the playoffs playing dominanting defense.
In the games I've watched, once they get ahead, it's like their opponent has almost no chance. They barely seem to be able to muster a scoring chance and when they do, much more often than not, Quick is there to snuff it out.
I took the Canucks series as some sort of upset aberration. Didn't see many of those games. But during the Blues series, they just dismantled them. They smothered Phoenix pretty well too. I never would have predicted it prior to the playoffs.
Some of the reason they haven't lit the lamp as much as they might have has to relate to the defenses of their opponents: Blues (1st in GAA), Canucks (4th), Coyotes (5th). LA is second so the only top 5 NHL defense they haven't faced is the Rangers.
Towards then end of the Blues series, I developed a sense that these guys were playing at a different level and didn't look like they could be stopped ... because they were defensively dominating their very good opponents - just physically out skating and out muscling them.
If their 1.41 GAA holds up, that may be (not positive) the best playoff team GAA put up since '67 - in decades. It's right up there with the best. And it provides some statistical reinforcement for how stingy they've been defensively.
Only two of their key players are over 30: Mitchell & Scuderi. Average team age is 27 = pretty young. And most of these guys are signed for next season - they don't have a real cap issue (Penner & Stoll being the only notable UFAs).
I think the Kings have been very, very impressive. So much so, I figured the playoffs were basically over towards the end of the second round. I've never seen anything like it from an 8th seed.
