Where to Watch the Stanley Cup Finals

The Los Angeles Kings will try to win hockey’s ultimate prize tonight in a 5 p.m. game against the New Jersey Devils.

Tonight’s game will air on NBC once again after the last few games of the series have switched back and forth between cable and NBC. Up 3-2 in the best of seven series, if the Kings win, they would be the first 8th seed to win the Stanley Cup in the modern era.

For fans looking to watch the game in the Lake Forest area, in Foothill Ranch and both locations—on Rockfield Boulevard in Lake Forest and Towne Centre Drive, in Foothill Ranch—plan to have the game up on the screen. So does  on Muirlands Boulevard and , on El Toro Road. A bartender at also said she would be happy to put it up on a flat screen.

Police have been warning fans hoping to score tickets outside the Staples Center of scammers selling fraudulent tickets for hundreds of dollars.

Several Los Angeles Kings players Sunday expressed the hope that they can avoid the distractions they faced when they last tried to win the team's first Stanley Cup at Staples Center in Game 6 of the final Monday.

"A lot of us before Game 4 were distracted with family members and friends," defenseman Drew Doughty said Sunday in an interview at the Toyota Sports Center, the team's training facility in El Segundo. "Family always comes first for everyone, but at this point of the year, the team has to come first."

Doughty later described the distractions as "people flying their families in, getting tickets for everyone... I'm sure guys were thinking about what happens if we do win."

"We realize a lot of us didn't play at our potential in Game 4," Doughty said. "We were nervous, worried about other things. All of us in the room were kind of frustrated that we were thinking about things ahead of time.

"(Coach) Darryl (Sutter) made sure that wasn't going to happen this time. We'll be well-prepared for Game 6. Game 6 is all we're thinking about."

When the Kings are in their locker room before Monday's game "we're going to be so well-focused and we're going to be ready to come out there and work our hardest," captain and right wing Dustin Brown said.

"We know we can't let those distractions get to us," Brown said. "All we're thinking about is first 20 minutes now and after that, putting the full 60 minutes together. We're not thinking about any festivities after the game."

The Kings won each of the first three games of the best-of-seven series, then lost 3-1 Wednesday at Staples Center and 2-1 Saturday in Newark, N.J.
The Kings are the first team to win the first three games of the final, then lose the next two since the 1945 Toronto Maple Leafs, who went on to win the series in seven games.

Of the 25 previous times when a team took a 3-0 lead in the final since the best-of-seven format was adopted in 1939, only once has a team failed to win the Stanley Cup—the 1942 Detroit Red Wings, who lost to Toronto.

The Kings "need to do better at moving the puck" and putting bodies in front of Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur to make it harder for him to see the puck, Doughty said.

"Marty's been the star for his team the last two games, but I think we're doing a lot to allow him to have that success," Doughty said. "We're not crashing the net for rebounds. I think if we start to do that, we'll get a lot more in the net."

The Kings have outscored the Devils, 10-7, but have been limited to one goal in regulation in all but Game 3, which they won 4-0 last Monday.

The Kings' mood is good, despite their first back-to-back losses in the four rounds of the playoffs, Brown said.

"We're up three to two and we're on home ice," Brown said. "I think most teams would have taken that at the start of the season."

Brown expects the team "to be a little more relaxed" Monday.

"Being in front of the home crowd's going to give us an extra boost in Game 6," Brown said.

—City News Service