Does luck exist in hockey? Of course it does.
Does it have an impact on the outcome of games? It sure can.
Is it the entire reason behind a team's run of form or current standing? Not in the slightest.
All around the twitterverse and message boards today there has been talk of the enormous amount of "good luck" the Kings have had. Not only in this series, but in the entire playoff run. It seems people are already gearing up their arguments to..not discredit...but overall help them deal with what has been a truly remarkable run by the LA Kings. This is all being talked about even before the series itself is over! We still got four games left potentially folks! Calm down!
But seriously, puck luck. You hear it tossed around from time to time throughout the regular season, but it only becomes a major factor in the eyes of people when the games matter the most. AKA the playoffs.
Here's the straight dope, every team is lucky.
EVERY. SINGLE. TEAM. FOREVER has been and will be lucky.
Every team gets a good call once and a while. Every team gets a fortunate deflection or a fortunate bounce off a skate. That is the nature of the game. Hell, that is the nature of sports in a whole, not just hockey.
There is going to be a small part of every game where you can say, "Well we just didn't get a good bounce there."
Have the Kings had good bounces in the first 3 games of the series? They certainly have. The Rangers have had them as well. How about that puck that stayed out of the net despite spinning on the goal line behind Henrik Lundqvist for what seemed like an eternity? Puck luck. It wasn't as nice a bounce as the Richards 2v1 off of McDonagh's skate, but it preserved a goal. How about Tyler Toffoli hitting the post in the first overtime? It goes both ways.
But that's the nature of the game! Was the goal 2nd Kings goal of Game 3 off of St. Louis a product of the game or a product of luck?
After all, shot blocking is part of the game. Here's the other factor, and you've probably heard it time and time again: You make your own luck. You control your own destiny.
What led up to the St. Louis deflection goal? Well, the Rangers took a penalty. A rather silly offensive zone penalty at that. So there's that.
How about the Dwight King interference non-call (Which to me is still a 50-50 call at this point.)? That was a 4-3 goal. Not a 4-4. Not a 5-4 goal. The Rangers still had a lead. They still had two TWO goal leads in that game. Is that a product of luck that the Kings may or may not got the benefit of a call or is that the nature of the game? You tell me. You want to talk about it from a hockey standpoint? King did the right thing in hockey terms by getting to the net. Greene also did the right thing by getting the puck on net. You create your own luck.
The Rangers got, in my opinion, a very good call when Brian Boyle skated into the back of Justin Williams. Williams was whistled for interference. Rangers had the opportunity to capitalize on their own fortune of getting a good call, but didn't. It all evens out.
There is no question in my eyes that luck can play a role in a short term sense, but when looking at the entire scope of a series, a playoff run, or a season, luck is an incredibly small facet of the game. You can't say that series or season was entirely crafted upon fortune. That being said, every team who has ever won anything in the history of sports has got a good bounce and a good call here and there. Nature of the game folks.
The entire beauty of sports to me is the utter chaos of it all. When you take in everything, the curve of a stick, the roll of a puck, the surface of the ice. Everything has an effect on everything else. Isn't it beautifully maddening? One little hop on a rolling puck at center ice could have stopped a scoring chance. A skate digging a little more into the ice than it should have could be the difference between a goal and no goal. That is why I don't believe in luck being a part of any large sample size.
The LA Kings and the New York Rangers are both in a position to win the cup not because of fortunate bounces. They are in this position because they have created their own luck and capitalized on fortunate bounces. Anyone can be dealt a good hand, but you still have to play it.
I'm not going to sit here and tell you that the Kings haven't had their fair share of good bounces. In the end though that's hockey, and the Kings are playing pretty good hockey right now. To say that they are getting ALL the bounces is simply untrue. The Rangers are getting bounces as well, and unfortunately for them they aren't making it matter.
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I want to hear who you think is in it for the Conn Smythe!
Plenty of candidates. Doughty, Kopitar, Williams, Gaborik, Carter. Let's hear who you got.
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