Kings begin title defense April 30, 2013

The playoffs begin tonight, with three games on the slate.  This includes game 1 for the defending champions L.A. Kings, who will take on the St. Louis Blues. It will be a rematch of last year’s Western Conference second round tilt, where the Kings dominated en route to a 4-0 sweep.

D-man Matt Greene weighed in on the Kings season:

"I think the guys have been playing hard all year. It's been a playoff atmosphere for the whole season with the games played every other day pretty much, through all 48," said the gritty defenseman, who missed the regular-season finale because of an undisclosed injury, but practiced Monday. He said he was not sure whether he will play Tuesday, and Coach Darryl Sutter would not confirm Greene's status.

"Everybody's done a good job of playing to it," Greene added, "and I think everybody's ready for this year."

Find out more about the Kings in this Los Angeles Times story here. 

The Blues, led by captain David Backes and Norris trophy candidate Alex Pietrangelo will, on the other hand, look to overcome last year’s debacle.

Here is what the coach had to say about the upcoming series:

“We’re playing better than we have all year,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We’re deeper than we’ve ever been. Whether we’re good enough, this series is going to tell, but we think we’re better than we’ve ever been. We’re going to need to be.”

“Los Angeles is the team, the only team in the league with the experience of knowing what it takes to win. So until someone knocks them off, they’re the only team with the knowledge of what it takes to win a Cup. We can all talk about it, but they’ve done it.”

Despite the tall order, St. Louis comes in to this series playing extremely well, and look to be a confident bunch.

For more on the Blues, continue reading the St. Louis Post-Dispatch article here.