The NHL's leading PIM guys are out of the playoffs already, as Zac Rinaldo (48 penalty minutes), Shane Doan (41), Wayne Simmonds (38) and Mike Rupp (36) lead the way. As far as active players, Dustin Penner leads the way with 26 while Dustin Brown is right behind him with 24. David Clarkson has 20 to top the New Jersey Devils. It will likely take the two teams a while to generate sincere hatred, so PIMs could be hard to come by in this series.

The Kings Dustin Penner is slated to be an unrestricted free agent on July 1. While that was considered to be a no-brainer after a poor seven goal, 17 point regular season, the hulking forward has been a huge surprise in the post-season with three goals and 10 points in 14 games including the overtime winner to send the Kings to the Cup Final Tuesday. This playoff run may be enough for the Kings to consider extending him but if not, plenty of teams will be interested in the power forward.

Coach Darryl Sutter decided to stick with Dustin Penner during Tuesday's 4-3 victory over Phoenix and the move paid off in the end when the big winger scored the game-winning goal in overtime to send the Kings to the Stanley Cup Finals. "He had a journey tonight. I stuck with him," Sutter said. "He struggled early in the game. Stuck with him." Penner, who is playing with Mike Richards and Jeff Carter on Los Angeles' second line, had a goal and an assist in the contest to give him 10 points in 14 playoff games. He said the marker was the "biggest" of his career so far. Penner has enjoyed a much better showing in the postseason than he had in regular season, where he generated seven goals and 10 helpers over 65 games.

Dustin Penner scored the 4-3 overtime game-winner to clinch a 4-1 series win for the Los Angeles Kings against the Phoenix Coyotes. This marks the first time the Kings made it to the Stanley Cup finals since 1993. Penner and Drew Doughty collected a goal and an assist apiece. Jeff Carter collected two helpers as he continues to heat up. Anze Kopitar and Mike Richards scored the Kings' other tallies as they found a way to beat Phoenix.

A perk for the players in the Kings-Coyotes Western Conference final is the close proximity of the two cities. The flights from Phoenix to Los Angeles or vice versa last just one hour, a welcome reality for many involved. "It's a nice change to stay close to home," Kings' forward Dustin Penner said. "You don't have to take Ambien to get down. You can enjoy a natural sleep." With the Ducks in 2007, Penner had to deal with a three-hour time change when they played the Red Wings. "I don't think the East teams know how lucky they are sometimes, staying in their own time zone," Penner said. "One-hour flights are usually the max. They can even go by train."

Dustin Penner surprisingly has turned into one of the Los Angeles Kings' most productive forwards in the post-season after a horrible regular season that included a highly publicized divorce. The Kings hope Penner's post-season success continues as they prepare for the opener of the Western Conference final against the Phoenix Coyotes tonight. Penner has somewhat surprisingly turned into one of the Kings' most reliable forwards in the postseason with seven points in nine games. He had five points and was a plus-5 in the four-game series sweep of the Blues in the Western Conference Semifinals. By comparison, Penner had seven points in his last 31 regular season games. He credits coach Darryl Sutter for being a rock for him to lean on, and for pushing him in this postseason to finally become the player he was during Anaheim's run to the Stanley Cup in 2007.

Dustin Penner won the Stanley Cup with the Ducks in 2007, and believes the Kings' run this season is very similar. Anaheim finished with 110 points that season, while the Kings ended with 95 this season, eighth place in the Western Conference. "I see a lot of similarities between the Ducks' run and this run we're currently on," Penner said. "There's still eight more wins to go, but the mentality of the team, the focus and the intensity we have each shift and each game, and in practice the way we're moving the puck, it's breeding confidence, and that's a byproduct of our success. We've all bought in and you can tell by the way we prepare ourselves as a team, not just as individuals, on a daily basis."

Dustin Penner had a goal and five points in the Kings' four-game sweep of the St. Louis Blues in the second round. Penner had a terrible season, but he was a positive force for Los Angeles against St. Louis. The big question is if he can keep this up. He should be regarded as one of the big X-factors going into the Western Conference Finals.

After a disastrous regular season, Dustin Penner has been a stud in the playoffs. Penner had only 17 points in the regular season, including seven goals after 45 and 63 point campaigns his last two seasons, but has picked it back up in the post-season with a couple of markers and four assists. "It's nice," Penner said. "It's not nearly finished, but it's a good start. I'm just trying to simplify and work on it one game at a time, one shift at a time. It's working for me right now, so that's how I'm approaching it." Look for a bounce back season next year from Penner as 45-50 points should be within his reach, especially if he is a top-six forward.

Dustin Penner may have not been the scoring hero of the Los Angeles Kings' 5-2 win in Game 2 of their second-round series, but he sure is getting noticed. Penner helped set up the first goal, then also had the primary assist on the second, to go along with four penalty minutes in 11:52. He has four points in the last two games after putting up just 17 in the regular season. "Probably the last month of the season he's started to play more consistent, Mike Richards said. "He's such a big body. He's hard to move. When he protects the puck, there's no one in the league that can take the puck from him. The first goal was him playing hard, getting the puck to the net and using his big body to cause havoc."