As we’ve written about many times over the last few years, most of the Kings players don’t like those Canucks very much. But, on a scale of 1-to-10, would they put their disdain at a 10, like Drew Doughty does?
“Yeah they could be up there for sure,” said Colin Fraser. “For one, they have a lot of guys that are tough or annoying to play against. They’re also a good team and there seems to be bigger rivalries with the good teams.”
LA split a pair of games played in Vancouver last season, with the Kings winning 3-2 in a mid-January shootout and then the Canucks grabbing a 1-0 shutout win in late March. But, everybody knows what happened in the playoffs, where the Kings won all three games north of the border – including an overtime snipe from Jarret Stoll in Game 5 to close out their first round playoff series.
“Definitely,” said Jordan Nolan when asked if he sees the Canucks as one of the Kings biggest rivals. “At less than 50 games (played) in the league, I’m still building up that hate. But, from playing them last year in the playoffs, you develop something for every team you play.”
Veteran forward Justin Williams, who’s won a Stanley Cup with two different teams now, knows all about building up some good hate and facing off against a team you really don’t care for.
“We’ve kind of developed a pretty good rivalry with Vancouver by playing them in the playoffs two of the last three years,” Williams said. “So, it’s always fun to go up into Canada, always fun to play there, and it will be exciting.”
If you think that sounds a little too vanilla, don’t worry – he had more to share.
“We don’t like them, absolutely,” Williams continued. “That’s just the way it is when two teams don’t like each other, and they’re certainly at the top of our list. I agree with Doughty.”
Defenseman Alec Martinez took it a step further.
“They’re obviously a top team, so you want to play well against them,” he began. “But, I can’t really put a number on it. I don’t like the other 29 teams in the league. I don’t like one better than the other. I don’t like them all; so there’s not really a Richter Scale for me.”
Or a Doughty Scale?
“Or a Doughty Scale, which is pretty much the same thing,” Martinez joked.
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Alright Marty!!!! You don’t just poop Rainbows after all . 🙂