LOS ANGELES – When every player but one had finished their postgame interviews and the New Jersey Devils' dressing room completely cleared out, team officials placed a six-inch podium in front of a random stall. There, a gaggle of reporters crowded around, waiting for the guy who'd just given up four goals in a 4-0 shellacking.

Martin Brodeur has done his part in the final, but it's tough to win when your team can't score. (AP)It wasn't the kind of performance that's made Martin Brodeur a future first-ballot Hall of Famer. Even still, none of the blame for this latest loss to the Los Angeles Kings was being laid at his feet. To a man, Brodeur's Devils teammates repeated the same line: We've got to get him some goals.

And really, they're right. Three games into the Stanley Cup Final and the Devils have yet to lead for even a single second. The first two losses in the series weren't because of their netminder, who gave up a total of two goals in regulation and two more in overtime, extra periods that wouldn't have been necessary had Mark Fayne not missed an open net in Game 1 or

Read More »from Martin Brodeur keeps head up despite fading Stanley Cup hopes

Kurt Busch won't be racing at Pocono this weekend after NASCAR suspended the 2004 Cup champion for one race following yet another run-in with a reporter.

Kurt Busch has been suspended until June 13 for a run-in with a reporter. (Getty Images)Following Saturday's Nationwide race at Dover, Busch was asked if being on probation limited his ability to defend himself on the race track. Busch took issue with the question posed by Bob Pockrass of the Sporting News, responding, "It refrains me from not beating the [expletive] out of you right now because you ask me stupid questions."

Already on probation for an incident last month at Darlington, Busch essentially forced NASCAR's hand. Monday, NASCAR responded by suspending Busch until June 13 and extended his probation for the remainder of the 2012 season.

"I accept NASCAR's decision," Busch said in a statement. "I put them in a box, they had to take action and it's my fault for putting them in this position. I apologize for the comments I made to Bob Pockrass."

Busch hoped to use this as a rebuilding year for his

Read More »from Kurt Busch suspension by NASCAR could cost more than one race

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. – There was too much silence inside the Shark's Cove to think anyone really cared that the Los Angeles Kings were back in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 19 years. With sun pouring through a pair of raised garage doors, waves percolating a block-and-a-half down the road, rush hour not yet through 15 minutes of its crawl and the Kings, locked in a scoreless tie with the New Jersey Devils, eliciting not so much as a whisper, everything seemed pretty normal here in Southern California.

Kings fans gathered at Shark's Cove, on the edge of the Pacific, to watch Game 1. (Y! Images)Well, except that more than half of the 48 TVs inside the Cove were tuned into hockey, including the 60-incher flanked by a pair of surf boards, while LeBron James and the Miami Heat were relegated to a few 20-some-inchers dotting the walls inside this beach town bar.

Hockey may not matter everywhere in Los Angeles, but it does 20 miles away at a bar in the heart of Manhattan Beach, a super-hip surf town that spills into the Pacific Ocean. So when Colin Fraser

Read More »from Southern California's unlikely hockey haven: A surf bar by the beach

GLENDALE, Ariz. – The hockey handshake line might be the most surreal thing in sports, men missing teeth congratulating other men missing teeth for knocking the ever-living hell out of each other for a series. It's also a custom that metes out justice in the form of respect, or lack thereof.

So as the Phoenix Coyotes skated by Dustin Brown after the Los Angeles Kings eliminated them 4-1 in the Western Conference final, they did so without so much as a nod of congratulations. He was going to the Stanley Cup final; they were going home, which hurt all the more because of what Brown had done barely five minutes earlier.

Locked in a fierce 3-3 tie that had worked its way to overtime, the Kings and Coyotes spent nearly 80 minutes trading punch after punch – one trying to knock the other out, the other trying to stay alive. With just 2:30 to go in the extra period, Coyotes defenseman Michal Rozsival streaked across the blue line heading toward the Kings zone when Brown laid into him

Read More »from Kings advance to Stanley Cup final with OT goal just seconds after Dustin Brown's controversial hit

LOS ANGELES – Over a four-day span, Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles hosted six sporting events, each requiring its own changeover. What transpired from Thursday to Sunday, when the Los Angeles Kings (NHL), Clippers (NBA) and Lakers (NBA) played a total of six games in 72 hours is an unprecedented string of events for a single arena to host.

