2006 FNHL Cup Champions

Los Angeles Kings

Led By GM: Daren Clary

Row 1: David Aebischer, Johan Hedberg

Row 2: Jeremy Roenick, Adam Deadmarsh, Zigmund Palffy, Bryan McCabe, Colin White

Row 3: Mikko Koivu, Jean-Pierre Dumont, Daniel Alfredsson, Adam Foote, Vitaly Vishnevski

Row 4: Eric Belanger, Ian Laperrier, Mike Grier, Pascal Trepanier, Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre

Row 5: Sergei Zholtok, Branislav Mezei

Not Pictured: Tomas Vlasak

Long Live The Kings:

The FNHL Cup finals of 2006 was one that nobody expected. If you were to bet on Los Angeles vs Pittsburgh in the finals, you probably would have been a rich man. During the regular season, it was already set in stone that Colorado would represent the West the in the finals and take home the cup for a second time. In the East, it was a toss-up but Carolina, Washington, Ottawa, or even Montreal was looking promising at some points. The Kings managed to take Detroit in 7 games, Dallas in 7 games, Colorado in 7 games, and luckily for them Pittsburgh in only 5. Los Angeles broke the record for the most games played by the cup winning team. They had played in 26 games and the next highest was 23. Endurance and leadership was the key for this tough team. A team centered around hard-hitting, strong, leadership endowed men brought LA their first cup win. LA lost one of the worst trades in FNHL history when they traded Steve Sullivan and a first rounder for Zigmund Palffy, and had it not been for this win that could have haunted this team for a while. That's over now. LA has won the cup and all their past mistakes are forgotten. They now have to live a new life that will be filled of even more mistakes. Having Roenick sign with them for the amount of money they gave him seemed ridiculous at the time, but is it now? They added the older guys like him and Alfredsson to help win now. LA proved that youth does not win championships, it is leadership, experience, and will. The goaltending dup between David Aebischer and Johan Hedberg was too much for any team to handle and David Aebischer broke a post-season record and recorded his 5th shutout. The record was previously held by Roman Cechmanek (COL) with 4. What now for the Kings? Will they go for some youth and take a few years off to build? Or will they try to do the same thing that three other teams have been trying to do... win the FNHL a second time. Not losing a single player in the offseason due to free agency, they have a great head start.