The view from Vancouver

The great national panic over the state of the Vancouver Canucks has been put on hold for at least a few days. During a recent 1-4 skid, a good part of the city did its best to figure out what was “wrong’’ with a team that only had 42 wins and was only in second place in the Western Conference. Now, the Canucks have won three consecutive games, have clinched the Northwest Division title and are still within striking distance of the St. Louis Blues for the top spot in the conference. Plus, they’re doing it without injured star Daniel Sedin. Roberto Luongo has always been a bit of an enigma in goal, but if he plays the way he played against the Kings last night, the Canucks will be just fine. Luongo didn’t face significant pressure for most of the game — the second period, in particular, was a snooze-fest at both ends of the ice — but when he did face grade-A scoring chances, he did just enough to keep the puck out of the net. Whether it was a quick-twitch glove stop on Anze Kopitar, or a pad stop on Jarret Stoll from point-blank range, Luongo was the biggest reason why the Canucks held their lead late in the third period. Here’s how the Vancouver Province and the Vancouver Sun covered last night’s game, followed by some additional postgame quotes from the Canucks’ locker room, courtesy of The Associated Press…

Vancouver Canucks’ pull 1-0 win over lagging Los Angeles Kings (Vancouver Province)

Vancouver Canucks edge out L.A. Kings in low-scoring affair (Vancouver Sun)

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ROBERTO LUONGO
(on the game and his recent play…) “Sometimes you just need to reset everything. Obviously, mentally, I wasn’t where I wanted to be, and I was fighting it a little bit. But sometimes you have to put things in perspective and start from scratch. and that’s what I did and I’m feeling good right now. But, obviously, the team is playing well defensively.”

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MANNY MALHOTRA
(on his goal…) “It’s always nice to score. But it’s even more fun to win, and we did it the right way tonight. We didn’t give them too many great opportunities in front. We limited their offensive time with the puck, and just made some really good decisions with the puck.”