The Vancouver Canucks took off on their first California road trip of the season as they took on the Kings on Wednesday night. Kings head coach Todd McLellan has not been happy with his team’s recent play, causing him to change up each of his forward lines and defense pairings.

Vancouver’s road trip began at a quick pace, as the Canucks were dominant for most of the game and the top line players were able to contribute on the powerplay when the team needed a goal. Brock Boeser scored what felt like the quietest hat-trick of all time and Elias Pettersson had 3 assists.

It was a later start for the Canucks tonight as the game began at 7:30pm instead of the regular 7pm that the team is used to at home. Tanner Pearson played in his 400th NHL game, Jacob Markstrom got the start for the team and Loui Eriksson drew into the lineup for his third game of the season.

The LA Kings fought back against the Canucks early pressure as Jeff Carter scored a partial breakaway goal with a deke to the backhand.

In what’s becoming a regular occurence, Quinn Hughes a couple of long shifts in the offensive zone with the Horvat and Pettersson lines and was able to perform his signature spin move a couple times to lose a defender.

The Pearson-Horvat-Virtanen line looked like they had a lot of energy in the first period as Horvat and Pearson were able to work the cycle and create space for Jake Virtanen to gett off a couple of dangerous shot attempts including a puck that took a strange bounce off the boards that landed right in front of the net and onto his stick. The trio was probably the Canucks best line in the first period which is a good sign as the trio had not been controlling shot share throughout their previous time together.

Micheal Ferland and Kyle Clifford fought six minutes into the first period when the score was 1-0 for LA. The fight was back and fourth but the referees stepped in before any major punches were thrown. It was good to see Ferland drop the gloves as he delivered a big open ice hit earlier in the first period.

The penalty kill continued to be stellar in the first period as they limited the Kings ability to set up in the offensive zone and even got a couple shots off on Jonathon Quick. Beagle and Schaller looked to be very active with their sticks on the powerplay and at 5on5 as the Canucks fourth line continued to control the pace of play when they were on the ice.

The Canucks went to the power play with 7:42 to go in the first period. Pettersson had a couple of one-time slapshots from “The Petterzone” but it seems that he is just missing on shots that he consistently made last season. JT Miller had the best chance with a nice pair of dekes to get to the net.

The Canucks controlled the pace of play throughout the first period and received their second power play attempt with 2:51 remaining in the period. It was the second penalty that Elias Pettersson drew in the period.

Brock Boeser scored on the ensuing powerplay as Pettersson delivered a cross ice slap pass and Boeser scored from a tough angle. Quinn Hughes also received an assist on the as he passed it over to Pettersson.

The Canucks quickly earned another chance on the man advantage as Tanner Pearson was hooked on a partial breakaway. Quinn Hughes got some space from a Elias Pettersson pass and Bo Horvat tipped the puck in as his stick broke for the Canucks’ second PP goal of the game.

The momentum of play from the Canucks in the first period resulted in a 2-1 lead at the intermission while they also drew a penalty as a gift for themselves in the second period.

The Canucks came out in the second period with a ton of energy while up a man and were able to set up in the offensive zone after a few tough drop passes. Boeser and Pettersson look more comfortable on their strong wing side position as they now don’t have to 100% rely on the one-timer.

Micheal Ferland is the first to fall to the injury bug, as he was ruled out for the game after the first intermission. He did fight Kyle Clifford early in the first period but did take some first period shifts after the fight.

The Pearson-Horvat-Virtanen line looked good throughout the game as they controlled the shot share percentage throughout the game.

Alex Edler blocked a shot four minutes into the second period and he was down on a knee for a few seconds.

He took one in the meatballs.

It looked like it hurt.

A lot.

Edler returned back to action without missing a shift as John Garrett said he “Jumped up and down a few times” to get rid of the lower-middle-body-groin pain.

The Canucks were looking like a “team like that” at the halfway point as they were in total control of the game everywhere except the scoreboard. The team could have been up 5-1 as they were all over the Kings and at one point were up 25-10 in shots for the Canucks at one point in the second period.

The Canucks were moving the puck so efficiently in the offensive zone that it felt like the team was on a powerplay for a handful of minutes at a time. Quinn Hughes and Chris Tanev were great at creating odd man rushed throughout the game and Quinn Hughes jumped in to a couple of rushed to be the third or fourth man in.

