Last season the Los Angeles Kings had a meteoric rise to the top of the NHL, as the team sneaked into the final playoff spot in the Western conference and went on to win their first Stanley Cup.
During their playoff run, the Kings defeated the Vancouver Canucks, the St. Louis Blues, the Phoenix Coyotes and finally the New Jersey Devils for the cup. The Kings didn't start out the season as the league's best team and instead were 13-12-4 under then head coach Terry Murray, who was fired and replaced by Darryl Sutter.
Sutter helped to turn the team around with the help of Conn Smythe winner, goalie Jonathan Quick and the late-season acquisition of Jeff Carter.
While the league was locked out, Los Angeles held its team together and retained its key players including Quick and Jarret Stoll's extensions. The Kings did not re-sign forwards Scott Parse and Trent Hunter and Andrei Loktionov left to Russia instead of taking a demotion to the AHL.
With the Kings bringing back most of their players from the championship run and having a long lockout to celebrate last year's win, Los Angeles should contend for another title this season.
But just to see how they would do this season, we decided to simulate the entire NHL 2013 season using EA Sports virtual hockey video game NHL '13. We simulated the season as if the lockout had never happened so all of the stats are for a full NHL season.
According to NHL '13, the Kings will return to the NHL playoffs, but will fall short of reaching the Stanley Cup series after being shocked by the eight seeded Calgary Flames. The Flames defeat the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 in the opening round of the playoffs.
Here is how the game simulates the Kings' season:
Regular Season Record: 49-26-7 first in the Western Conference
Points: C Anze Kopitar 77 Points, C Jeff Carter 65 Points, C Mike Richards 64 Points
Goals: LW Simon Gagne 27 Goals, C Jeff Carter 30 Goals, C Anze Kopitar 30 Goals
Assist Leaders: RW Dustin Brown 39 Assist, C Anze Kopitar 47 Assist, C Mike Richards 50 Assist
Playoff Opponents:
Round 1: Calgary Flames, The Flames win the series 4-1
Round 2: Did not qualify
Western Conference Finals: Did not qualify
Stanley Cup: Did not qualify
NHL '13 is now available on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, and features Philadelphia Flyers forward Claude Giroux on the cover. You can read our review for the game here.
