2014 Stanley Cup Finals – 7-Game Series vs. Los Angeles Kings

Lore & Background

The 2013–14 season set the stage for a Finals that felt almost preordained. The Kings, led by the steady hand of Anze Kopitar and the physical presence of Drew Doughty, posted the league's best regular-season record and carried a championship-calibre identity into the postseason. Jonathan Quick in net gave them a goaltending anchor that had also carried them to the 2012 title, and the Kings' defensive structure—built around a blue line that could kill, block, and transition—made them a team that won by suffocation as much as by brilliance. Dallas arrived with a different energy. The Stars' identity in 2014 was built on speed, youth, and a willingness to outshoot opponents. Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin formed a young centre pairing that could create scoring chances at will, supported by a depth group that included Jason Spezza and Mike Ribeiro. Their regular season had been strong, and their playoff run showcased a team that played with a loose, aggressive flair that contrasted sharply with the Kings' disciplined, structured game. The series became a fascinating chess match: the Kings' structured defence and penalty-killing against the Stars' relentless offensive pressure. The Kings' ability to win tight, low-scoring games proved decisive. Jonathan Quick stood tall in the critical moments, and the Kings' special teams—particularly their power play and penalty kill—gave them the edge in the games that mattered most. Dallas managed to steal one game in their own building, showing flashes of the brilliance that would define their future, but the Kings' depth and experience in a Cup run told in the end. For the Stars, the 2014 Finals remain the defining 'so close' moment of a franchise that has since continued to build around its young core while still searching for that first banner.

In Their Own Story

The ice in Dallas was cold that night, the kind of cold that seeps through the soles of your skates and settles in your lungs. Benn skated the puck up the left wing, the crowd noise a physical wall pressing against his helmet. He could feel Quick's eyes tracking him from the far net, that calm, unreadable gaze. The Kings' defence slid in like a curtain dropping—Doughty's stick checking, the blue line folding. Seguin came around the slot, the puck snapped across, and for a half-second the whole building held its breath. Then the Kings' D-man tipped it wide, the rebound bouncing off the boards, and the horn sounded. 4–2. The Kings would lift the Cup in six. In the tunnel, Benn sat on the bench, his stick still in his hand, and listened to the distant, muffled sound of a city that had just watched its closest shot at a banner dissolve into the night.

Reader's Guide

Honour: Stanley Cup Championship (2014), won by Los Angeles Kings over Dallas Stars, 4–2. Context: The Kings defended their 2012 title and became the first team since the 2005–06 era to win the Cup with the league's best regular-season record. For Dallas, it was the franchise's second appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals (first in 1999) and remains their closest run to a championship. Team titles: • Los Angeles Kings – 2nd Stanley Cup (2012, 2014). First team to win the Cup, lose it, and win it again within four years in the modern era. • Dallas Stars – 0 Cups. The franchise has appeared in the Finals twice (1999, 2014) without a title. Individual / statistical marks: • Jonathan Quick (Kings) – starting goaltender for the title run; his save percentage and shutout in the series anchored the Kings' defence. • Anze Kopitar (Kings) – captain-level leader; his two-way play and playoff composure were the engine of the Kings' structure. • Jamie Benn & Tyler Seguin (Stars) – the young centre pairing that carried Dallas's offence to the Finals and would anchor the franchise for the next decade. Note: The Kings' 2013–14 regular season (best record in the NHL) gave them the narrative of a dominant team converting a perfect season into a second banner, a storyline that resonates far beyond the six games of the Finals itself.

Did You Know?

• Dallas's 2014 Finals run marked only their second trip to the Cup Finals in franchise history, the first coming in 1999 when they fell to the Buffalo Sabres in six games.
• Jonathan Quick had also been the starting goaltender for the Kings' 2012 championship, making him one of a small group of players to win the Cup in consecutive appearances for the same team within a four-year span.
• The 2014 Stars featured a young core—Benn, Seguin, and a supporting cast of prospects—that would go on to anchor the franchise's identity for the better part of the following decade.