The view from Vancouver

Kings fans don’t like it — understandably so — but it’s always impressive to see how many Vancouver Canucks fans populate road arenas. The dedication is laudable, but last night, the folks in blue and green were quite quiet for the final two periods. The Canucks remain an ultra-dangerous team, but the Kings ended a three-game losing streak to the Canucks. Here’s how the Vancouver Province and Vancouver Sun covered last night’s game, followed by some additional postgame quotes from the Canucks’ locker room…

Foggy play clouds Canucks in loss to Kings (Vancouver Province)

Canucks play like they’re California dreaming in 4-1 loss to Kings (Vancouver Sun)

—–

COACH ALAIN VIGNEAULT
(on the game…) “I think you have to give L.A. a lot of credit. Both teams had basically the same schedule here for the last little while, but they seemed to have more jump and more energy and obviously better execution than we had tonight. They deserved to win. We tried to make a push in the second (period). We had that four-minute power play that could have been a turning point in the game and we didn’t generate much. After that, they pretty much made it 3-1 and it was real tough coming back.’’

(on the Kings’ coaching change…) “Under Terry Murray, there was hard checking, and they’ve got some Ds who can jump up on the attacks and Ds that can pinch. They pretty much played the same way tonight as all of our games against them. All of our games against L.A. have always been hard-fought. They are a very good hockey team. People had said, prior to this season, that they are one of the best teams in the NHL, and they played real well tonight.’’

—–

HENRIK SEDIN
(on the game…) “We weren’t good enough. We got our chance on the power play but we weren’t sharp enough and didn’t create enough chances to score. … (The Kings) played well but still, I thought we had the chances to maybe get a few more shots to the net and we were passing up opportunities to shoot. That can’t happen against a team like this, who doesn’t give up a whole lot of shots.’’

(on whether the Canucks got “pushed around’’…) “You know what, I’m pretty tired of that question. We won the President’s Trophy last year. We went to the seventh game of the Finals. We didn’t lose the final because we were pushed around; we lost because we couldn’t score. We are as tough as anyone else here. We are taking hits, we are giving out hits, and that’s the bottom line.’’