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.
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