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Kings or Devils will be the lowest seed ever to win Cup

happydevils

This is the first time in the history of the NHL that a sixth seed team has faced an eighth seed squad in the Stanley Cup finals.

Regardless of who wins in the finals – be it the New Jersey Devils or Los Angeles Kings – they will be the lowest seed team to ever raise the Stanley Cup. The current and soon to be dethroned holder of that distinction is the 1995 New Jersey Devils. They won it all after capturing the fifth seed.

From now on any GM or owner that says that anything can happen in the playoffs will be referencing the 2012 Kings and Devils, but of course, these aren’t your typical low seed teams.

The Devils played in the incredibly rough Atlantic Division and were ultimately just seven points behind the top seed New York Rangers. Looking past their record, this is a team that features a ton of star talent, including Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise, and Patrik Elias, and, of course, future Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur. On top of that they also have plenty of depth and a lot of key guys with playoff experience that they can lean on. Brodeur in particular is going for his fourth Stanley Cup.

The Los Angeles Kings snuck into the playoffs, but they always had a great team on paper. Like the Devils, they are led by a big name cast including Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Mike Richards, Drew Doughty, Jonathan Quick, and their big mid-season acquisition, Jeff Carter. However, it wasn’t until Darryl Sutter took over as their coach that they really started to click and as a result, their regular season record left something to be desired.

The Kings and Devils aren’t mediocre teams that managed to squeak into the playoffs and simply get lucky. These teams are evidence that, if you already have the framework of a great squad, you can accomplish tremendous things despite a low seed.