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Canucks couldn’t care less what Don Cherry thinks

Kevin Bieksa

When asked today what they thought of Saturday’s Coach’s Corner segment on CBC in which Cherry ripped the Canucks for whining to the referees and not “paying the price” in their first 10 games, Vancouver players could only shrug.

“That stuff doesn’t really matter to us,” defenseman Kevin Bieksa said, as reported by the Canadian Press. “What matters is what’s inside this room.’'

Forward Alex Burrows echoed Bieksa’s sentiments. “We don’t really care what people say about us on the outside.”

The Canucks have answered questions about their “most hated team” reputation before. In fact, “We don’t care what anyone else thinks” could be their unofficial motto at this point.

Bieksa did, however, admit the Canucks have been guilty of whining to the referees before.

“It’s something that hurt us in the past,” he said. “It hurt us a couple of years ago in the playoffs.

“We took note of it and corrected it last season. We were very good last season and this year we have been pretty good. We’re not perfect. There are slip ups. It’s an emotional game. We are getting better.”

This isn’t the first time Bieksa has conceded the Canucks aren’t perfect. During the second round of last year’s playoffs, he had a few things to say about diving, another transgression Vancouver’s been accused of.

“I know guys will do whatever it takes for a power play to win a game,” Bieksa said. “But sometimes they’re crossing that line of integrity. I think for the better of the game, for the good of the game we need people to stay on that line and not cross it, and not dive and exaggerate for calls.”

Apparently not everyone got the memo on that one.

At any rate, it doesn’t appear the Canucks will be shaking their reputation anytime soon.

It also doesn’t appear they’re too worried about it.