Waking up with the Kings: March 22

We’re on the bus to the rink; the story on Richards’ recall will follow soon.

The Los Angeles Kings lost an important if not pivotal late-season game to the Vancouver Canucks, denting the Kings’ chances of making the playoffs while solidifying the Canucks’ opportunity. While it’s natural to cling on to every game this late in the season while the team is squarely on the playoff bubble, Saturday’s game didn’t decimate Los Angeles’ chances by any stretch. There are still 11 games remaining, and the Kings’ chances at this point are more or less a toss-up according to SportsClubStats.com; they’re more solidly in by another metric that appears to be based more heavily on advanced data. That’s obviously no consolation following an emotional game in which Los Angeles was unable to defend a lead for the third time in four games. These close, tense games are turning into losses because they have one third period goal and a total of five goals – only two of which have come at even strength – over the four-game stretch. There were plenty of chances to bury even strength or shorthanded goals yesterday, as both Tyler Toffoli and Dwight King were denied on contested breakaways, and in one third period sequence there was an opportunity for Trevor Lewis to push a puck free into open space on what nearly developed into an odd-man rush before the last Vancouver defender was able to get in front of the puck to play it away from a dangerous situation in the neutral zone. Credit Eddie Lack for a solid performance in net; though the Canucks outshot the Kings 42-26, even strength chances were mostly even.

Los Angeles is the league’s best shot suppressing team, and on Saturday the Kings had their hands full in what was clearly the Canucks’ best performance in the head-to-head series this season. In the four games between the teams, Los Angeles has held Vancouver to 19, 16, 19 and 42 shots. After the game Darryl Sutter referenced the heavy amount of shots coming from the blue line, and he was most likely referencing Alex Edler’s eight shots on goal and one missed shot. But Canucks forwards also took 28 shots on goal as the club registered 33 total even strength and shorthanded shots that didn’t lead to empty net goals. Regarding Edler, with his eight shots on goal and six hits (and minus one screen on Eddie Lack) over 25:10 of ice time, yesterday’s game was probably as good as any he has played against the Kings. On Vancouver’s game-tying goal, there was a little bit too much laissez-faire defending, with Brayden McNabb easing up on Radim Vrbata along the boards, allowing him to make his bounce pass to Nick Bonino, who made a terrific play after gaining leverage and positioning on Drew Doughty to chip the puck over Jonathan Quick’s shoulder.

So, obviously, there’s an elephant or two in the room. There was Doughty’s offensive zone slashing penalty, followed 63 seconds later by Tyler Toffoli’s five-minute boarding major on Alex Burrows that was likely frustration induced after Toffoli’s shorthanded breakaway was denied earlier in the shift and the two had tangled up following the second period Jonathan Quick-Henrik Sedin fracas. Speaking of said fracas, the Canucks probably deserved an extra two minutes on the play, either from Sedin making contact with Quick’s head on the fly-by, or from Burrows’ takedown of Toffoli, though it’s not some grave injustice that no additional penalty was called in that situation. It was a judgement call. If you’re grasping for straws, Vancouver should have been assessed a too many men call in the first period after playing the puck with six players clearly on the ice, but the officiating was not as foul as some of those whom I interacted with on Twitter made it out to be. Credit the Canucks for a very good road performance; the Kings lost because they scored one goal.