Kings Blackhawks driving arms race in Western Conference

More NHL Offseason: | | | A look up and down any free-agent tracker and there are certain things that jump out. There's of course the money spent by the Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers on July 1, but perhaps more than anything else, it's how much stronger the Western Conference got as a whole over the past two weeks. The moves made by several teams may have even weakened the East in the proce s, widening a gap that was painfully obvious last season.Despite the fact that the Eastern Conference was home to the President's Trophy-winning Boston Bruins last season, the West boasted six teams with 100 or more points, including teams with the second-, third-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-best records in the NHL.Every Western Conference team that secured one of the three divisional playoff spots eclipsed 100 points and then beat the heck out of each other in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Needs in NashvillePeters: Considering that in four of the past five seasons, the Stanley Cup Damian Lillard Jersey has been won by either the or , the movement in the West this offseason suggests that teams are doing whatever they can to keep up with those two organizations that have become the cla s of the league.Just look at how the teams eliminated by either of those clubs in this most recent postseason have done.The , eliminated in six games by the Blackhawks, added to strengthen Hassan Whiteside Jersey their center group. They handed the former forward a four-year, $28 million deal, giving him the highest cap hit ($7 million) of any unrestricted free agent signed since July 1. At the NHL Draft, the , eliminated in seven games by the Kings, traded for center , giving them a more formidable one-two punch down the middle with him and .The , eliminated by the Ducks in six games, made a similar move, acquiring to slot in behind and bolster their top six. They added even more in acquiring to likely play on Spezza's wing.The , eliminated in six games by Chicago, went out and signed top free-agent forward , bringing much needed scoring help to a team that already boasts a modicum of gifted forwards led by . The Avalanche, eliminated by the Wild in seven games and stung by the Stastny departure, added future Hall of Famer , who had 30 goals last season for the Bruins.The Blackhawks, eliminated by the Kings in seven games in the Western Conference finals, added on a one-year deal, bringing Harry Gilles III Jersey the No. 2 center they've seemingly gotten by without for the past few years and making a good team better.Meanwhile, the Kings did what they had to do to retain their leading goal scorer in the playoffs by signing to a long-term deal. The lost a key defenseman in (Panthers), but beyond that, they'll ice largerly the same team that just won the Cup. Other teams that didn't make the playoffs even got into the act, like the trading for high-scoring winger . The paid big money to goalie and skilled forward . The brought in solid veteran depth players like forward and defensive defenseman .Meanwhile, teams like the that have been standing pat remain supremely talented, a suming they don't try to blow things up over there.If you'll notice, a lot of those players came from Eastern Conference teams. Just using the players listed above that spent time in the Eastern Conference, the West added 360 points worth of Eastern-based production from last season, while only really losing one producer of note in , who took his 26 goals and signed with the New Jersey Devils. That's a rather dramatic swing in the West's favor. But it's all part of an arms race that has been triggered by the succe s of the Blackhawks and Pau Gasol Jersey Kings. Few teams in the league over the past five years have been as good at exposing their opponents' weakne ses, especially in the postseason, as these two clubs.The Stars didn't have the depth to compete with the Ducks, who didn't have the depth to beat the Kings. Both added players that could be top-line centers on some teams for the No. 2 spot in Spezza and Kesler, respectively.The Blues and Wild didn't have enough to match the super-skilled Blackhawks, and both teams added highly productive forwards that increase their ability to threaten offensively in Stastny and Vanek. All of this is setting up the West to be wild once again in 2014-15. The teams are better, tougher and deeper collectively at this point and it makes you wonder how big the gap can actually get at this point.It was fitting that the Kings needed three consecutive seven-game series against the West, but won the Stanley Cup in five games against a New York Rangers team that had plenty of depth and excellent goaltending. It didn't matter. The Kings were just plain better and they had been tested throughout a grueling regular season and even tougher road in the postseason.Now they're poised to try and make a run at third Stanley Cup title in four seasons, something believed to be impo sible in the salary-cap era. But with the way the Western conference as a whole has made efforts to improve, the Kings are bound to have a tougher time than they did this season, particularly with divisional rival Anaheim improving and frequent late-round sparring partner Chicago doing the same, even if it was only by one player each. There Caleb Swanigan Jersey is supposed to be more parity in the cap era, but the balance of power has significantly shifted westward. As long as teams like the Kings and Blackhawks keep pushing their opponents to be better, it's not going to stop anytime soon.