Despite Lofty Expectations, Canucks Face Elimination; Down 3-0 To Kings

It wasn't suppose to be this way.

The Presidents' Trophy winning Vancouver Canucks were expected to roll through the eighth ranked Los Angeles Kings with relative ease en route to another Stanley Cup Final appearance.

Alex Edler, arguably the Canucks' best defenseman, wasn't expected to be the worst player on the ice through the first three games. He has been. By a Kilometer.

Dustin Brown, the Kings' young American captain, wasn't expected to be the best forward in the series. He has been. By a mile.

Roberto Luongo wasn't expected to play amazingly well. He had been. That was until he was benched in favour of Vancouver's uber-competent backup goalie Cory Schneider. Did anyone expect that considering how well Luongo was playing?

The Canucks were not expected to lose all three of the series' opening games. They have.

The only thing that has gone as expected is the play of L.A's Vezina Trophy Candidate Jonathan Quick, however, I'm not sure anyone expected that he would play quite THIS well.

But things don't always go as expected.

The Kings have taken a 3-0 stranglehold in the Western Conference Quaterfinal and will now have an opportunity to sweep the Canucks on home ice Wednesday night. Who expected that?

Now, the series is not over - the fourth win is apparently the hardest to achieve in a series - but the Canucks are all but done. The thought of Jonathan Quick losing four straight games right now is unimaginable. Sadly, so is the thought of Vancouver playing a full 60 minutes of desperate hockey and having the discipline to stay out of the penalty box. Also unimaginable is the Canucks inability to right their struggling powerplay. My beer league team, the Bowen Island Cruisers, may have a better chance of scoring on the powerplay than Vancouver right now. We are in division six and most of us haven't played more than minor hockey - yes, it's that bad.

Expectations are one thing, but delivering on expectation is another. Let's look at some of the other factors leading to the Canucks seemingly insurmountable series deficit.

Vancouver coasted through most of the regular season, often seeming bored after playing so deep into the playoffs last season. They were rarely on top of their game, and despite winning eight of their last nine regular season contests, they were playing some of their poorest hockey heading into the post season. Los Angeles, on the other hand, have been playing for their playoff lives for the last half of the season, which has essentially been playoff hockey. The level of desperation and commitment they've played with lately is far superior to that of the Canucks, and that has shown early in this series.

I personally expected the Canucks to lose in game one. I suspected that the Kings would continue to play at the level they had played in the final weeks of the regular season, and it would catch the Canucks off-guard. But I expected Vancouver to use it as a wake up call and be prepared for game two.

But, as you know, things don't always go as expected.

The Canucks never turned it up a notch and they got caught up in the antics and the after-the-whistle bullcrap that makes them the most hated team in the NHL. They've lacked leadership, maturity and confidence. I didn't expect that.

Sure, the injury to Daniel Sedin is a huge loss. But it shouldn't be the difference between a first round loss and a first round win.

Who would step up in Daniel's absence? How would a former coach of the year manage his lineup to maximize their abilities? These are questions I expected to be able to answer after the first three games of the series.

Well, things don't always go as expected and I don't have those answers. No one does because they haven't happened.

Vancouver now has the unenviable task of coming back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series. It's happened only three times in NHL history, so it's extrememly unlikely.

No one expects the Canucks to come back and win this series.

But you know what they say about expectations.....

Kings Capitalize On Canucks Lack Of Discipline, Take 1-0 Series Lead

The Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings took two completely different paths en route to their first round Stanley Cup Playoff matchup.

One team had been playing for their playoff lives for the last month of the regular season while the other had been coasting through the regular season with ease, just waiting to finally play a meaningful game.

On Wednesday night, it was pretty obvious which team was which as the Vancouver Canucks were still in cruise control and were completely dominated by a much better, more intense and more prepared Kings team by a score of 4-2. (Watch highlights here)

The Canucks opened the scoring just 4:17 into the game when Alex Burrows wired home a wristshot passed Jonathan Quick, who was slowly recovering from a bump by Ryan Kesler. Quick appeared to embellish the bump a bit and was a little out of position by the time Burrows ripped it by him.

The goal came after Roberto Luongo made a number of gorgeous stops to start the first period and keep the reeling Kings off the board.

Then midway through the frame, a parade began -not the parade Canucks fans have been planning for a few months already - but a parade to the penalty box. With Kesler already in the sin bin for a questionable unsportmanlike conduct call (he sprayed Quick with snow, something that usually goes uncalled about 2-3 times a game), Chris Higgins inadvertantly shot the puck over the glass and into the stands for a delay of game penalty resulting in a Kings 5-3 powerplay. Just 10 seconds into the two-man advantage, Mike Richards caught Luongo cheating towards the far-side of the crease and slid a hard low shot passed the Canucks goalie to tie the game at one.

Then just a minute later, with Higgins still in the box, Alex Edler swatted a puck out of mid-air and into the crowd for yet another delay of game call, and consequently another Los Angeles 5-3 powerplay. Luckily Vancouver were able to kill that one off. Despite another penalty by Sami Salo late in the period, the Canucks were able to keep the game tied heading into the second stanza.

It was more of the same in the second period as Vancouver was shorthanded for almost half of the whole period. Byron Bitz took a 5 minute major and a game misconduct for hitting from behind when he caught Kings forward Kyle Clifford in the numbers. Clifford left the game and didn't return with an obvious head injury.

Former Canuck and B.C bred Willie Mitchell launched a slapshot from the point that saw its way passed a screened Luongo and into the back of the net. Then, with only 8 seconds remaining in the frame, Alex Edler's wristshot from the point deflected off of an L.A player's stick and beat a fooled Quick to tie the game at two heading into the final frame.

In the 3rd, the Canucks were unable to generate any offense on their two powerplays and were generally outplayed by the Kings who were able to get the go-ahead-goal with under four minutes left in the game when Alex Edler's turnover allowed Dustin Penner to bang home a shot that took a generous bounce off of Jeff Carter's skate and right to a wide-open Penner at the side of the net. Dustin Brown potted an empty-netter with 18 seconds left to seal the win for L.A.

My take: An all-around poor effort by Vancouver save for Roberto Luongo who made 35 stops and kept the Canucks in it throughout the game.

Hopefully an eye-opening game as Vancouver has to realize now that they need to step up their effort now that the playoffs have begun.

The Canucks 4th line of Byron Bitz, Manny Malhotra and Zack Kassian were awful all night. They iced the puck on every shift they played, allowing the Kings to get a favourable matchup when they were on the ice. Then of course Bitz's bone-headed hit from behind resulted in a 5 minute L.A powerplay that ended with another Kings powrplay goal. Expect Bitz to be suspended for at least one game.

Vancouver's powerplay continued to look stale as they hardly generated any chances and had a tough time even gaining the zone.

Despite his two assists, Ryan Kesler needs to get his game together. He was too busy diving around the ice and getting caught up in antics which resulted in him focussing
more on other things than trying to score.

Alex Edler had a shockingly poor game. His play in the defensive zone was horrendous, and as mentioned, his ugly turnover late in the third period resulted directly to the Kings game-winning goal.

Aaron Rome reminds me of defensemen that I play mens league with....everytime he gets the puck he freaks out and shoots it off the boards and out.

It's certainly not time to panic just yet, but Vancouver didn't give their fans much to be happy about. They will undoubtedly have to play more disciplined in order to win a game, and they will need to right their struggling powerplay. Goal scoring has been an issue of late, and will likely continue to be as they've struggled to score since the trade deadline.

Look for a much better effort on Friday as last night's game was a reality check.

Prediction for Friday's game: Canucks 2 - Kings 1.