NHL

Dear Seattle: Be careful what you wish for.

After crying enough tears to fill Puget Sound over losing the Seattle SuperSonics years ago, Seattle wants a new NBA team -- perhaps the Sacramento Kings -- to replace them.

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Kings' often-tortured trail to the Stanley Cup was 45 years long but infinitely longer measured in the amount of frustration, bad trades and painful losses they and their fans endured.

NEWARK, N.J. -- In the next month or so, New Jersey Devils captain Zach Parise is going to strike it rich -- somewhere.

The 27-year-old Parise, who can became a free agent next month unless he re-signs with New Jersey, is one of those players that every team wants. He scores goals, works hard, is a good skater and is relentless on the ice. Nothing is more important to him than his team and winning.

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NEWARK, N.J. -- Ilya Kovalchuk has seen Stanley Cup rings before.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Justin Williams remembers every game of the Carolina Hurricanes' 25-game grind through the 2006 playoffs. He knows all about the blood, sweat and exhaustion necessary to raise the Stanley Cup.

That's why he realizes the NHL playoffs aren't usually as easy as the Los Angeles Kings have made them look so far. Although Williams and his teammates have prepared for lengthy series in every round of the postseason, they haven't even had to play a Game 6 yet.

"If you told anybody, let alone us in the dressing room, that we'd have a place in the finals as an eight seed, I would have only told you that you were crazy if you said it took 14 games," Williams said.

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The end of the season hit the Phoenix Coyotes particularly hard.

After scratching and clawing their way deeper into the playoffs than they had ever been, the Coyotes were struck by the did-that-just-happen shock of an overtime goal that simultaneously ended Game 5 of the Western Conference finals and their season.

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Westgate entertainment district is nearly empty, a few people watching their kids play in the fountains, a handful of others scattered among the tables and barstools inside the restaurants and bars.

It's like this most of the time, particularly during the day, when the only visitors are typically workers taking a break from their nearby jobs or the occasional tourist looking for Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville.