The Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Blackhawks are both coming off emotionally draining seven round series. But both teams are mentally and emotionally prepared to begin their best of seven Western Conference Finals on Saturday afternoon.
The Kings lost two of three against Chicago this season and know what to expect from the NHL's top club.
"We know what we're getting," center Anze Kopitar said. "There's no secret to them. They have some world-class players. We've got to limit their chances and try and be as physical as we can. The game plan doesn't change a whole lot."
"They're obviously a fast team. Playing there with [Coach Joel] Quenneville [in 2008-10], he always preaches get the puck up the ice real quick, real fast and with speed, and play up-tempo," added Kings Center and former Blackhawk Colin Fraser. "It's no secret what both teams [do], it's just a matter of who does it better."
Los Angeles has been terrific at home throughout this postseason with seven wins at the Staple Center this postseason. However, the team has only picked up one road victory in the playoffs; it came in Game 5 against the St. Louis Blues. Los Angeles does not have home ice advantage in this series (if they win the series they will not have that benefit in the Finals either) and must improve on the road to take down an equally impressive home team in Chicago.
"We need to score on the road," Kings Captain Dustin Brown said. "We've done a really good job taking care of home ice, and that needs to continue, but we need to find a way to give [goalie Jonathan Quick] some goal support on the road ... find a way to get the job done on the offensive part of the game without sacrificing our defense."
The Blackhawks are coming off a tough seven game series against the Detroit Red Wings; Chicago trialed 3-1 in the series before winning in overtime.
"We did have some learning curve in this round," Game 7 hero Brent Seabrook said. "Detroit played a great series. We really had to find ourselves again after the fourth game, being down 3-1, and I thought the boys responded well. Detroit gave us all they had and it was just nice to come out on the winning end of this one."
Prediction: Chicago take Game 1 4-2.
Start Time: 5 PM EST
TV: NBCSN