Vancouver Canucks vs Los Angeles Kings: A Royal Visit

5 years ago

The Rundown

3rd game in 3 nights for the Vancouver Canucks as the preseason is well underway across the NHL. Tonight, it was the preseason debuts for Brock Boeser and Jakob Markstrom, another outing from super rookie Elias Pettersson, and another chance for Sven Baertschi and Nikolay Goldobin to increase their stock heading into the season. The Los Angeles Kings were tonight’s opponent, looking to hand the Canucks their 3rd straight defeat.

1st Period

Tonight’s hockey game started off with a lot more passion than one would come to expect from a pre-season contest. Both teams exchanged massive hits all around the ice, with Michael Del Zotto laying down a blast, to Kale Clague bowling over Bo Horvat. This would eventually lead to a Canucks power-play, and the team’s first look of a top unit featuring both Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser.

Unfortunately, as you can tell by the lack of a twitter feed, nothing came during the man advantage. Play would continue on until the Canucks would break the score. A fantastic play started by Boeser as he carried the puck in during the last 30 seconds of another Vancouver power play. He fed the puck to Baertschi, who then sent the puck to super rookie Pettersson. Pettersson would proceed to pass the puck through his feet to Baertschi, who would feed Bo Horvat to finish off the play to give the Canucks a 1 goal lead to head into the intermission.

2nd Period

The 2nd period started off great… for the Kings. A bad outlet pass leads to a scramble in front of Jakob Markstrom, which would end with Adrian Kempe being the last King to touch the puck before Alex Biega accidentally puts it in his own net.

The Canucks would show some nice push-back, with Virtanen driving to the net and getting some shots on goal, followed by Jonathan Dahlen being sprung on a breakaway by Michael Del Zotto, only to be stopped by starter Jack Campbell. Ultimately, it would be the Kings who would strike again, with Tanner Pearson burying a nice play off the rush with a shot over the shoulder of an uncomfortable looking Markstrom.

The Canucks would try to answer back, but the Kings would net one last goal in the period on a redirection from former Canuck Emerson Etem. All in all, rough period for the Canucks…

3rd Period

After watching the Canucks for the past 3 days, it’s become apparent they’re a 3rd period team. In the first half of the 3rd, Tyler Motte (who was having another good game), hustled hard, and battled to get the puck to Bo Horvat for a 2 on 1 opportunity. Horvat elected to shoot, and rifled a shot blocker side on Peter Budaj who took over the reigns from Jack Campbell to start the 3rd.

As the period chugged along, Virtanen showed he wasn’t all talk when he said he wanted to become a player teams hated playing against, getting in the middle of 4 Kings players in their own end behind the play before being sent off for roughing. The Canucks would kill off the penalty, with help from the glove of Markstrom before getting another power-play opportunity later in the period. For the 2nd time of the hockey game the Canucks would score on the man advantage. This time, the Canucks would set it up and execute their plan perfectly. Pettersson, to Horvat, to Baertschi, to the back of the net.

The 3rd period would wind down with the Canucks laying some huge hits on their counterparts. Michael Del Zotto flattened Jonny Brodzinki along the boards, forcing Brodzinki to leave the game with an upper body injury. A couple minutes later it was Darren Archibald flattening Jake Muzzin after an offside whistle. Tempers would flare, but no fights would occur. After all the rough stuff was said and done, this game would head to overtime.

Overtime & Shootout

So, nothing happened during the overtime period really worth going over in detail. The Canucks had to kill a penalty after Goldobin took a hooking minor, and Boeser had a rush in the dying seconds, but no great chances for either side. So we’d go to a shootout. Shootout went as followed:

Boeser was stopped.

Kempe would score. 1-0 Kings in the shootout.

Pettersson would be stopped.

Etem would be stopped.

Horvat would have to score to keep the game alive, and he’d do just that! 1-1 going to the 3rd shooter for LA.

Pearson would be stopped.

Goldobin would come out as the 4th shooter for Vancouver, and he’d make no mistake to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead in the shootout!

Michael Amadio would be the Kings 4th shooter, and he’d be the last as he’s stopped. With the save, the Canucks earned their first win of the preseason!

Advanced Statistics

Both photos courtesy of naturalstattrick.com

Wrap Up

With the Canucks win, we’re going to keep things positive tonight! Make mention of a few Canucks players who impressed me throughout the game before making our way down to update the pre season position battles.

Bo Horvat: Dude was a force tonight. 2 goals and an assist while looking dangerous all over the playing surface. While there’s been a ton of attention on Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson to provide some offense, don’t be surprised if Bo Horvat is able to eclipse 60 points this season. He’s been trending upwards every season he’s been in the NHL, and pre season results aside, he looks like he’s ready to truly breakout this year.

Elias Pettersson: 2 assists on the night, and another game where Pettersson shows us why he’s so highly touted. Offensive instincts aside, I want to make mention that Pettersson hasn’t be on the ice for a goal against in his 2 games in the pre season. For all the commotion around if he can be a defensively responsible center in the NHL, his defense has been one of his strong suits so far. Understanding it’s not the regular season yet, he’s passing all the tests the Canucks can throw at him.

Ben Hutton: After a pretty egregious error to end the Edmonton game, Hutton needed to come back with a strong performance and he did. He was confident with the puck, had a couple of good rushes out of his own end, and was winning puck battles down low. After an up and down showing in his first game, this was a good bounce back performance.

Tyler Motte: Both games he’s played in this pre season he’s been a perfect bottom 6 type player. Lots of speed, lots of heart, a little bit of flash, and was finally able to get on the score-sheet tonight with an assist on Bo’s 2nd goal. Probably the guy most affected by the signings of Beagle, Roussel, and Schaller. If anyone else goes down to an injury for an extended period of time this season. Motte right now would be my first call up in case of a long term injury, unless he’s going through a slump in Utica when the time comes.

Camp Battles

To wrap off the 3 game homestead, let’s take a look at how some of the camp battles could be unfolding.

Top 6 winger positions: Sven Baertschi, Nikolay Goldobin, Brendan Leipsic (Loui Eriksson is now injured).

With the injury to Eriksson being week to week, there is a possibility the Canucks aren’t going to have to expose anyone to waivers right at the beginning of the season. As far as the remaining 3 wingers are concerned, right now I see Baertschi being reunited on the top line with Bo and Brock, while Goldobin wins a spot on a line with Elias Pettersson. Leipsic had a great game versus a lineup consisting of Calgary’s AHL caliber players, but he’s going to have to show that again against veteran NHL players if he wants to earn that spot away from the young Russian.

Bottom pairing left defense-men: Ben Hutton, Michael Del Zotto, Olli Juolevi, Ashton Sautner, Derrick Pouliot.

A strong showing from Ben Hutton puts him at the forefront for a spot with Chris Tanev to begin the season, a pairing that historically has been surprisingly effective on some bad Canucks teams. Michael Del Zotto was on for 2 goals against, but brought energy with the physical play and was involved in a couple of plays in the offensive zone. Juolevi needs to show he can have a strong game versus NHL caliber players to be truly considered. Same can be said about Ashton Sautner, but he’s likely destined for Utica at this point. Derrick Pouliot will need to rebound after a poor showing if he wants to avoid the press box when October rolls around.

As always, thanks for the read through.

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