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The Kings
i]

    
 

 

By Josh Martin, Sports Editor

ow did the L.A. Kings, who
Hes: made the playoffs in
eighth spot, make it all the
way to the Stanley Cup Finals? They
came in as the complete underdogs
and are now the powerhouse team
in the West. Ever since head coach
Darryl Sutter replaced former
head coach Terry Murray back in
December the Kings have been
able to turn their ship around into
the right direction. Yes, everything
is looking in their favour to win
the Stanley Cup so now the real
question is whether or not they can
thread the needle and finish off what
they started.
In the first round of the playoffs
the Kings were up against the
Vancouver Canucks. A team that

of L.A.

   

vo) oo YN
to say the least. Who would have
guessed that the Coyotes and Kings
would be duking it out to advance
to the Stanley Cup Finals. Two teams
that flew under the radar over the
course of the regular season.

Well, the Coyotes were just like
the rest of them—no match for the
Kings. All it took was five games.
And now the Kings are making an
appearance in the Finals—against
the New Jersey Devils—for the first
time since 1993 when they lost to the
Montreal Canadiens.

In the 15 games that they’ve
played in the post-season the Kings
have a total of 43 goals. That's a 2.87
goals for per game average. They
have 13 wins and only two losses, a
total of 23 goals against making that
an average of a 1.53 goals against
average.

Sports

Rise of the flying disc;
Ultimate gaining credibility

By Eric Wilkins, Staff Writer

Itimate, better known to
many as ultimate Frisbee,
has been steadily growing

in popularity over the last few
years. Yes, those ignorant to
the sport still throw around the
cliché lines such as, “Isn’t that
for dogs?,” “Don’t you have to
be a hippie to play?,” and “Wait,
that’s a sport?”—but ultimate has
come a long way since its pie plate
hucking hippie creators in the “70s.
Ultimate is finally getting some
recognition.

Ultimate, mainly over the
last decade or so, has taken a firm
place at the high school, college,
and recreational level. Using
British Columbia as an example,
there have been annual high
school ultimate championships for
some time now. Public and private
schools alike compete tooth and
nail to take home the top prize,
and, having actually been one of
those kids, I can tell you that the
competition can get rather fierce.
BC also has several recreational
leagues, with the largest being the
Vancouver Ultimate League which
currently has over 4,000 members.
Moving on to the countrywide
stage, the Canadian Ultimate
Championships take place every

has eight teams established,

and its inaugural season is well
underway. To top it off, one of the
league’s highlights, a gorgeous
catch by Brent Anderson of the
Connecticut Constitution (go look
it up!), found its way onto a TSN
broadcast last month.

Along with establishing a
professional presence, ultimate
is pushing easily recognizable
figures into the spotlight. That's
right. Ultimate has faces you can
associate with it now. Practically
every player has heard of Brodie
Smith and his ridiculous trick
shots on YouTube. He’s not exactly
Wayne Gretzky, but he is a face.
Something /someone to rally
around.

In conclusion, ultimate is
a legitimate sport. It has large
numbers of participants across
a variety of levels, international
tournaments, devoted athletes,
its own emerging icons, and a
professional league. It may not
produce college scholarships yet,
but with the strides the sport
has made over the last few years
I wouldn’t say it’s out of the
question. Play on.

“They’re not scoring a whole lot, but they’re not getting scored on
either. Jonathan Quick has been lights out, posting a 1.49 GAA and
a .946% save percentage, with a lot of credit having to go toward
goaltending coach and New Westminster resident Bill Ranford.”

August with teams (junior and
adult) coming from all over our
great nation to strut their stuff.
Canada is also a contender on the

had just captured their second
consecutive Presidents’ Trophy and
a team that had just come off a year
where they lost in game seven of
the Stanley Cup Finals to the Boston
Bruins. It wasn’t hard to see that the
Canucks were the favourites against
the Kings. Hungrier than ever.
However, right off the bat the Kings
came out and dominated, winning
the first three games and then
finishing the Canucks off in game
five, taking the series four games

to one. A shocker, to say the least.
All of Vancouver was stunned and
devastated that they were knocked
out so early, especially to a team like
L.A.

The Kings continued to take
that underdog status and roll with
it against the number-two seeded
team in the Western Conference, the
St. Louis Blues. After four games
though, it was all over. L.A. steam
rolled the Blues in a sweep and
advanced to the Western Conference
finals against the Phoenix Coyotes.

A strange set of opponents

They’re not scoring a whole
lot, but they’re not getting scored
on either. Jonathan Quick has been
lights out, posting a 1.49 GAA and
a .946% save percentage, with a
lot of credit having to go toward
goaltending coach and New
Westminster resident Bill Ranford.

So with all of that said, what is
there secret? What gives? How does
a team all of a sudden absolutely
dominate in the playoffs?

It could be the case of
exceptional goaltending, or the
defensive mind-set that they seem
to have, preying off their opponents’
mistakes. But for a team to dominate
like they have, it has to be much
more than that.

It all comes down to discipline.
And the Kings of L.A. have plenty of
it. The Devils have experience and
three Stanley Cups to boot in the
past two decades, but they’re now
the underdogs. A familiar status to
the Kings who are now looking from
the other side of the spectrum—as
the favourites to win the Holy Grail.

 

world circuit, regularly sending
top squads to compete, such as at
this year’s World Junior Ultimate
Championships held in Dublin,
Ireland. And just when you
thought the future couldn’t get
brighter for ultimate in Canada,
Ultimate Canada currently has
full eligibility status under Sport
Canada, a major step towards
securing future funding for the
sport.

As evidenced by the mention
of world championships,
ultimate’s status has not only been
on the rise in Canada. Despite the
ever increasing worldwide love of
the game, detractors of the sport
always had a trump card to play.
No longer.

Generally a strong indicator
of the legitimacy of a sport
is whether or not it has a
professional league. I’m happy to
report, that as of this year, ultimate
has just that. Thanks to the
American Ultimate Disc League
(AUDL), the game can now
dismiss the most common charge
against it. The AUDL currently

 

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