The view from Vancouver

NHL.COM

Kevin Woodley: Kings rally late, beat Canucks on Kopitar’s OT goal
The Los Angeles Kings weren’t worried about style points on Monday night.

Their only concern was two points.

The Kings ensured themselves one point when Mike Richards tied the game with 2:54 left in the third period, then added the second when Anze Kopitar scored 48 seconds into overtime for a 3-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena.

“We just have to scrape and claw for points,” Richards said. “It wasn’t the prettiest on our part. We took too many penalties, and we turned some pucks over, but two points is what we wanted.”

VANCOUVER SUN

Elliott Pap: Kings catch, down Canucks in OT
Goalie Roberto Luongo could barely contain his fury at the latest collapse.

“That’s the way it’s going, I don’t have much to say,” he muttered. “I mean, I’m not a big fan of ‘we’re playing well but we’re losing.’ I’m not a big believer in that kind of stuff. We’re doing some things right, we’re working hard but we’re not winning. So we all could be better as a group, myself included.”

Iain MacIntyre: Torts insists he’s not a crazy man, but team may make him that way
The Canucks had the two points in their hands, and a life raft big and beautiful enough to float them from this storm threatening to imperil their National Hockey League season. The Canucks were dominant, inspired.

And then, out of nothing, they surrendered a weak tying goal to Mike Richards with 2:54 remaining in the third period and an equally sloppy winner to Anze Kopitar 48 seconds into overtime, and the Canucks lost again and fell further behind the Kings.

Elliott Pap: Royally frustrated after late collapse
The Canucks outshot the Kings 28-8 in the second and third periods and had ample opportunity to score a third goal. Naturally, it came back to haunt them when Richards was left uncovered in front of Luongo and slotted home Jeff Carter’s pass.

“I am standing here every game saying the same thing,” noted Henrik Sedin. “Everyone sees the same things. We’re battling. We’re playing well defensively, we’re getting shots, we’re getting chances and the puck is not going in.”

Harrison Mooney: I Watched This Game: Canucks vs Los Angeles Kings, November 25, 2013
The first period of this game was a little like David Simon’s Treme, in that it was inarguably authentic, but it wasn’t really all that engaging. “Yep, that’s definitely what it’s like,” I found myself saying, while wishing I was watching The Wire instead. There was one goal and, in keeping with tradition, it went against the Canucks, with Linden Vey feeding Kyle Clifford on a 2-on-1 for the score. I blame Jason Garrison there. Not only did he fail to prevent Vey’s pass, but he failed to prevent the string of Vey puns that followed.

Daniel Wagner: Do the Canucks take too many shots from the outside?
The Canucks now have a shooting percentage of 7.7%, 24th in the league, and 5.5% on the power play, last in the league. Given their shot totals and underlying possession numbers, the Canucks should be winning a lot more games, but their improbable run of lousy shooting has them sliding lower and lower in the standings.
Unsurprisingly, this has led to numerous questions from Canucks fans: why can’t the Canucks score? Will the Canucks score more than 2 goals in a game ever again? What does happiness feel like? Why does the universe hate us so much?

THE PROVINCE

Ben Kuzma: Los Angeles 3 Vancouver 2 (OT): Canucks push back but still fall to Kings
On a night where the Los Angeles Kings looked like they were in prime playoff form — a stick here, a whack there, a fight and enough penalty box jawing for a reality show — the Canucks did what they had to do before doing what they’ve done too much. This wasn’t as much about the pathetic power play and the points as about getting a point across in a 3-2 overtime loss. The encouraging line will show that Henrik Sedin snapped a 1-1 tie in the third period with a power-play goal to end an 0-for-7 special-teams horror show Monday before an unchecked Mike Richards made it 2-2 with 2:56 left in regulation time.

Wyatt Arndt: From the Rafters: Kings at Canucks (3-2 Kings, OT)
The second period started and Rogers Arena was dead inside, the kind of dead inside you only get when it’s 4 in the morning, you’re completely sober, and the only thing on TV to watch is that infomercial for the magic bullet. Yet you still can’t stop watching it. Luckily LA changed all of this when Jordan Nolan and Jeff Carter made a Henrik sandwich and threw a huge hit that stunned the Canucks captain. In years past the Canucks would have let this go, and it seemed like they did at first. Nobody reacted on the ice and the game went on a commercial time out. After the time out, though, Sestito and Kesler were put on the ice and they began chasing the Kings all over the ice in an attempt go get revenge for the Henrik hit.

J.Bowman: Canucks/Kings Post Game Quotes (I Wish Were Real)
The main issue I have with post game coverage is the general lack of personality conveyed by the majority of the league. The NHL has some of the classiest athletes and coaches in all of professional sports, but sometimes you just want to hear someone go off.
No canned responses about “working hard”, “winning the battles” and “gutsy play (I’d prefer victorious play). I would love it if there was a bit more colour in those interviews and players said what they were really thinking.

CANUCKS ARMY

Dimitri Filipovic: Canucks Army Postgame: Canucks Fight Tooth and Nail, But..
.. the result was once again a fateful one, meaning that all of the positives that could’ve been drawn from the first 57 minutes or so of action seem to ring kind of hollow. The rest of the Western Conference won’t be so kind as to wait for the bounces to start going in the Canucks’ favour, and unless things start turning around sooner rather than later, they’ll have dug themselves an insurmountable hole in the standings.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. There were quite a few very good things that took place on Monday night at Rogers Arena; unfortunately one of those wasn’t the two points. Read on past the jump for a recap of the painstaking 3-2 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings.

NUCKS MISCONDUCT

Sean Larson: Late Goals Bury Canucks in 3-2 OT Loss
Losses suck. That’s pretty black and white. But this one stung a little worse for the Canucks tonight. After being denied seven straight times on the power play and finally scoring a go-ahead goal on the eighth, the Vancouver Canucks fell 3-2 in overtime to the Los Angeles Kings, capping off a dismal homestand on a sour note. It was a wild game full of penalties, fights, and even a missing tooth.