The Underdog

June 6, 2012 — The Los Angeles Kings are on the verge of winning Lord Stanley’s Cup. If you were a betting money in Las Vegas about six weeks ago and placed money on. The team from the city of Angeles you would be Line to make a lot of money. The Kings barely made the playoffs coming in as the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference. Few people even remotely considered the Los Angeles team as a serious Cup challenger this spring. Yet, the Kings got by regular season league champion Vancouver. Since then they have been gliding thru St. Louis and Phoenix to reach the finals against the New Jersey Devils. The Kings were golden on the east coast winning two games in overtime.
In fact, Los Angeles has not lost a game on the road this year. Tonight they could win the Stanley Cup with a game four victory over New Jersey. It would be their first Stanley Cup title ever. Many people would be surprised by the performance of the Los Angeles Kings, but if you look into recent times underdogs have done quite well in the playoffs. Take last fall when St. Louis made the baseball playoffs as a wild card team. The Cardinals got into the playoffs on the final day of the regular season when Atlanta blew a
big lead down the stretch. The Cardinals went on to beat Texas in the World Series. Then there was the National Football League. The New York Giants only made the playoffs and clinched their Division with a win over the Dallas Cowboys on the final game of the season. Once in the playoffs, New York was unbeatable taking down New England in the Super Bowl. Other teams who Barely made the playoffs but came through in the clutch in recent years include the 2004 Boston Red Sox who made the playoffs as a wild card.
Down 3 game to none they came back to beat the arch rival Yankees winning four straight. The Sox went on to take their first World Series In 86 years. There was also the 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers. They made the playoffs as the sixth and final seed in the American Football Conference. The Steelers won three playoff games and made It to the Super Bowl. Pittsburgh was the designated home team for the big game against St. Louis, but they opted to wear their white road jerseys because it had brought them luck in the playoffs. The white uniforms worked as Pittsburgh edged Arizona in a great Super Bowl.
The motto behind all these Cinderella stories is simply make the playoffs any way you can. Once you are there any thing can and will happen. Just ask the 2012 Los Angeles Kings. Tonight they could finish with a shining jewel to a golden playoff season by raising the Stanley Cup