No more chuckling at the British hockey teams, hockey "purists." They might just have more hockey cred than even Canada, based on some new evidence dug up by two Swedish researchers. Carl Giden and Patrick Houda uncovered a picture in a book dating from 1797, featuring a British youth skating on the frozen bank of the Thames River during a cold snap. The picture pretty much shows the kid skating with a hockey stick and a puck -- it's hard to mistake him doing anything else.

From the duo's research:

"In 1797, the word 'hockey' had been used in London and its surroundings for about 50 years, replacing the medieval term 'bandy ball,' " the researchers write in an article recently added to their ever-expanding online compendium of hockey history. "The artist's intention must have been to picture a pair of skating hockey-players. Later similar paintings are not known until the 1850s."

The first known image of any sort of hockey was a woodcutting of field hockey dating from 1776 that Giden and Houda also discovered. The organized game is a precursor to hockey, but the first organized match with rules and the like happened in Montreal in 1875, nearly 85 years after the picture of the youth on the Thames.

For some odd reason, the thing that strikes me, the actual historian, the most about this article is that the puck called a "bung." We could be making jokes about Ilya Bryzgalov's "bung hole," people. Think about the missed opportunities.

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In April you may recall that we featured an article discussing how the Colorado Avalanche would have a busy summer ahead due to their strategy of not negotiating contracts during the regular season. One of the biggest questions surrounded the future of veteran Milan Hejduk and whether or not he would return for another year in the NHL or hang up his skates for good.

Today Hejduk, 36, decided that he wasn't ready to call it a career yet by signing a one-year with the Avalanche believed to be worth $2 million. 

(Photo Credit: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

If the Los Angeles Kings were in the hit HBO television show, Game of Thrones, they would be close to controlling all of the seven kingdoms.

In another impressive display of teamwork, the Kings left Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals with another tally in the win column. The victory improved the franchise's record to an astounding 11-1 in the 2012 postseason and are one win away from punching their ticket to the Finals. As the North American media fawn over the stellar play of Jonathan Quick, the shake and bake moves of Anze Kopitar, and relentless forecheck from their forwards, a bigger question has started to surround this team:

Will they take the shortest route to a Stanley Cup victory?

In the past few seasons, the Edmonton Oilers have been on the road to recovery. Ever since their magical trip to the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals against the eventual champion Carolina Hurricanes, the team has been building through the draft. Their stockpile of highly offensive forwards has made the future of Oiler hockey quite bright. Their recent surprise of winning the 1st overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft promises that the product on the ice will be one to watch for many years to come.

The one thing that Edmonton often had trouble with while developing their team on the ice was convincing the Edmonton city council of helping them fund a new arena off the ice. In a unveiling today, the public was able to catch a first glimpse of the proposed design for the $450 million dollar facility.

If you missed Game 2 in the series between Los Angeles and Phoenix, you missed several hits that could have / should have been reviewed by the NHL. Martin Hanzal's hit on Dustin Brown, Shane Doan's hit on Trevor Lewis and Derek Morris' knee on Rob Scuderi were just a few. Ultimately only one player, Hanzal, received NHL discipline (1 game) but others could have certainly seen some sort of additional punishment.

Then there's the Mike Smith incident. Smith developed a reputation earlier in this year's playoffs for embellishing contact. He was hit in the series against Chicago but made the most of it, doing a full barrel roll before hitting the ice. In Game 2 against Los Angeles, Smith was nudged by Dwight King, causing him to go sprawling to the ice as if a train had just collided into him. 

Would the NHL ever consider handing out discipline for a player that clearly embellished/dove on a play? For the sake of the sport we should all hope so.

I've heard people complain about "boring hockey" for two days short of forever, but not more often than this season. The Blues were accused of playing "boring trap-style hockey." Too much defense! Not enough running and gunning! Score more! While the latter would have been nice, especially during round two, most Blues fans didn't notice trap. We noticed the fact that we're getting a new Central Division Champion banner on opening night.

There has been some complaining about how "boring" the playoffs are to watch. Too much shot blocking, not enough break-away excitement for the viewers. That argument strikes me as odd, considering this year's ratings for the playoffs have been extremely solid. Do viewers really equate goals scored with excitement? Is that what matters, or is it the pace of the game, the hits, the strategy, and your team winning? Is that latter part not the point of the playoffs?

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Winston Churchill once said of Russia, "It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma..." This quote is often applied to their players as well. Jingoistic hockey pundits call Russian players lazy and mysterious. They're also accused of playing when they feel like it, and shutting down when they're faced with adverse situations. While it's unfair to apply this to all Russians equally, Alexander Ovechkin's been livin' the stereotype this season. Between being accused of not putting forth effort to get former coach Bruce Boudreau canned to being accused of being unhappy that Dale Hunter was limiting his ice-time, Ovie hasn't exactly gotten the best press this season.

You might remember a story that ran on Puck Drunk Love in April that exposed a Florida news station using a college logo in place of the Florida Panthers logo. Today, a similar event happened in Los Angeles when NBC Los Angeles accidentally ran the NBA's Sacramento Kings logo in place of the Los Angeles Kings logo. 

Embarrassing. 

The Los Angeles Kings are the new favorite to win the Stanley Cup, according to online sports book Bovada. Odds may vary depending which betting outlook you check, but at least one large site has shifted their odds in favor of the Kings taking home the ultimate prize. 

For Kings fans this news might be bittersweet. While they might feel the team has finally received some overdue recognition for its accomplishments, the superstitious LA fans might be concerned that oddsmakers just sealed the team's exit from the playoffs.

If you've been with us since the first round of picks, we'll quickly acknowledge that our prediction record might not be the best but we're going to continue with another round of selections.

We're officially at the halfway point in the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs and only four teams remain for the chance to lift Lord Stanley.  In the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Kings will take on the Phoenix Coyotes while the New Jersey Devils will face the New York Rangers in the East.

Without further delay, let the Conference Finals begin!

David Rogers:

Western Conference Final: Kings in 7

Several series in this year's NHL playoffs have appeared to be certain goaltending duels. Several times we've been incorrect. This is the series that, one would think, changes that. It's a battle between Jonathan Quick and Mike Smith. Whichever goaltender is able to make the fewest mistakes should carry his club into the Stanley Cup Final.

My record for picks this year has been dreadful. I won't deny it. However, here I side with the Los Angeles Kings and Jonathan Quick. I saw first-hand just how tough of an opponent the Kings are when they dismantled my St. Louis Blues with ease. Phoenix should play with more heart than the Blues but ultimately I think LA's relentless pressure, physical game, and penalty kill are deciding factors in pushing the Kings forward in their quest for a Cup.