Just as the Canucks looked like they were going to extend their lead, Jay Beagle took a holding penalty against Anze Kopitar and the Canucks were unable to keep the puck out of their net as Adrian Kempe tipped in a pass from Kopitar to tie the game up 2-2.

The goal seemed to spark the Kings as the pace of play balanced out and the Canucks were unable to sustain pressure like they did earlier in the second period. The Kings earned themselves a powerplay but the Canucks bounced back on this one and killed it off without any major scoring chances.

The Lotto Line (6-40-9) had some offensive chances to try and spark the Canucks and after a few failed attempts in the offensive zone Elias Pettersson sent in Brock Boeser on a breakaway as he buried it with a deke to the backhand after a quick shoulder shimmy. That was Elias Pettersson’s third assist of the game and the Canucks regained the lead at 3-2.

Captain Bo ran into Ilya Kovalchuk in the defensive zone that seemed to almost knock the wind out of him as he laid on the ice for a few seconds before making his way to the bench and telling the trainer that he was ok.

The Canucks got themselves another powerplay opportunity with one minute remaining in the second period. Though the first unit was likely tired from being on the ice to draw the penalty they were the first unit to take to the ice. The unit was able to get set up with ease and the highlight of the powerplay was Bo Horvat going through his legs for a shot in tight.

The Canucks began the third period on the powerplay and the Canucks wasted no time as Brock Boeser scored his third career hat trick on a shot that bounced off of Drew “a player like that” Doughty. The big guns were firing on all cylinders tonight and the Canucks now found themselves in a much more comfortable two goal lead.

No, Elias Pettersson didn’t get an assist on this one.

The Canucks took a couple of penalties in the middle portion of the third period and killed off them as the shorthanded group looked good all night. The only powerplay goal against they allowed was a great tip by Adrian Kempe. The PK unit was able to clear the puck more often than the Kings could get set up and Markstrom was good when he needed to be on some high danger shots against.

The third period found a bit of a dull stretch later in the period as the Canucks continued to take penalties and give the Kings their third powerplay in a row. The Kings definitely had chances to get close as they trailed by only two goals late in the period. The Canucks killed off the trio of penalties in a row and it seemed that the Kings were finally ready to lay down and accept the loss.

The Canucks were given a powerplay with just over four minutes remaining in the game and Elias Pettersson buried a beautiful wrist shot from the left side to secure his fourth point of the game.

Jeff Carter scored his second goal of the game with 1:11 remaining in the game as the Kings would get the game to 5-3. That was as close as they would come as the Canucks milked away the remaining 71 seconds and the Canucks secured another win to kickstart a road trip.

All in all it was dominance by the Canucks first line on the score sheet but the rest of the team was dominant all over the ice. The Canucks controlled the pace of play for a majority of the game and beat up statistically on a less talented LA Kings team.

The Lotto Line combined for nine points, four from Pettersson and Boeser while JT Miller found the scoresheet for one assist. The trio found success at 5 on 5 and on the powerplay as they were playing like a true NHL 1st line tonight.

The powerplay unit was a top performer in it self as the Canucks scored four goals on the powerplay.

Quinn Hughes and Chris Tanev were very effective at moving the puck up ice and also continuing to add support in the offensive zone by assisting in the cycle on the boards.

Elias Pettersson threw two big hits on Alec Martinez that saw him fall to the ice both times. Beastmode engaged.

The Vancouver Canucks were 19th in the league last season in faceoffs with a 49.5% winning percentage. This year the Canucks are the most improved from last season in the league in overall winning percentage and it’s due to the addition of JT Miller, Jay Beagle being stellar and Bo Horvat continuing to grow into one of the premier players in the red dot.

The Canucks currently sit around 55% in the faceoff circle,  good enough for second in the league. The Canucks are only behind the Philadelphia Flyers who are at an incredible 58%. The Canucks are finding that percentage grow despite the low percentage of Brandon Sutter (43.7%) and Elias Pettersson (41.5%) who have taken roughly a quarter of the team’s faceoffs.

The Utica Comets have been rolling this season and they locked down their 8th win in a row to open up the season with a win over the Binghamton Devils.

Kole Lind and Reid Boucher were split up as Nikolay Goldobin found himself playing with Boucher and Carter Camper while Lind was with Sven Baertschi and Lukas Jasek. Oscar Fantenberg make his Comets debut as he was playing alongside Olli Juolevi in this one and Zane McIntyre started in goal.