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CanucksArmy Post Game: Three Kings
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Photo credit: Gary A. Vasquez - USA TODAY Sports
Mar 13, 2018, 01:56 EDT
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Puck Drop

With the lacklustre efforts pilling up lately, the Canucks, and the Kings for that matter, each had a jump in their step to start this one. Both teams came out with pace, if not a ton of purpose early.
With thirteen and a half to go, Bo Horvat drew the games first penalty, putting Kings defenceman Derek Forbort in the box for high-sticking after Horvat made a power move.
With 14 seconds to go in Forbort’s penalty, Jake Muzzin went off for interference Angling Jake Virtanen into the boards, in what appeared to be a pretty soft call.
Less than a minute later, Sam Gagner continued the parade to the box, taking the Canucks off the power-play with a holding call.
Six seconds after the LA power-play expired, Anders Nilsson made his second impressive stop of the period off Jeff Carter.
With Ben Hutton stepping out of the box, Tyler Toffoli redirected a puck in mid-air, that went just wide nearly opening the scoring. The game remained tied at zero’s after the first.

2nd

Toffoli almost opened the scoring to end the first; he did open the scoring early in the second.
Ben Hutton and Derrick Pouliot had a tough first period, with Pouliot, in particular, fighting the puck. The pair was on the ice and victimized by Toffoli on the opening goal. Hutton pinched down allowing Toffoli to get behind him, and Pouliot was late to react and was left chasing Toffoli on a breakaway. 1-0 LA
The Canucks best chance of the night came with thirteen minutes left in the second. With a gaping net and tons of room to get the shot off, Gagner had Jonathan Quick at his mercy. With Quick losing his stick as a scrambled to get across his crease, Gagner sailed the puck high over the net.
The games second goal came with five minutes left in the second.
Initially, it looked like Dustin Brown tipped in Anze Kopitar’s pass, giving LA a 2-0 lead. But the replay showed it was actually Troy Stecher deflecting Kopitar’s pass in his own net as he tried to knock down the puck.

3rd Period

After generating just 16 shots through the first two periods, in large part to just three first period shots, the Canucks put twelve on net in the third. Life without Boeser has been hard for the Canucks, and it showed again tonight as they struggled to generate offence.
But they received some brotherly love and support from a fellow Vancouver team in their quest for offence tonight. Does anyone know if Kei Kamara can skate?
I mentioned earlier that Hutton and Pouliot were having a tough night? Well, it continued in the third for the young defenders, neither of them are going to want to remember this performance.
Ben Hutton failed to clear the puck along the left wall, and with Derrick Pouliot taking the man with the puck, Tanner Pearson was all alone behind the Canucks defence. Pearson showed great patience recognizing the time and space he had to work with, going cross crease and waiting out Anders Nilsson.
Of all the tough performances the Canucks had on the night, the most egregious didn’t come on the ice. After Nic Dowd got tied up with Dion Phaneuf behind Quick, the Canucks twitter account served up this atrocity. Unforgivable.(sarcasm folks)
Travis Green took a page out of the Mike Keenan playbook, pulling Nilsson with 4:05 to go in the third. Unfortunately less than a minute later Henrik Sedin was sent to the penalty box ending any hope of a miraculous comeback.

The Numbers

‘Quick Hits

  • Prior to tonight, the Canucks had drawn just one penalty in each of their last four games. The Kings were sent to the box four times on Monday night. Tho the result didn’t go the Canucks way, there were positives to take in the Canucks drawing more calls in large part to a better effort.
  • The Canucks have scored just three goals in four games since Brock Boeser suffered a season-ending back injury. Life after Boeser or as some are calling AB(After Boeser), hasn’t been kind to the Canucks. With the team struggling to score, the value of a triggerman like Boeser is only being magnified at the moment and shows how far the Canucks have to go. Being reliant on one player isn’t a recipe for success in the grind of an NHL season.
  • After being shutout Sunday night and again on Monday, the Canucks’ goalless drought is up to 152 minutes and nine seconds.

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