Those words, attributed to Los Angeles Kings' defenseman Drew Doughty, will likely be repeated a lot over the next few days. Doughty spoke them before a March meeting between the Kings and the Vancouver Canucks when asked about who his most hated team in the NHL is. To be certain, there is no love lost between the two teams that met in the first round of the 2010 Playoffs, the Canucks emerging victorious in a 4-2 series triumph.
If familiarity breeds contempt, then pulses will be rising amongst these two West Coast foes over the next four-to-seven games, as on the final day of the NHL regular season they discovered that they would be playing each other by virtue of the Canucks shutting down the Edmonton Oilers 3-0, capturing their second consecutive President's Trophy in the process, while the Kings blew a 2-0 3rd period lead to the San Jose Sharks and lost 3-2 in Overtime to take the 8th seed.
There are many players on either side who were veterans of the last series. Drew Doughty, at that time a dynamic sophomore, was the Kings' most dangerous player. He scored 3 goals and 4 assists in the 6 game series that saw the Kings eviscerate the Canucks' penalty killing, which struggled mightily in the absence of concussed defensemen Willie Mitchell (who is now a King). The Kings actually took a 2-1 series lead before the Canucks' Swedish Trio of Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin and Mikael Samuelsson righted the ship. The three forwards combined for a whopping 14 goals and 16 assists in the six-game series, which was also noted for its massive contingent of Vancouver fans making the pilgrimage to the Staples Center in Los Angeles to turn it into a home away from home.
But that was two years ago. Suffice to say, there are a lot of differences on both sides now. The Canucks are now the battle hardened playoff veterans who have played more playoff hockey in the last two years than anyone else in the Western Conference. They have an abundance of riches in goal with both Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider showing equal aptitude at winning games. They have a strong, deep defensive corps which is only going to get stronger with the return of Keith Ballard from a concussion. Whether or not Daniel Sedin can do the same will be a big question mark to begin the series, and there have been conflicting reports on that front. But with brother Henrik having a strong surge down the stretch to help carry the Canucks to an 8-1-0 finish to the season in Daniel's absence, it may buy the Canucks some time.
Veteran Samuel Pahlsson also brings some Cup winning experience to the Canucks, and with 81 playoff games on his resume, the Canucks will be counting upon him to shut down the Kings' top offensive threats. Look for Canuck superpests Alex Burrows and Max Lapierre to introduce themselves to Drew Doughty in short order, in an attempt to distract him with his own admitted hatred of the Canucks.
The series begins on Wednesday evening at 7:30. From a travel perspective, this is as good a first round as the Canucks could have hoped for, a vast improvement over the lengthy trips back and forth to Chicago and Nashville in Rounds 1 and 2 last year.
But they also need to be wary of the reset switch. It no longer matters that the Canucks finished 1st in the league while the Kings finished 8th in the Conference. It no longer matters what happened during the regular season or during the Canucks' Cup Run last year.
All that matters is the next game. And it all begins on Wednesday evening.
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