from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail,

In the NHL’s age of parity, when the salary cap was supposed to guarantee that teams at the top couldn’t stay at the top, the Kings and Blackhawks are defying expectations. They’ve won two championships apiece over the past five seasons, and they go into 2014-15 as the favourites to win again. The oddsmakers have Chicago opening as a 6-1 pick, L.A. is next at 15-2 and the third-ranked team is the only other one to win a recent championship – the Boston Bruins.

“It’s a tough time to win multiple championships in a row, but I still think it’s possible,” Blackhawks’ winger Patrick Kane said. “I still [think] there are teams out there that can do it, including us. We feel we were close to winning last year, and that would have been a couple in a row, three in five years. So yes, I think it can happen.”

Kane’s Blackhawks were juggling salary-cap questions right up until the moment training camps ended in order to get under the $69-million (U.S.) ceiling for the 2014-15 season. The Blackhawks made little noise this past summer other than signing Kane and captain Jonathan Toews to monster contract extensions that will kick in at the start of next season. Beyond adding Brad Richards as a modestly priced free agent to play on a line with Kane and Brandon Saad and trading away Leddy, the Blackhawks returned essentially the same team.

So, for that matter, did Los Angeles. The Kings signed last year’s key trade-deadline acquisition, Marian Gaborik, to a seven-year contract extension, but they look as if they will go into the new season with no new faces in the lineup.

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