The 8 to 3 loss that the Canucks suffered by the hands of the Kings last night is exactly what this team needed.

Let's look back to

when the Canucks faced-off against a young Blackhawks team in the United Center.

Right from the get go, the Canucks poured on the pressure and they neutralized the Hawks on their home ice. Emotions ran high when

broke out with gear and equipment spread all over the ice. Vancouver scored 4 goals and Roberto Luongo made 26 saves to match his career high with seven shutouts. After the game, both teams were ticked and that's when a new rivalry was born.

Now let's look forward to

when the Canucks the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the 08/09 playoffs.

During the waiting period that required the Canucks to wait for the completion of the remaining series, a majority of the Vancouver market looked for Chicago as the ideal match up for the second round of the playoffs.

People were making arguments that the Hawks were a young team with no playoff experience and that the series would be a walk in the park. I can personally relate to that as I shared the exact same thoughts. Sadly enough, the Canucks underestimated the Blackhawks and that's when the destruction of the Canucks began as they fell to a fast and skilled Chicago team in 6 games.

Now you may wonder why I brought up the events that took place a year ago. There is a strong possibility that the Los Angeles Kings may be the first round match up for the Vancouver Canucks.

Thanks to last night's dominating loss, the Canucks have no other choice, but to respect the LA Kings. They got a first hand view of what LA has to offer and that should be more than enough to eliminate the surprise factor.

A team with talents like Ryan Smyth, Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Dustin Brown and Jonathan Quick should not be taken lightly as they're more than capable to defeat any team in this league.

I just hope that the Canucks learned their lesson from last year's playoffs and they don't judge any team from here on. All they have to do is play complete 60 minute games and do their absolute best to come out victorious.

With that said, I expect a strong bounce back game against the Anaheim Ducks. Catch that game tonight at 7:00PM PST on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific.

GO CANUCKS GO

Checkout the following videos which I refered to in my rant:

Canucks At Blackhawks - March 29th, 2009:

Line Brawl Vs the Blackhawks:

Canucks complete the sweep against the St. Louis Blues:

Vancouver celebrating after the St. Louis sweep:

Canucks fall short to the Blackhawks in round 2 of the playoffs:

Canucks At Kings (Last night) - April 1st, 2010: