Old Home Is Where the Heat Is

He was jeered and ridiculed, booed by unhappy Canuck fans and dissected by reporters every day.

Felix Potvin was done, they said. He gave up too many soft goals. Even Brian Burke, the Canucks’ general manager and one of Potvin’s staunchest defenders, gave up on him and acquired Dan Cloutier from Tampa Bay. Why would the Kings think Potvin could solve their goaltending problems?

“He was the best goalie on the market when we had a chance to get him,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “He’s a good person and he’s worked hard, and you’re willing to give a person like that an opportunity.

“We gave Felix an opportunity and it’s worked out for our hockey club.”

There’s an understatement.

Thanks to Potvin, who tonight will make his 22nd consecutive start, the Kings can clinch a playoff spot if they defeat the Canucks at GM Place. Knowing that, Potvin is prepared for every boo and derisive sign Canuck fans will produce.

And he surely will get a rude reception from fans who can’t fathom how the 12-point lead the Canucks held over the Kings March 2 vanished so quickly--and how Potvin helped erase it.

“I don’t want to look at it as revenge,” Potvin said of his first visit to Vancouver since the Canucks dealt him for a late-round draft pick. “I don’t care who finishes ninth or 10th. I care about who finishes in the top eight and makes the playoffs, and that’s all I’m going to focus on.”

The Kings have 37 victories and 89 points, compared with 35 victories and 88 points for the Canucks and 34 victories and 88 points for the Phoenix Coyotes. Each has two games left. Beating the Canucks tonight would give the Kings 91 points, which the Canucks couldn’t match. That would leave the Kings to speculate if they will finish as high as fifth--which would match them against fourth-seeded but slumping St. Louis--or eighth, which would set up a series against league-leading Colorado.

If the Kings tie tonight or lose in overtime, the Canucks would have to win their finale against Edmonton Saturday and hope the Kings lose their finale in Calgary. Yet the Kings could still get in with a tie or overtime loss tonight, if Phoenix loses at San Jose. The Coyotes are at a disadvantage because they have the fewest victories of the three, and victories are the first tiebreaker if teams are tied in points. The second tiebreaker is record in the season series, and the King have an edge over Vancouver and Phoenix.

Potvin tried not to think about all that Wednesday. After an informal news conference in the lobby of the Kings’ hotel, he went home with his wife to see their three children, 2-year-old Felicia, 4-year-old Xavier and 7-year-old Noemie, for the second time since he was traded Feb. 15.

“This will be good, to spend the day with them, get a good night of sleep at home and some home cooking,” he said.

Judging by his goalie’s calm demeanor on and off the ice, Murray doesn’t anticipate Potvin will be thrown off tonight. It would take a lot to throw him off: He’s 12-4-5 for the Kings, with a 1.91 goals-against average, .919 save percentage and five shutouts. In three of his losses, the Kings were shut out--the exception an overtime loss at San Jose on March 27.

“People pay for tickets to watch the game, and the media have a responsibility to write what happens,” Murray said. “I know the ovations Felix Potvin gets when his name is announced as the starter in L.A. I expect him to get a hostile reception in opposing rinks.”

Said Canuck goalie Bob Essensa, who will start tonight: “He’ll probably hear it from the fans. But what he’s done for the Kings and what he’s done for his season is amazing.”