You have to wonder where the hockey gods stand on the Los Angeles Kings and the western conference these days. The Kings won 4-0 over the Vancouver Canucks to take of business on their end and the hobbled Winnipeg Jets lost 4-2 in Sunrise.
That combination pushed the Kings into a wild card playoff spot.
Jonathan Quick picked up shutout win over Vancouver – file photo by Jack Lima
“The closer you get to playoffs, the more you want to be in it,” defenseman Drew Doughty said. “We’re not going to accept anything but to be in it, and right now Vancouver is one of those teams in our way, second in the division, and we still have a really good shot at being in that spot.”
It must be infuriating for the Pacific division opposition to see the Kings play just enough to hang around all season and then flip the switch to make the big push.
“Are we back in now? Well all right, but I want to keep climbing,” Justin Williams said. “We’ve turned it around here a little bit, but we know there’s a long way to go.”
Jonathan Quick made 19 saves for the shutout win.
“Every game right now is big where we are in the standings,” Anze Kopitar said. “It’s not where we want to be, but that’s the way it is.”
Eddie Lack made 15 saves in the loss.
“I thought we lost the goaltending, I thought we lost special teams, and that’s two huge parts,” Lack said. “They’re a tough team to play against. You’ve got to give them credit.”
The Canucks have managed just one win in the last eight matches with LA.
“I’m disappointed,” Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said. “I thought we had a real good first period. I thought we played well, but we came out, we got a penalty, and they score on their power play.”
The Kings found their switch now wait to see what the rest of the Pacific and west will be able to do in the next few weeks.
“We have a team that I feel is able to get to another level when we need to,” Williams said.
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