Kings Play Canucks in Spotlight : Quinn Controversy Has Drawn Attention to Game

Most of us know the Vancouver Canucks as the team that may or may not have swiped Coach Pat Quinn from the Kings. The King players know the Canucks as something else--their most bitter rivals.

As if there isn’t enough going on, the Kings will play Vancouver tonight at 7:30 in the Forum, their second meeting since Quinn signed a contract Dec. 24 to become the Canucks’ president and general manager next season but their first since the deal was made public last week.

To refresh memories: Vancouver is the team the Kings have not beaten this season, the team the Kings beat only once last season, the team that beat out the Kings for a playoff spot last season, the team that regularly beats up on the Kings.

On top of that, the Kings are 11 points ahead of the Canucks in the Smythe Division standings, and if the Kings take a big slide in the midst of all the turmoil surrounding them, the Canucks would benefit.

“They certainly have nothing to lose,” Marcel Dionne said. Dionne had just left the Kings’ Culver City practice rink, passing several Vancouver players he knew. “We all sort of laughed and said, ‘What’s going on?’ None of the players know, and I don’t think the situation will affect the game. This is a team we have to beat.

“Vancouver is one of the teams that has given us the most difficult trouble. We were talking about this game two weeks ago. We have to beat them. Otherwise, we’ll have to keep looking over our shoulders.”

Chances are, Dionne will see a camera crew sneaking up on him when he peeks back. Never before have the Kings and Canucks experienced as much attention as they have received during the past six days. The Canucks are 12-26-5 and tied with Buffalo for the worst record in the league. The Kings are doing better at 18-21-4 but languish in a city that seems to care little for hockey.

The bizarre situation with Quinn, who has been expelled by the league pending an investigation that began Tuesday, has thrown these two normally faceless teams together, and plenty of reporters want to write about it. The usually barren practice rink was jammed Tuesday with out-of-town writers and television crews.

All were wondering what effect the situation with Quinn would have on both teams. Would this be a revenge match? Would the Kings fight for the respect of their organization? Would the World Wrestling Federation or the National Wrestling Alliance sanction the game?

“Whenever you think it’s going to be a wild game, it never is,” King defenseman Mark Hardy said. “I guess there is a little more emotion now, but they have beaten us all year and we don’t like it.”

The Canucks have outscored the Kings in four games, 25-15. Those games often featured more fighting than finesse. There have been 343 penalty minutes charged, or 103 more minutes in penalties than in actual game time. These team seem to bring out the worst in each other.

“It’s quite a rivalry,” King defenseman Jay Wells said. “We hate them and they hate us.”

Vancouver Captain Stan Smyl admits there’s more animosity in games between the Kings and Canucks than in the usual hockey game. But, he says, the Quinn situation should not add anything to tonight’s game.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with us,” Smyl said. “We’re concentrating on the team next to us, ahead of us. That’s all that’s on our minds.”

At the heart of the game are the standings and the Kings’ goal of reaching .500.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” King Captain Dave Taylor said. “They’ve played well against us. We’re trying to win and stay ahead of them.”

Wing Bryan Erickson said: “There’s so much emotion anyway, it’s hard to imagine more. I think there is a lot of tension right now. We are ready to go, the team is pretty high.”