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L.A.'s playoff success this year is reminding people of 1993

Drew Doughty, Dustin Brown, Jonathan Quick

Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty, center, and right wing Dustin Brown, right, congratulate goalie Jonathan Quick after Game 3 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series against the St. Louis Blues, Thursday, May 3, 2012, in Los Angeles. The Kings won 4-2. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

AP

The Kings are just one win away from making the Western Conference finals for the first time since Wayne Gretzky helped them do it in 1993. A handful of superstars, some rag-tag veterans, and a hot goalie helped those Kings make the Stanley Cup finals. Sound familiar?

Much like that ’93 team, these Kings wear silver and black and as legendary play-by-play voice of the Kings, Bob Miller, tells Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times in her terrific retrospective on the Kings’ past, this Kings team reminds him a lot of how that ’93 team made their run.

“I was thinking that this year is almost similar to ’93, where people got hot at the right time and played well at the right time,” Miller said. “Because I don’t recall anything during the regular season where you thought, ‘This team could do it,’ especially with Gretz out for half of the season.”

You certainly can’t say at any point during this season you thought the Kings would be capable of a deep playoff run. They fiddled about through most of the year. They managed to play so poorly they got their coach fired (Terry Murray) only to have GM Dean Lombardi read them the riot act and bring in Darryl Sutter.

Now that they’re deep into the playoffs, the Kings look like the team many thought we’d see before the year started.

Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown are playing huge. Mike Richards is playing hard at both ends of the ice while Drew Doughty is looking like the Norris Trophy finalist he was a couple seasons ago. Throw in some Jonathan Quick mastery in goal and you’ve got a team that’s playing perhaps the best hockey in all the playoffs.