‘It shows they care’: Boeser and Buium talk late game fight after Canucks’ 4-0 loss to Kings

The Vancouver Canucks did not have it last night. They showed some fight early in the first period, but that quickly fell apart, and the Los Angeles Kings took over in the second period.Second periods have been a struggle for the Canucks all season. According to NHL.com, the Canucks lead the league in second period goals against with 99, 12 more than the next-worst team, Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers.Defenceman Zeev Buium spoke post-game about the night and what he thinks is going wrong for the Canucks in the middle frame:

“Yeah, I mean, you saw it, like, just couldn’t get anything going tonight,” Buium said. “I think they pretty much dominated us most of the game. So it just sucks.

“I don’t know. I mean, I thought we actually played decently well in the first, and then the second, I think it’s little things. We just get caught out there for so long, all of us, all the D, we all get stuck out there for at least a minute and a half, two minutes or something, then forwards get tired, and then they can’t change. Then they get a change, we’re still out there. So it’s just a cycle. We’ve just got to find a way to dig in in those moments, and find a way to not let that happen.”

After the frustrating night of getting dominated, Buium then used his fight club practice from Monday to good use. Following a Jake DeBrusk shot with just over a minute remaining, a scrum ensued in front of the Kings’ net. Buium and Tom Willander left the blue line to defend their teammates, and that pent-up anger came out on the young defencemen.

Willander was in a shoving match with Jeff Malott, who is a tough customer with three fighting majors under his belt this season. But Buium was matched up against a more evenly matched opponent in Brandt Clarke. Both players would drop the gloves, logging their first career NHL fight.

Buium touched on his major, and letting out all of that built-up emotion that stemmed from last night’s results.

“Yeah, I mean, I think you lose like that, especially on home ice, it’s never fun,” Buium added. “And you know, you see your teammates getting kind of jumped a little bit, and you know they’re up 4-0, I don’t think that necessarily needs to happen, but you know, I’m glad that we all stuck up for each other.”

Long-time Canuck Brock Boeser spoke about how the bench reacted when seeing the young guys getting physical.

“Yeah, it was awesome. We loved it,” Boeser shared. “It just shows that they care, and they’re getting in there and sticking up for each other. So, you know, it’s great to see, and we’ve got to make sure we maintain that mindset.”