from Jack Todd at the Montreal Gazette,

The Kings are a terrific team, perhaps the mentally toughest we’ve ever seen. But they won’t repeat next spring for a simple reason. The date: Friday, June 13, 2014. When the 2014-15 season begins Oct. 2, the Kings and Rangers will still have knocks and bruises that haven’t healed, not to mention acute mental exhaustion.

This time, it took the Kings 26 gruelling playoff games to get their rings. They were close to the golf course in April, down 3-0 to the San Jose Sharks and ripe for a sweep. Instead, after losing Game 7 to the Kings on April 30, the Sharks had a May 1 tee time — and nearly seven weeks of extra time to recover and plan for next season.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the NHL season is too long. Two of the Kings, Jeff Carter and Drew Doughty (who should have won the Conn Smythe) were also part of Canada’s gold medallists at the Sochi Olympics, while goaltender Jonathan Quick backstopped the U.S. squad and Anze Kopitar played for a surprising Slovenian team. Slava Voynov was part of Russia’s abbreviated run and Marian Gaborik, without whom the Kings don’t make this run, played for Slovakia while he was still a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

For players like Carter and Doughty, it’s too much to ask.

a bit more regarding the NHL season...