The Los Angeles Kings executed their game plan to perfection and defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-1. With the win, the Kings clinched a playoff spot. With the loss, the Canucks playoff hopes were officially dashed
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:
- The Canucks were surely hoping to capitalize on the fact the Kings had played -- and won -- not even 24 hours earlier in Seattle. Catching the Kings at the tail end of a four-game in six night road trip, the Canucks looked to get an early jump on Los Angeles and opened the scoring just 5:56 into the game when Brock Boeser fought off former teammate Alex Elder and deposited a rebound behind Joonas Korpisalo. It was one of the few scoring chances the Canucks generated over the course of 60 minutes and it turned out to be the highpoint for the home team as the Kings took over from that point. LA is dialled in right now defensively. Sunday was the 14th time in the last 15 games the Kings have held their opponents to under three goals. The Kings are 12-2-2 in their last 16 outings. And full credit to the visitors for showing no signs of fatigue despite their schedule over the past week. They outshot the Canucks 20-9 over the final 40 minutes and held Vancouver to just 22 shots on the night.
- There have been very few nights all season when Elias Pettersson didn't have it -- but that seemed to be the case on Sunday. The Canucks scoring leader saw his personal point streak come to an end at 14 games. Pettersson mustered just one shot on goal -- a 27-foot wrist shot with three and a half minutes remaining in the first period. On the night, in 11:46 of even-strength ice time, Pettersson's line with Andrei Kuzmenko and Dakota Joshua was outshot 3-1 by the Kings as Los Angeles did all it could to get Phillip Danault and his linemates out against Pettersson.
- One of the reasons the Canucks were unable to generate much on Sunday was a power play that lacked much urgency. In 7:47 of power play time, the Canucks mustered a measly four shots on goal. Making matters worse, with the game on the line and the Canuck operating on a pair of third period power plays, the team generated just two shots over those four minutes of action. The first power play in the third came when Victor Arvidsson was called for slashing at 9:52. The Kings led 2-1 at the time and the Canucks had an opportunity to tie the game. Andrei Kuzmenko had the team's best look but was denied by the stick of Kings forward Alex Iafallo. On the night, the Canucks went 0 for 4 on the power play.
- The only line the Canucks had going on Sunday was the Phil DiGiuseppe-JT Miller-Brock Boeser trio. Drawing the match-up against Kings captain Anze Kopitar, Miller's line crushed its competition scoring the Canucks only goal on the night and outshooting the Kings 11-2 in over 12 minutes at even strength. Individually, DiGiuseppe had a remarkable night with the Canucks outshooting the Kings 15-2 when he was on the ice. As a team, the Canucks managed 22 shots in the hockey game. Miller's line accounted for 10 of them with Miller registering four while his wingers had three apiece. That line could have used some support on Sunday night.
- Akito Hirose made his NHL debut on Sunday after signing with the Canucks earlier in the week after his NCAA season at Minnesota State. The 23-year-old looked poised and seemed to know what he wanted to do with the puck when he had it on his stick. He certainly didn't seem fazed by the opportunity. On the night, he logged 14:01 with almost all of it at even strength (and 16 seconds of penalty killing duty). The underlying numbers weren't kind to Hirose with the Canucks controlling 33.3% of the shot attempts, 30% of the shots and 38.9% of the scoring chances when he was on the ice. But to his credit Hirose was not on the ice for any of the LA goals. It will be interesting to see how he is used moving forward with just six games remaining on the schedule.