It began Thursday night with the Kings hosting the Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL's Western Conference final and ended Sunday night with the Clippers hosting the San Antonio Spurs in the second round of the NBA playoffs. In between there were five changeovers (the Clippers and Lakers use different courts), with the switch from ice to basketball taking approximately 2 hours, 15 minutes; from one basketball court to another taking about 90 minutes.

In all, more than 110,000 fans poured in and out of Staples (assuming some didn't hide out in a bathroom between games).

(Video courtesy of Getty Images)

Other popular content on the Yahoo! Read More »from Inside Staples Center: a weekend like none other

LOS ANGELES – The future of the Phoenix Coyotes' 2012 season rests on the shoulders of Mike Smith.

That's all.

Phoenix's bend-but-don't-break strategy relies on near perfection from goalie Mike Smith. (AP)Oh sure, Shane Doan is the heart of this team, but Smith is its lifeblood. For without him swatting away point-blank shot after point-blank shot, Doan's two goals Sunday afternoon go for naught and the Coyotes are heading north for the winter.

For the fourth straight game, the Los Angeles Kings outshot the Coyotes, and again it wasn't even close – 36-21. Yet when the horn blew, it was the 'Yotes celebrating a 2-0 victory.

Through 2½ playoff rounds, the Coyotes have now been outshot 552-386, but still they're alive, making high-stake wagers on a high-risk, bend-but-don't-break strategy that relies almost entirely on their goalie being perfect.

There's no restrategizing now. It's the hand this team has been dealt in matching up against a Los Angeles Kings squad that's experienced an offensive awakening in the postseason, and so if the Coyotes are to come all the way

Read More »from Mike Smith saves Coyotes' season with shutout performance against Kings

LOS ANGELES – So this is what it's like to expect a team to win – to show up knowing one team has no chance because the other is unbeatable.

The Kings have won eight straight games and are 11-1 overall in the 2012 playoffs. (AP)This is what it's like to watch the Los Angeles Kings. Seven wins in a row going into Thursday night's game against the Phoenix Coyotes and now it's at eight, sneaking away with a 2-1 victory against a game squad that fought hard even though the series was essentially over two days ago when they were swept on their home ice.

To recap, the Kings are now 11-1 in the playoffs, are up 3-0 on the Coyotes in the Western Conference final, a series in which they've trailed for a grand total of 127 seconds – or one fewer than it took the NBA’s Lakers to implode 24 hours earlier.

Yes, it's looking very much like it will be the Kings who will carry the torch into June for the City of Angels, and when they do they'll not only be expected to win the Stanley Cup by people in L.A. – who'd have ever thunk that? – but will likely be installed as the

Read More »from Unbeatable Kings fated for Stanley Cup final

GLENDALE, Ariz. – If the rules allowed it, the Western Conference final would be over, the towel thrown in on a Phoenix Coyotes team that has run into a freight train that's showing no sign of slowing down.

Oh, the Coyotes threw everything they had at the Los Angeles Kings in Game 2 – a Shane Doan shove to the back of Trevor Lewis, a Mike Smith slash to Dustin Brown's leg, a dangerous Martin Hanzal crosscheck that sent Brown face-first into the boards – yet when it was all over the scoreboard read 4-0 for the Kings.

L.A. came to Phoenix riding a five-game road winning streak; they're leaving with it at seven, a count that ties the longest in NHL playoff history. That's where this team is right now, in the midst of a historic run that could end up being the best the NHL playoffs have witnessed since going to its current 16-team format.

The standard bearers are the '88 Edmonton Oilers. Remember them? Gretzky. Messier. Kurri. Fuhr. They went 16-2 en route to winning the Stanley

Read More »from Kings making history on remarkable playoff run that seems destined for Stanley Cup final