CHICAGO -- It ended in five games, but the Chicago Blackhawks' victory against the Los Angeles Kings in the Western Conference Final was anything but easy.

It was a hard, physical series for both teams -- who each came into it after seven-game thrillers in the conference semifinals. Chicago, however, won by doing exactly what the Blackhawks have done all season long. They came after the defending Stanley Cup champions in waves in all but the one game they lost, and eventually proved that L.A. goalie Jonathan Quick is human.

Outside of Game 3 at Staples Center, the Blackhawks never really gave Quick a chance to breathe and eventually snuffed out the Kings' hopes for becoming the first team since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998 to win the Cup in back-to-back seasons.

Here are five key reasons the Blackhawks are heading into their second Stanley Cup Final in the past four seasons, after winning it all in 2010:

BOSTON -- In the salary-cap era of the NHL, you never know how long a team will be able to keep its core and supporting cast together.

Just ask the Chicago Blackhawks, who are back in the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in four years, but with a decidedly different band of role players complementing the core of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and others.

On the other side of this first Original Six matchup in the Final since 1979 are the Boston Bruins, who are back here for the second time in three years, having followed the Blackhawks' 2010 title with one of their own in 2011. The Bruins boast 17 players who skated in the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs that also were members of that Cup winner.

Bruins coach Claude Julien isn't surprised to see his club back in the Final with so many familiar faces.

"I think so. I think that's why [general manager] Peter [Chiarelli] tried to keep the group together as much as he could," Julien said. "You're always going to lose a player or two here or there, but overall, we still believed that this team could get another opportunity to get there.

Claude Giroux

CAREER STATISTICS

Goals: 91 | Assists: 200 | Pts: 291
Shots: 762 | +/-: 18

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first NHL Draft, NHL.com assembled a 13-member panel to select the best first-round picks of all time, based on selection number. NHL.com will feature one of the top first-round picks each day, beginning with the best No. 30 pick on June 1 and culminating with the all-time No. 1 pick on June 30, the day of the 2013 NHL Draft.

Today: The best No. 22 pick: Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers, 2006

One of the funnier moments in the history of the NHL Draft came in the first round of 2006, when the Philadelphia Flyers stepped to the podium to announce their selection at No. 22.

CHICAGO -- The Los Angeles Kings no longer sit on the NHL’s throne.

Los Angeles, despite a valiant comeback effort in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final at United Center on Saturday, will relinquish the title to either the Chicago Blackhawks or the Boston Bruins. The Kings were worthy champions in 2012, racing to a 3-0 series lead in all four series and losing only four games en route to winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history.

They found the path to a repeat much more difficult and ultimately too tall a task, but the Kings still provided an honorable title defense. Los Angeles rallied after dropping the first two games against the St. Louis Blues in the opening round, and then outlasted the San Jose Sharks in seven games in the Western Conference Semifinals.

The Blackhawks were too much for the Kings, as the Presidents’ Trophy winners moved within four victories of claiming the Cup for a second time in four seasons. Here are five reasons why the Kings won’t be repeating as champs:

CHICAGO -- Chicago Blackhawks forward Bryan Bickell's night of emotional highs and lows included playmaking, nail biting, hoping, praying and celebrating.

"There's going to be games like that," Bickell said from the corner of the dressing room late Saturday night as he proudly sported his Western Conference Championship hat following Chicago's 4-3 double-overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings.

Chicago's biggest forward had an assist on Patrick Kane's first two goals and probably should have gotten one on the double-overtime winner that sent the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup Final to face the Boston Bruins starting Wednesday at United Center (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, RDS).

However, Bickell also was guilty of icing the puck with 14.4 seconds left in regulation. That set up the faceoff in the Blackhawks' defensive zone that led to Mike Richards' game-tying goal with 9.4 seconds to go.

CHICAGO – They're heading back to Southern California weary and banged-up, but no physical pain will match what the Los Angeles Kings feel on the inside.

The Kings did everything they could on Saturday night to keep alive the dream of defending their 2012 Stanley Cup championship, but the Chicago Blackhawks were just too much to overcome. Chicago's 4-3 victory in double overtime of Game 5 in the Western Conference Final was great viewing for fans – who saw the Kings twice come back to tie the game in the third period – but it left the guys in the visitors' locker room at United Center feeling hollow.

"I don't take much solace in losing," Kings forward Justin Williams said -- almost choking on the words as he they spilled out. "It's a bitter taste and yeah, we were one of the final four … but that wasn't our goal when we set out to start the season. We're not able to defend what we did last year, and that's a frustrating thing."

They'll look back on this game and the best-of-7 series as one gigantic frustration.

CHICAGO -- A few days ago, Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane sat in a stall in the visitors dressing room at Staples Center and answered question after question about why he wasn't producing to the level expected of him.

He talked about sitting with his father, Patrick Sr., and watching video clips of past Stanley Cup Playoff goals, looking for anything that could help him shake his scoring slump. Kane met with the media again Saturday night, only the circumstances were far different.

Moments after sitting at a table and answering question after question about one of the best games of his NHL career, Kane walked into a hallway at United Center and had a present for his dad.

It was a 2013 Western Conference Champions hat.

Kane scored a hat trick Saturday, including the series-clincher 11:40 into the second overtime, to help the Blackhawks fend off the defending champion Los Angeles Kings, 4-3, in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final and advance to the 2013 Stanley Cup Final.

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins are heading to their second Stanley Cup Final in three years, and this time around they clinched the Eastern Conference title by defeating the supposedly superior Pittsburgh Penguins.

After all, it was widely accepted that Penguins general manager Ray Shero had won the trade-deadline derby by acquiring Douglas Murray, Brenden Morrow and, most controversially, Jarome Iginla, to supplement a lineup already featuring Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.

Regardless of whose story you want to believe, the fact is Iginla waived his no-trade clause for Pittsburgh and not Boston because he wanted the best chance to win the Cup and to play with two of the best players in the world. Now Iginla's headed to the offseason, and Bruins will gun for a seventh Stanley Cup against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Given the opportunity to gloat, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli, who quipped the Penguins were "a lock" after the Iginla episode, declined to rub Pittsburgh's face in Boston's four-game sweep of the Eastern Conference Final.

The first Original Six Stanley Cup Final since 1979 is now a reality.

In 1979, the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers met in the Final with the Canadiens winning the last of four straight titles with a five-game victory.

Thirty-four years later, the Boston Bruins, who swept the top-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins to win the Eastern Conference title, and the Chicago Blackhawks, who knocked out the defending champion Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, renew their Original Six rivalry in the 2013 Stanley Cup Final. It's a meeting between two recent winners -- the Bruins won the Cup against the Vancouver Canucks in 2011, succeeding the Blackhawks, who defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in six games in 2010.

Game 1 is Wednesday at United Center in Chicago (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, RDS).