It's late May. You've played three rounds of hockey. The bumps and bruises are there, but you're playing for the Stanley Cup, man.

The three teams left in the race for the Cup are all feeling the effects of playing an extra month and a half of hockey. And while the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers will be playing their 18th and 20th games of the playoffs (respectively) tonight, the Los Angeles Kings have breezed their way through three rounds with a meager 14.

The Rangers played that many through the opening two rounds and according to STATS, LLC., no Cup-winning team has ever played more than 18 games to get to the Final.

By eliminating the Vancouver Canucks in five games and the St. Louis Blues in four, the Kings are used to having time off between series. With eight days between Game 5 against the Phoenix Coyotes and Game 1 of the Final, is that too much rest for the Kings?

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Full disclosure: This entire post is just an excuse to show you this unbelievable photo by Bruce Bennett.

The New York Rangers controlled Game 5 for 40 minutes, limiting the New Jersey Devils to just 10 shots during that stretch and outscoring them, 3-0.

Unfortunately, these 40 minutes were bookended on either side by 10 minutes that they did not control. During those 20 minutes, the Devils scored 5 times on 7 shots, and that was all the offence they'd need in a 5-3 win.

It was a strange Game 5 -- "An adventure," according to Devils coach Peter DeBoer -- with all sorts of unexpected offense and strange bounces. The Devils came out flying, beating Henrik Lundqvist twice in the first five minutes. Stephen Gionta opened the scoring after finding himself alone with a rebound in front of Henrik Lundqvist. Then, just two minutes later, Patrik Elias doubled the lead when an Adam Henrique point shot pinballed around like it was teaching children how to count to 12 before deflecting off the back of his leg and in.

Five minutes later, Travis Zajac stunned the Madison Square crowd when he extended the lead with a perfectly-placed wrister off the rush.

This put the Rangers in a tough spot. They had only reached four goals in a game once this poststeason -- in the playoff opener versus the Ottawa Senators in April 12. But they were undeterred by the daunting task, and they put their game into overdrive.

Also they got some luck.

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The New Jersey Devils' three Stanley Cup winners since 1995 have featured some constants: Goaltender Martin Brodeur, Grand Emperor Lou Lamoriello and the defensive foundation those champions where constructed on.

But their coaches have defined each of them. Jacques Lemaire's trapping Devils in 1995. Larry Robinson, the players' coach, whose stunning conference finals tirade sparked the Devils' 3-1 comeback over the Flyers and eventual Cup win in 2000. The late Pat Burns, the coaches' coach, who reined in their offensive stars and oversaw a return to defensive discipline in 2003.

Tied 2-2 with the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final, the Devils may still fall short of the Cup in 2012. But should they grab the Chalice, Coach Peter DeBoer has personalized this team in the same manner as his Hall of Fame (and should-damn-well-be-in the Hall of Fame, in Burns's case) predecessors had.

He's pushed the right buttons. Preached the right sermons. Earned his players' belief in an offensive system that attempts to re-chisel the cemented stereotypes about Devils hockey. His comportment is one of intellectual serenity — Dan Bylsma style — with a touch of rage. His communication with the players has been honest and non-political.

He couldn't have done this three years ago, when ego prevented him from fulfilling his potential as an NHL head coach. That he was the given the chance to do this at all tracks back to July 2011, when Lamoriello stunned the hockey world with an uncharacteristic choice behind the bench.

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Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.

It's possibly the greatest bit of investigative journalism conducted since Woodward and Bernstein brought down Richard Nixon.

This exemplary, collective effort of sleuth work is currently ongoing in Los Angeles, Calif., where an entire media market has unearthed the NHL's shocking secret:

The city has a professional hockey team.

Over the past week or so here at Puck Daddy, we've tried to document every startling discovery made by the intrepid Los Angeles media, like how to properly pronounce Anze Kopitar's name (it's hard because he's from Bosnia or something), the real name of this Drew Doughty character (it's actually Brad!) and that hockey is in fact not played with a ball, but rather a little piece of rubber known as a "puck." That last one makes me pretty uncomfortable because of the word it rhymes with. ("Duck" — sorry, I just don't trust 'em; they have weird beaks).

Just how villainous is this team, operating as a sort of sporting sleeper cell? They got all the way to the Western Conference Finals without one local noticing. That takes real criminal talent. And not only that, but, the NHL had the diabolical idea to hide it right under the Los Angelinos' noses, by having their home games played at the Staples Center. You know, where the Lakers play. Further, they named the team the Kings to intentionally confuse even the savviest media organization into thinking they are the NBA's Sacramento Kings.

Astonishingly devious stuff. More twists and turns than the Da Vinci Code, which I've read three times just to make sure I understood it all.

The best bit of this journalism on this pressing issue comes, of course, from the city's paper of record, the Los Angeles Times, winner of 44 Pulitzer Prizes since 1942, including three in 2012. It was for that towering beacon of journalistic excellence that columnist Chris Erskine successfully scruted several of the team and sport's most inscrutable mysteries.

For instance, that thing I said earlier about the puck (again, yuck… oh and that's another gross word it rhymes with), I learned it from Erskine. Apparently they even freeze the thing. And that's a huge point of concern, because, "The hardest shots can reach 110 mph and tear flesh, crush bone, even kill you if you're not careful." Yikes, you guys!

