Ilya Kovalchuk

Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau and Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin will blog for The Times occasionally throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs . Today, Boudreau gives his general thoughts on the Kings as they prepare to play the New Jersey Devils in the Stanley Cup Final. Hello, hockey fans. Before we talk about the Stanley Cup Finals, a quick look back at the conference finals: As I said last week, I think Phoenix took it as far as they could go. They played as well as they could play.

NEWARK, N.J. -- The nearly a King? Well, it was about 50-50 - if that, maybe - that the Kings were going to win the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes in a dizzying few weeks in 2010. The summer of Ilya resulted in the high-priced free-agent forward opting to stay with the New Jersey Devils, signing a 15-year, $101-million contract. Kings captain Dustin Brown and defenseman Matt Greene were involved in the recruitment effort, briefly. Greene described it as a cup of coffee and a drive from downtown to the Kings' headquarters in El Segundo.

NO. 8 KINGS (40-27-15) vs. NO. 6 NEW JERSEY (48-28-6) How long has it been since the Stanley Cup finalists, the Kings and the Devils, occupied the same ice surface? Try seven months. This was long before Kings Coach Darryl Sutter rolled into town in mid-December and months before Jack Johnson left and Jeff Carter arrived, reunited with his buddy Mike Richards. New Jersey and Los Angeles met twice in the regular season, both games coming in October. The Kings lost to the Devils, 2-1, in a shootout Oct. 13 in Newark, having just returned to the United States after starting the regular season with two games in Europe.

When: 7:30. Where: Staples Center. On the air: TV: FS West; Radio: 1150. Records: Kings 5-1-1, Devils 3-2-1. Update: The hot goalie will be sitting. Kings Coach Terry Murray decided a few days ago that he would start Jonathan Bernier, not Jonathan Quick. He made that decision before Saturday's game against Dallas, which was Quick's third consecutive shutout. New Jersey practiced at Staples Center on Monday and did some tinkering, having Zach Parise center a line of Ilya Kovalchuk and Nick Palmieri, according to Devils media.

Through Monday's games (Previous rank) 1. San Jose, 38-22-6. The Sharks were riding a 17-2-1 surge before losing a third-period lead against Dallas on Saturday. Only cloud: defenseman Dan Boyle (upper-body injury) has missed four games. (3) 2. Chicago, 37-23-6. The defending champions are looking the part again with an eight-game winning streak. Jonathan Toews has points in nine straight games, with eight goals and 23 points in that span. That's why he's the captain, eh?

This game alone did not prove that the Kings won when they lost the Ilya Kovalchuk free-agent sweepstakes last summer, and it did not prove that the New Jersey Devils lost when they won Kovalchuk's services for $100 million over 15 years. But for every Kings fan who has suffered when they were snubbed by prime free agents over the years, seeing the Kings stifle Kovalchuk and the Devils in a 3-1 victory Saturday at Staples Center and take over first place in the NHL was an occasion for pure, priceless joy. It was fun for the players, too, exhausted though they were in the finale of seven games in 11 days.

The New Jersey Devils were fined $3 million and lost a first-round draft pick for trying to get around the NHL's salary cap with their initial contract offer to Ilya Kovalchuk . The NHL said in a statement that the Devils will be able to decide when, in the next four years, they will forfeit a first-round pick. New Jersey also will lose a third-round pick in the 2011 entry draft. The penalty stems from a 17-year, $102-million contract the Devils offered Kovalchuk, a three-time All-Star who scored 40 or more goals in six consecutive seasons.

An independent arbitrator upheld the NHL's rejection of Ilya Kovalchuk's 17-year, $102-million contract with the New Jersey Devils on Monday, putting the three-time All-Star back into the unrestricted free-agent market. After a two-day hearing last week, arbitrator Richard Bloch ruled that the contract was an attempt to circumvent the salary cap rules under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Devils, however, remain the front-runner to sign the Russian winger. "While we do not currently have a contract with Ilya Kovalchuk, discussions have resumed and we are hopeful that a contract will be reached …," said Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello in a statement.

As expected, the NHL Players' Assn. filed a grievance Monday over the league's rejection of the 17-year, $102-million contract between Ilya Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils. The NHL last week refused to approve the contract on the basis that the deal circumvented the collective bargaining agreement, apparently because it was dramatically front-loaded and tapered dramatically to $550,000 a year for the last five years in order to get a low average annual value. "The grievance is not surprising or unexpected.

The Kings would again be interested in signing high-scoring winger Ilya Kovalchuk if the NHL's rejection of his 17-year, $102-million contract with the New Jersey Devils stands and he becomes a free agent, a source familiar with the team's thinking but not authorized to comment publicly said Wednesday. Before the Kings can rekindle their dreams, a series of steps must be followed as a result of the NHL's attempt to discourage teams from front-loading big contracts to minimize the charge against the salary cap and paying players past the point at which they could reasonably expect to be effective.