The view from Vancouver

The Kings and Vancouver Canucks, yesterday, set up would could be quite a battle on March 31 in Vancouver, especially if the Kings are still fighting for one of the final playoff spots in the Western Conference. Here’s a sampling of how last night’s game was covered by the Vancouver media, followed by some additional postgame quotes from the Canucks’ locker room…

True Grit: Canucks edge Kings in tight, penalty-filled afternoon affair (Vancouver Province)

Canucks bare a toothless power-play in L.A. (Vancouver Province)

Canucks overcome struggling power play to beat Kings (Vancouver Sun)

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COACH ALAIN VIGNEAULT
(on the game…) “I thought it was a real good hockey game from both teams. There was a lot of energy on the ice, a lot of compete from both teams and, at the end of the day, we played a good game, a 5-on-5 (goal) and had some real good chances. Their goalie (Jonathan Quick) made some big saves and we missed the net and the PK helped us out a little bit in the third. It was a good hockey game.”

HENRIK SEDIN
(on facing teams with a lot at stake…) “Yeah, pretty much every team in the conference does. It was no different tonight. It was a hard-fought game and a lot of fouls. But these are the games you need to come up to and stand and that’s where you want to be.”

(on the physical play…) “It was good. We didn’t have any problems. There is a lot of talk in our market (about) physical play. We have a big team, a strong team, and we have no trouble with that. So we don’t see it as a problem.”

ROBERT LUONGO
(on the game…) “We did an excellent job, especially on the 5-on-3. In the first period, I thought the guys really dug deep and made some great plays.”

(on the final stretch of games…) “It’s tough to go full-throttle for 82 games. Obviously we feel that we’re not playing our best hockey right now. But we’re still a .500 team (recently) and that says a bit about our group in the locker room and we just need to get ourselves in gear and realize that obviously there are going to be games like tonight, a lot down the stretch here and we just have to find ways to win.”