Kings Burn Canucks' Special Teams To Take 2-0 Series Lead
By The Nelson Daily Sports
Leigh Ramsden lives in Vancouver and is an avid Canucks fan, having been a partial season ticket holder for over 10 years. He’s old enough to have witnessed all three Stanley Cup losses, as such, his prime goal is to remove those scars by seeing a Cup brought to Vancouver. Leigh is Fighting For Stanley’s (www.fightingforstanley.ca/vancouver) west coast correspondent, and will also blog after all Canuck games for The Nelson Daily.
The Vancouver Canucks entered game 2 against the L.A. Kings knowing that another effort like they had in game one wouldn’t be good enough. On Friday night at Rogers Arena, the Canucks played better, but special teams absolutely killed them as they dropped a 4-2 decision to the L.A. Kings, as they went down 2-0 in the series. The Canucks are now facing a monumental uphill battle, as they will have to win four games out of the next five with three of those coming on the road.
Dustin Brown led the Kings offensively and was a deserving recipient of the game’s first star, as he scored twice shorthanded and added another assist. No other Kings tallied more than one point.
Generally, the Kopitar-Brown-Williams line has been a beast in the first two games. The Richards-Carter-King line, dominant in game one, pretty much disappeared tonight, finishing minus-6 while recording no points.
Overall, the Canucks were pretty dominant 5 on 5 against the Kings. The Canucks ended up outshooting L.A. 48-26 in the game, and 38-26 in the second and third periods.
The Canucks put a much better effort on the ice tonight, but special teams were their Achilles heel, to the point that I think it’s more appropriate to refer to them as “Special Needs Teams”. The power play, struggling as far back as mid-December, was again 0 for 5. While the power play generated 10 shots on net, at times it was ridiculously poor.
The Canucks had trouble gaining the Kings’ zone on multiple occasions, and continually made bad passes and other mistakes which prevented them from generating a lot of scoring chances.
Not only did the power play fail to generate offense, it allowed the two shorthanded goals. Alex Edler, who is playing his worst hockey of the season at exactly the wrong time, gave the puck to Anze Kopitar in the defensive zone, a gaffe that led to the Kings’ first goal.
Dan Hamhuis, one of the Canucks’ steadiest defensemen, stumbled at the point which allowed Brown to speed past him, and score on a breakaway to put the Kings in front for good early in the second period. Truly, it’s at the point that the Canucks should not ice their fifth skater, it’s better if they play even-up if the other team takes a penalty.
The Kings’ power play added a goal of its own midway through the third period, which effectively iced the game.
So far in this series, the Kings have scored seven non-empty net goals. Of those, they have scored three on the power play in 12 opportunities, and have two shorthanded goals in 10 Canuck power plays. On the flip side, the Canucks are 0 for 10 on the power play.
At even strength, the Canucks have badly outshot L.A., and have actually outscored them 4-2.
GAME OBSERVATIONS
- After watching tonight’s game, one really wonders what is going on with this team. What happened to the team that we iced last season in the playoffs? These guys just appear disinterested and for the second night in a row, the Canucks were outworked too often, losing puck battles, and generally not moving their legs and losing races to the puck. In the playoffs, desire is what is required, as a team’s will is more important than its skill. The Kings have appeared the hungrier team thus far in the series and that is why they are ahead 2-0. Their forecheck has been right on top of our D-men and they’ve been turning the puck over. It’s ugly to watch, and the Canucks need to work harder and think more quickly.
- There were many warning signs of this type of performance as the team came down the stretch. However, at all times I had faith that the team, having learned lessons in playoff years past, knew what it would take to get the job done. At this point, I have to seriously question whether I was right. So far, it appears I wasn’t.
- Roberto Luongo was good in net for the Canucks tonight. That said, his numbers in the first two games are now as follows: GAA – 3.62, SV% – .891. Those numbers are not good enough to win. I’m certainly NOT “blaming” Luongo, his performance tonight was not like we have seen in his meltdowns – this is NOT his fault. However, the goals tonight were all stoppable, if he were able to come up with a big save. He wasn’t his best tonight. Two games is a small sample size, and I get that, but at some point the numbers don’t lie. We saw a classic “Luongo on his belly” on the Brown breakaway, and a bad “leak through” goal in the third.
