2014 Stanley Cup Finals LA Kings vs. New York Rangers

Not to brag, but I had picked the Kings to go to the up finals...I did pick them facing the Penguins and I was a game away from that happening. Deep down I did think the Kings would've won the series if it was against the Penguins but I had to made that pick from my heart.

The Kings are a heavy favorite to win the cup against the Rangers in this series, I thought it would be 5 games max, many hockey pundits thought less. After a 3-0 win last night, it looks like the Kings will eventually take the series, in a sweep if they win tomorrow night. What is surprising though is how the Kings came to be up in this series 3 games to 0. You could argue the Rangers were the better team in the 1st 2 games but did not get the bounces both in puck luck and ref luck. In game 3 Jonathan Quick answered his critics about his level of play in the previous games and was lights out, if he plays at that level for game 4 the Kings will sweep, if not I say the Kings will win at home in 5.

I did a one sheet of the two goalies in the series Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings and Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers. Then broke it down to the singles of each goalie for their team, both are all digital drawings.

Jonathan Quick

Henrik Lundqvist

NHL Western Conference finals: Chicago Blackhawks vs. LA Kings Mad Men Style art

My NHL bracket challenge of the Western conference was wrong for round 2 in both series but I picked the eventual winners and is now correct for round 3, I predicted that the Kings would win the series against the Blackhawks. After 2 games in this series it looks like they could, after the Kings had a strong 3rd period in game 2 for a 6-2 win. If Quick can stay at the top of his game for the series and not falter for a few games like he did in the previous series I think they will.

As mentioned in yesterdays post, here are the Western Conference finalist in Mad Men art form.

2014 Playoffs San Jose Sharks vs LA Kings

I thought this series would be just as great as the St. Louis and Chicago series has been, however it has been quite the opposite. Game 3 was a pretty good back and forth game but games 1 and 2 were routs by San Jose were the Kings looked like they never even showed up for the game. game 4 is tonight and San Jose has a chance to make the 2nd sweep of these playoffs.

I Picked LA in 7 for this series and thought it was pretty much a toss up pick, I think it will be the winner of this series vs the winner of St. Louis and Chicago for the Cup finals.

 Here is a digital drawing of San Jose Sharks Logan Couture and a sketch of Jonathan Quick of the LA Kings done with a ball point pen.

Logan Couture

Jonathan Quick

Jonathan Quick by Stephen Bardsley

Stephen has been a regular contributor to the blog, so much so he has his own link on the right side of the page where you can look at his other hockey related artwork and website

Stephen does a lot of sports related art work and I'm pretty sure every one is done with a ball point pen, speaking of experience on a lot of high school folders, drawing in ball point pen is one of the hardest tools draw with and make it look really good. Here he gives us a pen drawing of Team USA goalie Jonathan Quick (the drawing actually contains red and blue pen however he was not able to get a good photo because of the reflection of the ink, he also sent a photo of just the USA logo showing this).

I'm disappointed in Team USA's defeat by the Canadians and even more so by the sulking defeat by Finland after so much hype in USA's offense going into the Canadian game to be shut out was shocking. What made it worse was the Woman's team lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Canadian team after being up 2-0 with less than 4 minutes to go...WHAT WAS THAT SLASHING CALL!!! Any way I was a proponent for Ryan Miller to get the start in goal for the US, I thought he deserved it more than Quick this year and still believe that but Quick couldn't have played any better (forgetting the Finland game) and who could forget his brilliance to knock the net off slightly against Russia knowing the puck would be going in seconds later. Well there's always the next Olympics!

Jonathan Quick

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 2: LA Kings vs San Jose Sharks

I'm starting to finish most of the Artwork for round 2 and will be posting it within the next week. So far in this round no team seems to have a strong hold to win the series...maybe the Bruins after game 2 but you never know when Lundqvist decides not to allow any more goals.

The 1st post for this round is the Kings vs. the Sharks. This series is currently 2-1 in favor of the Kings and a big reason why that is, is pictured in my art work below, Jonathan Quick. In games 2 and 3 the Sharks have found a way to get more than one goal by him (something the Blues had a hard time doing) however the offense for the Kings which was barely visible in round 1 showed up when needed in round 2 to help out Quick. It's beginning to look a lot like last years Kings.

Here are 2 more pieces of my art work of the reason the Kings are in this position, their goaltender Jonathan Quick and Playoff Gamer for the Sharks Joe Pavelski.

Jonathan Quick

Joe Pavelski

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs: ST. Louis Blues vs LA KINGS

This has been one of the most physical and close scoring series' of the opening round, it's a shame they met in the 1st round as I could see either of these teams winding up in the Western Conference Final. I did think the Blues were going to go far this year but it just didn't work out for them getting a match up with the Kings. Tonight they fell to them in game 6 with every game being a 1 goal game in the series.  The Kings now move on to round 2 to join the Sharks and Blackhawks as the Redwings and Ducks are headed to game 7. The west is going to be difficult to pick as the remaining teams have all looked really good and wouldn't be surprised the West handles the East quite handily in the final this year. The Kings looked like the kings of last year and Jonathan Quick looks to be a great playoff performer and one of my favorite goalies to watch play, question will be if they can score enough now to push through to the Cup.

Here are 2 more pieces I completed of the Blues T. J. Oshie and the Kings Anze Kopitar.

T. J. Oshie

Anze Kopitar

2012 Playoffs Canucks Vs. Kings

Finally back, been busy working on tons of drawings for the playoffs...Just like in years past I try to have one artwork for each team in the playoffs and a post with both of them, as always reader submissions are a great help and give different perspectives. So here...we...go!

So far this series is quite a surprise how the Canucks can't seem to get any offense for one of the most touted offensively talented teams. Kesler has gone down a couple notches in my belt from watching this series, he has been of my most respected players in the NHL, granted I don't see many Canuck games games being on the east coast but the blatant dives he has preformed over the series, just losses respect, I know all teams have players that dive and embellish but there's a certain level where your just shaking your head and Kesler for me has reached that level (and beyond). The  biggest reason the Kings are up 3-0 is because of Quick, he is one of my favorite goaltenders in the NHL to watch play, he's very acrobatic and isn't one of the straight up strictly butterfly goalies. He is always playing down low, its just fun to watch a different style and I hope it continues to work for him. Another story in the series has been Luongo, while I thought he played well so far in the series besides a few dribblers around the pads (I believe if he had smaller or form fitting pads a lot of those kinds of goals on him would go away, they just look too big and clunky) he was replaced by Schneider in game 3 which couldn't produce a win or a goal. Hopefully Luongo will be back for game 4 and the series goes on. Here are two drawings of  the goaltenders for the teams Roberto Luongo and Jonathan Quick.

Roberto Luongo

Jonathan Quick

Mini Goalie Mask: LA Kings

I remember collecting those mini goalie mask key chains but didn't care for just the team logo printed on the top so I got inspired to paint a design based on the team logo on each mask. no these are from years ago (early 2000's I think) so some logos will be outdated but i think some of them are pretty cool. Here's number 8, The LA Kings mini goalie mask.

2011 NHL Playoffs: San Jose Sharks vs. Los Angeles Kings

This has been a great series to watch back and forth lots of scoring, here are two key players for both teams, first the Sharks  Logan Couture and the Kings Jonathan Quick

Canucks vs. Kings

Roberto LuongoJonathan Quick

Anze Kopitar

A digital rendering of Anze Kopitar of the LA Kings