(Coming Up: Rick Nash to Boston?; Tororella defends Prust; Ryan Suter faces his future; Evegni Malkin is having a pretty good season; why Lundqvist is King; why the Capitals can't win with Ovechkin; the Islanders know how to party; Canucks might keep Luongo; Ryan Miller on the CBA; Flames and Oilers coaching news; and are the Kings in trouble?)

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Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• Look, JGL: "Inception" was the bomb. You were Han Solo in "500 Days of Summer." You probably become Batman when Bane breaks Bruce Wayne's back (/speculation). But please do not wear the Lakers gear to the Kings game. That said, feel free to wear the Kings gear to the Lakers game, if there are still going to be Lakers games this spring.

• The Ryan Suter watch begins next week. Hold on to your butts. [Malik]

• Shea Weber on Alex Radulov's quasi-suspension in Round 2 for the Nashville Predators: "You feel a little bit betrayed, but I am sure he feels bad about it now and he looks back on it and wishes it didn't happen. Those are the things you can't take back and we've got to move forward." [Examiner]

• Pekka Rinne on Radulov and the curfew issue: "It didn't affect as much as media made it seem like. The way I see it, Radulov joining the team mid-season affected the atmosphere more than the incident that happened in the playoffs." [On The Forecheck]

• Milan Hejduk is back with the Colorado Avalanche for one year and $2 million. Says Dater: "Yeah, I'm a little concerned about where/what Hejduk's role might be. I mean, it's a little worrisome to think he'll be relied upon perhaps as a top-six forward. And yet, would he really be effective on a third or fourth line? Those are questions Joe Sacco will have to grapple with next season." [All Things Avs]

• Great work here by Nick Cotsonika on burgeoning New York Rangers star and rookie sensation Chris Kreider. [Y! Sports]

• Ryan Callahan says his left hand isn't injured, despite blocking a shot with it back in the Ottawa series. [NYDN]

• Darryl Sutter, on the growth of Los Angeles Kings forward Dwight King: "Growth?" Sutter said. "He's still 232 (pounds). After games, he's 228." [LA Kings Insider]

• Kerry Fraser on embellishing players in the postseason: "The Conference Finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs is not the time for the referees to strap on the six guns in an effort to clean up embellishment in Dodge. The refs must however, ramp up their radar and if any doubt is created in their mind as to the legitimacy of a foul, then I would suggest they keep their arm down and play on. I also hope they will seize every opportunity to enforce obvious embellishment by calling a penalty (whether as a 'stand alone' penalty or a coincidental minor when embellishment occurs as the aftermath to a legitimate foul)." [TSN]

• John MacKinnon torches the Edmonton Oilers for firing Tom Renney. "This move — anticipated as it was — was a long, slow slap in the face to a coach who deserved better. If you're the incoming man, it would be wise to at least ponder the fashion in which the Oilers will ultimately dump you. That might help you decide whether you want to accept the job in the first place." [Journal]

• David Staples does much the same: "My bottom line on Renney? He  earned a new deal. He made a few big miscalculations, but much more was going right than wrong under his direction." [Cult of Hockey]

• From Black Dog: "The Oilers are like the opposite of that and maybe this should be their master plan. Howson has already destroyed Columbus. Maybe Messier can take over the Rangers and Prendergast can move to Chicago. Let Tambo move back to Vancouver and Buchberger coach the Avs. Let them go forth and multiply and take their special brand of incompetence to the rest of the league, like the Black Plague, destroying franchises as they alight from their private jets, just as flea ridden rats destroyed cities as they swarmed ashore from ships manned by infected doomed sailors." [BDHS]

• Ellen Etchingham on the Los Angeles Kings: "These Kings, they just look so brilliant. So clearly and completely and definitively ass-whoopingly eye-catchingly heart-liftingly brilliant. They play the way I'd always hoped a Cup-winning team would play. They play like they are actually so much better than everyone else that they (*gasp*) deserve to win. There's still a part of me that can't wholly believe they're for real. There's a part of me that's still tensed for the inevitable fall. But, nevertheless, I hope. I would like to see a team take the Cup this decisively, in less than twenty games. I want to see a juggernaut victory." [Backhand Shelf]

• Alex Ovechkin was named the 11th most marketable athlete internationally in 2012. [Alex Ovetjkin]

"A finalized lease agreement with a potential Phoenix Coyotes buyer has yet to emerge publicly but a Glendale City Council majority appears poised to approve a $17 million fee to operate the city-owned arena." [AZ Central]

• Hopefully, when Daniel Alfredsson says he may have played his last competitive game, he means all 82 games next season for the Ottawa Senators (plus playoffs) are blowouts. [Senators Extra]

• Finally, the New York Mets all wore hockey jerseys on their road trip to Canada. Expected to see more Islanders sweaters, given that both franchises have been living off the glory of the 1980s for decades… (Kukla)

"Beat LA" strikes me as a really unimaginative slogan. Was "Win the hockey match" taken?

Preview: Los Angeles Kings at Phoenix Coyotes, 9 p.m. ET

The Coyotes will attempt to do what no other team has done versus the Kings this postseason: win a game at home. The Kings have won 6 consecutive road games, just one off the NHL record held by the Blackhawks of 2010, the Islanders of 1980 and 1982, thew Devils of 1995, and the Avalanche of 1999. The Coyotes will have to pick their game up considerably to avoid a repeat of Game 1, where they were out-possessed handily and outshot 48-27. Do they have it in them? The key will be shutting down Dustin Brown and his linemates, something no one has been able to do thus far. If they can't, the Kings will tie that record.

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