Nhl Stanley Cup Champions 2012 [Blu-ray] by Warner Home Video

Actors

• L.A. Kings

Format

• NTSC
• Widescreen

Editorial Review

Every major professional sport produces a celebratory video for its annual champion, but this chronicle of the Los Angeles Kings' drive to the 2012 Stanley Cup is especially memorable. The numbers tell a big part of the story. Established in 1967, the Kings had never won pro hockey's most coveted prize; they'd been to the finals just once (in 1993, when Wayne Gretzky was their star). Nor did the 2011-12 campaign look very promising; having made some major acquisitions in the off-season, the team fell well short of expectations, firing their coach in mid-season and barely making the playoffs as the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference. But once they got in, they took off on one of the most astonishing runs in Stanley Cup history, defeating the West's first (Vancouver), second (St. Louis), and third (Phoenix) seeds, racing to a 3-0 lead in every series and winning every one of their road games in the process; they also went up 3-0 on the New Jersey Devils in the finals, eventually winning 4-2 (with one loss away from home). Every game in every playoff series is covered here, with prominent players (Mike Richards, Dustin Brown, Dustin Penner, Drew Doughty, star goalie Jonathan Quick, Anze Kopitar, and many others), coach Darryl Sutter, team broadcasters (including Bob Miller, a legend in L.A., a town that had never exactly been a hockey hotbed), and various analysts weighing in along the way. This is a slick National Hockey League Production, and while it's hardly in-depth–there's nary a word from any of the Kings' opponents or critics, and the few sound bites we hear from players on the ice, on the bench, or in the locker room are frustratingly brief–there are plenty of beautifully shot game action clips, adding up to a nice keepsake for long-suffering fans who'd waited nearly half a century for their team to win the big one. –Sam Graham