[XxBIGDOGxX1817]

Firstly, that post game presser by D Sutt was one of the best i've seen. Enjoyed Calgary/Tampa cup final shout out.

Secondly, I found it strange last night how Bob Mckenzie credited the NHL lockout for the reason the Kings are avoiding the Cup hangover, or are having playoff success this year.
I have no interest in analyzing whether or not i agree with him here but imo the lockout had a bigger impact on the sharks, 4 straight against VAN, took LA all the way to 7...

Without looking at the stats i'm pretty sure we could agree that SJ is one of the best regular season teams in the past decade... emphasis on regular season.

SJ 2013 Season:

48 GP Reg season, 4 GP 1st Round Playoff Series, 7 GP 2nd round playoff series = 59GP

For arguments sake add additional wear and tear caused by compressed schedule of 10GP

59GP + 10GP = 69GP

In this rather embarrassing analyzation the point i'm trying to make is that they had much less wear and tear (GP) coming into this playoffs as in years past, they haven't even played anywhere close to as many games as any other year.. Considering SJ's age do you think this series would've been anywhere close if they were approaching 90GP. This simply isn't a Stanley Cup contender, they were beneficiaries of the shortened season (lockout), to give them credit they took advantage of there opportunity, sweeping VAN and taking L.A to 7 is impressive. But imo based on they're results it is fairly clear to me that no other team benefitted more from the lockout than they did.

Unfortunately for them, they will think they're just missing one or two pieces, perhaps depth and act accordingly this offseason, things in SJ will be dim for many years.