Kings close in on playoff history with win over Canucks

Kings close in on playoff history with win over Canucks

Yesterday, in fact, has not seemed so far away.

Not for victory-starved Kings fans who long ago enjoyed playoff success of 1993, pulling it out for further investigation, and, yes, peace of mind during those lost years.

The Kings have won a playoff round in 2001 when the famous run to the Stanley Cup finals by Wayne Gretzky and friends. They pulled in a game of doubling that total in Sunday’s 1-0 victory against the Canucks at the Staples Center, take a 3-0 series lead against the league’s best teams.

A game by creating a new talking point in Southern California, a post-Gretzky topic of conversation.

“We hear about it all the time from fans how much fun that was back in the forum and go to the finals,” Kings center Jarrett Stoll said. “They talk about it like it was yesterday. We want to bring back to this city and to the fans because they desperately want it. And we desperately want it. We feel that we are a good team and we have everything in that it takes. “

Now, after the stops and starts and near misses, the Kings’ time?

“I hope so,” Stoll said. “I do not know. You need to do your time. It just does not happen, and enough guys in here know that. When you take your foot off the gas, you may be facing elimination very quickly. If it is our time, we make it happen, “

Said Kings captain Dustin Brown, who scored the game’s only goal in third period:”. This team has tried to put the pieces together for the last five or six years. It has been a long way. And I think it’s really only just begun for this team. “

The Presidents’ Trophy winners, the Canucks are not the only playoff favorite on the brink of elimination. Pittsburgh has lost the first three games for the Flyers, including an ugly fight filled with celebration on Sunday in Game 3, which Philadelphia won, 8-4.

Four goals correspond to the entire Vancouver offensive output in the first three games of its series against the Kings, all without concussed Daniel Sedin. A few minutes in Game 3, it looked as though Canucks can forward without the remaining Sedin twins, captain Henrik Sedin.

Brown leveled Henry with a hard check in front of the Canucks’ bench early in the second period, leading to a brief scrum, and the wounded Sedin had to leave the game briefly. Sedin, who returned within a few minutes , would later call check “pure”.

“I knew right when I hit him it was shoulder to shoulder,” said Brown, who had two short-handed goal in Game 2 “A good, hard hit. Guys, w hen they hit a guy in the head, or they do not.

“Knock on wood, I have not even the [league] conference call. And I take pride in being physical, and doing it the right way.”

game changer? The Kings were in firm agreement hit gave them a significant jolt in the second period after a dull opening 20 minutes. Stoll said they had been skating “in quicksand with the puck.”

“It was definitely a big hit from Brownie,” Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. “It was one of the better hits I’ve seen in a long time. To make it a star player, their best player, is just one more keyer part.”

Lisa.dillman @ latimes.com

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