New Years Eve had not been kind to the Los Angeles Kings, who had an all-time record of 5-8-3 on the usually festive night. Curiously, they had only hosted one of those games. Back in 1991 – at their former home, the Forum in Inglewood – the Kings led 3-0 entering the third period and then watched their opponent score five unanswered goals on goalie Daniel Berthiaume. Who did they play that night? The Vancouver Canucks.
So, it may have taken 20 years for the rematch, but it finally happened last night in downtown LA. The results weren’t nearly the same. Vancouver scored the first goal of the game, then it was all Kings. They out shot the Canucks 33-28 and scored the next four goals of the game.
Afterwards, here’s what head coach Alain Vigneault and team captain Henrik Sedin had to say…
Vigneault on the overall game – “I think you have to give LA 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.”
Vigneault on the Kings’ recent coaching change – “Under Terry Murray there was hard-checking and they’ve got some (defensemen) who can jump up on the attacks and (defensemen) that can pinch. They pretty much played the same way tonight as all of our games against them. All of our games against LA 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.”
Sedin on the overall 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…They 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.”
Sedin on getting pushed around – “You know what, I’m pretty tired of that question. We won the President’s Trophy last year. We went to the 7th 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.”
Reaction from the Kings’ locker room can be found here and other related articles are linked below.
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