
At 6:31pm Pacific time on Sunday evening, the Vancouver Canucks were officially eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention. It was at that moment three provinces away, the Winnipeg Jets defeated the New Jersey Devils 6-1. With the two points gained, the Jets moved beyond reach of the Canucks in the Western Conference standings thus mathematically removing any faint possibility that remained that the Canucks would be among the post-season qualifiers. With that as a backdrop, the Canucks still had to go out and play a game on Sunday. And they played like a team that had been told their playoff dreams had been dashed. Here are my thoughts and observations of the LA Kings 4-1 victory at Rogers Arena: