The unsung hero?

This morning, a member of the Vancouver media asked Terry Murray who he thought could be his team’s “unsung hero” of the playoffs. I asked Murray, as some coaches might, to give a bland, general answer about his team, but Murray said: “Wayne Simmonds,” and touted Simmonds’ ability to play a power-forward role. Simmonds, in his second season, will make his playoff debut tonight after a sophomore season in which he totaled 16 goals and 24 assists in 78 games. Here’s what Simmonds said this morning about the start of the series…

Question: You guys seemed to be loose and having fun on the ice. Is that the mentality you want to go with, to just be yourselves?

SIMMONDS: “Definitely. We just want to stick to the game plan. Everyone is having a good time right now, and I think that’s going to be key. You don’t want to get too tight, because that’s when you start making mistakes. I think the looser we stay, the better off we’ll be.”

Question: You haven’t been to the playoffs but you played a lot of big games at the junior level. What’s the most important thing, for you, in a Game 1?

SIMMONDS: “I think it is the start. Right from the start, we have to come out and we have to establish our game, establish our forecheck and make sure that we’re always on the right side of the puck and doing things right. I think we’ll just build off that and go from there.”

Question: Are you looking forward to that potential matchup against the Sedin line?

SIMMONDS: “Oh yeah, for sure. Since we’re not on home ice at first, I don’t know what’s going to happen. You never know, so you’ve just got to be prepared to go out and play against any line. It doesn’t really matter who they put on the ice against us. You just have to be ready.”

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