- Alex Edler. In my mind, coach Alain Vigneault needs to seriously consider making him a healthy scratch and having him watch from the press box. Saying that is something, Edler was an all-star this year and had a great first half. His play in the second half has been just this side of horrible and tonight, it was even worse. Brutal giveaway on the first goal, and another on the third goal when he was unable to clear the puck. He just doesn’t look right.
- While everyone is ruing the Canucks’ inability to score, the team built itself to win tight, low scoring games and started playing a more conservative style coming down the stretch. Similar to last year’s finals, I’m not pinning these losses on an inability to score – rather, the Canucks are not keeping the puck out of the net. The team needs to score more, for sure – but as they were built and the style they have been playing, four goals against is too many if they want to win.
- I lambasted Ryan Kesler in this space after game 1 – and tonight, he was way better. He was the Canucks’ best player, worked hard all night, and was the only forward who consistently made things happen in the Kings’ zone. Also, he didn’t dive, chirp the referees, or the other team. It was an infinitely better performance from him and tonight he gave the team what it needed. More games like this, and the puck will start going in for him and his linemates.
- Two things on the power play: 1) The neutral-zone drop pass – this hasn’t worked well for MONTHS. It worked well early in the season, but around Christmas (when the power play went into the tank), teams were figuring it out and giving the Canucks fits in the neutral zone. They need to just get rid of it – it led directly to the Kings first goal. 2) One thing I’ve noticed is that the teams having success killing our penalties are being extremely aggressive on the puck while they’re killing the penalty, and our guys just aren’t moving the puck fast enough. I’m not a coach in the NHL, and it’s obvious to me – I don’t understand why it’s not obvious to the team’s coaching staff. Every team is doing the same thing, and it’s working. Newell Brown – crunch time – you need to earn your paycheque. Make some adjustments and get it working.
TAKING STOCK OF WHERE WE’RE AT
- It’s too early to write the Canucks off. Just last year, the Boston Bruins lost the first two games of the playoffs at home, and we all know how that turned out for them. In addition, Cam Charron at Canucks Army noted that back in 2001, the upstart Canucks jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Presidents’ Trophy winning Detroit Red Wings, before Detroit found their game and steamrolled the Canucks in the next four games straight. Statistics show that a team going down 2-0 still has an approximate 25% chance of winning, so this series is far from over. In recent years, we’ve seen numerous series look over but then the momentum changes and the team that’s down comes back – consider the Blackhawks against the Canucks last year in the first round. Perhaps freshest in their minds will be the Stanley Cup Final – the Canucks won the first two games and Boston came back to win. It’s very easy to get discouraged after losing a couple games like this, but this mountain in front of the Canucks right now is not too big to climb.
- Vancouver needs to stick to their game. While their compete level wasn’t perfect at all times tonight, the Canucks have been the better team at even strength in this series. If they can clean up the special teams, score occasionally on the power play, and not give up copious amounts of shorthanded goals, they will be successful.
- I predicted a seven game series here and I still think the Canucks are going to play better on the road and hopefully climb back into the series. At this point, they need to take things “one game at a time” – it’s the only way to go forward.
- Lots of chatter after the game tonight about who should start in net in game 3. Last year, in the first round after two consecutive losses, Vigneault started Schneider to mix things up. I am very confident that Schneider will be the starter for game 3. As noted, Luongo wasn’t bad tonight – but he wasn’t that great either. The team does seem to play better and tighter defensively in front of Schneider, and at this point, a change is needed.
- What is happening to the Canucks is not reflecting well on the coaching staff. If the Canucks lose this series, there are a lot of questions that will be asked about Vigneault and his ability to motivate this group of players. In my opinion, only a Stanley Cup win should save his job; but more realistically, if the Canucks lose in the first round, I think it’s virtually assured that he’ll be heading up the Montreal Canadiens next year.
PARTING SHOTS
Broadcast Observation of the Night: Bruce Boudreau has been a nice addition to the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast. He obviously knows the game, and even though he’s employed in the league, he’s not afraid to speak his mind and tell it like he is. He’s a very affable sort of guy and I think he’s great, his analysis is sound, and the fact he’s a current NHL coach lends him an aura of respectability. He’s a great addition to their coverage.
