What does it say about the notion of parity in the NHL that the eighth-seeded team in the West is battling the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference for the right to hoist the Stanley Cup trophy? We consider whether or not parity has truly come to hockey.

Gone are the Pittsburgh Penguins, who opened this tournament as the fourth seed in the East, but Bovada’s odds-on-favorite at 4/1 to win it all. Also gone is the No.1 seed from the West, the Vancouver Canucks, who not only had the best record (51-22-9) and most points (111) in the NHL in the regular season, but were a 9/5 favorite to win the conference and one of two second-favorites to win this season’s Stanley Cup at 11/2. These two teams did not even make it out of the first round with the Penguins falling to Philadelphia in six games and Vancouver getting ousted by Los Angeles in five. Both teams found themselves in a 0-3 hole before we could even settle into the postseason. 

The New York Rangers secured the top seed in the East with 109 points and had an overall record of 51-24-7. They were opened as second-favorites to win the East at 11/5 and were also 11/2 to win the Cup. They escaped with Game 7 victories in the first-round against Ottawa and the conference semifinals against Washington. New York went on to lose to the Devils in six games in the conference finals. 

The St. Louis Blues were the second-favorite to win the West at 3/1 and the fourth-favorite at 15/2 to win it all, but lasted all of four games against the Kings in a second-round sweep. 

KingsThe two teams that are competing for this season’s title were not the longest shots in the original field of 16 teams, but long enough. The Kings opened at 12/1 to win the conference with the Phoenix Coyotes, having longer odds at 18/1. It took LA five games to get past the Coyotes in the Western Finals. 

The Devils were the fifth-favorite to win the East at 12/1 with Washington, Florida, and Ottawa having longer odds. New Jersey had even longer odds than Los Angeles to win it all at 25/1, which helps to explain why it is a +150 underdog in the Stanley Cup Finals’ series prices and LA is favored at -170. 

The bottom line is that parity in the NHL is obviously alive and well. The NHL is the only major sport that routinely watches its favorites fall by the wayside in the early rounds of the playoffs as an unexpected underdog gets hot at the right time. Part of the reason is the role of the goalie in a team’s chances to win or lose. The other reason is that hockey is the kind of sport that is hard to dominate over the course of an 82-game regular season and four grueling best-of-seven playoff series. 

It is a game of momentum, and if you happen to peak at the wrong time, your stay in the postseason will be a short one. Los Angeles stumbled into the playoffs with just three victories in its last eight regular season games, but hit the ground running with back-to-back 4-2 wins in the first two games against the Canucks. The Kings have gone on to win all nine of their playoff games on the road and are now 13-2 in their last 15 games. 

New Jersey, on the other hand, brought a six-game winning streak into its first-round series against Florida but needed back-to-back 3-2 overtime victories in Game’s 6 and 7 to advance. The Devils started peaking in their next series against Philadelphia. They bounced back from a 4-3 overtime loss in Game 1 with four straight victories to take the series in five games. They needed six games to oust New York in the conference finals but won their last three straight against the Rangers and, before last night's loss, were 8-2 heading into the Finals. 

This year’s Stanley Cup Finals will be a test of which team can maintain their current high level of play at the expense of the other. The parity that exists between the two teams dictates that this series will come down to first, which goalie, LA’s Jonathan Quick or long-time New Jersey veteran Martin Brodeur, plays the best and second, which team has four more wins left in the tank.