Wednesday October 30 - Vancouver Canucks at Los Angeles Kings - 7:30 p.m. - Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet One, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 11 GP, 7-3-1, 15 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
Los Angeles Kings: 12 GP, 4-8-0, 8 pts, eighth in Pacific Division
The Vancouver Canucks are heading to California for their three-in-four road trip on a high, after exorcizing the demons left behind from their collapse against the Washington Capitals with an emphatic 7-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Monday. What better way to prove you can hold a 5-1 lead than to rack up another 5-1 lead, then guide this one all the way to the finish line?
Tuesday was a travel day for the Canucks, who will start the road swing at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
When the Canucks beat the Kings 8-2 in their home opener back on October 9, Drew Doughty was apoplectic about his crew having lost so badly.
Now that we have a slightly larger sample size to consider, that result now isn't looking like so much of an outlier. Yes, it's the only time the Canucks have scored eight, but that was one of five times already this season that Vancouver has connected for five or more goals. Despite having also been shut out twice, the Canucks' average of 3.64 goals per game has them tied with Montreal for fourth in the league, offensively. Only Colorado, Nashville and Washington have been scoring more.
As for the Kings, they're sitting 24th in offense, averaging just 2.58 goals per game. Anze Kopitar is the only player that's even close to a point a game, with four goals and seven assists in 12 games played, while the Canucks have Elias Pettersson with 14, J.T. Miller with 13 and Bo Horvat with 10, all in 11 games played.
Defensively, it's a similar story. L.A. is worst in the league, with an average of 4.08 goals allowed per game, while Vancouver is third-best behind Boston and Arizona at 2.36.
All told, that means the Canucks' plus-15 goal differential through 11 games is tied with Pittsburgh for second-best in the league, only behind Boston (plus-16). Meanwhile, the Kings are a league-worst minus-18.
The 8-2 loss to the Canucks was L.A.'s worst of the year, but they've just come home after a four-game road trip through the Central Division that started with a 3-2 win over Winnipeg before a 5-2 loss in St. Louis, then 5-1 defeats in both Minnesota and Chicago.
Twelve games into his tenure behind the Kings' bench, Todd McLellan was pretty blunt about the possibility of changes after the loss in Chicago.
“Within the structure, you have to have the skill and the ability to execute and, for me anyhow — and I’m new — but there’s some (players) that are showing that they can’t,” McLellan said, per
Lisa Dillman of The Athletic. “So maybe we have some guys in Ontario. Maybe we’ve got to shuffle the deck a little bit here. So we’ll make decisions as we go forward here this week.”
The shuffling started with a promising NHL debut for 26-year-old winger Nikolai Prokhorkin against the Blackhawks. Drafted in 2012, Prokhorkin played eight games with the Manchester Monarchs that year before returning to Russia; he has spent the last three seasons with SKA St. Petersburg.
On Tuesday, the Kings also recalled winger Carl Grundstrom from a 10-day stint in the AHL. McLellan inserted him directly onto Kopitar's line as he shook up his groups.
With several spare bodies, it remains to be seen how the forwards will be deployed against the Canucks. The Kings are not taking a morning skate on Wednesday.
As for our boy Ben Hutton, he has been playing a pretty big role since signing his one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Kings late in the offseason. He's third in ice time at 20:24 per game and has been deployed of late with Drew Doughty, and he scored his first goal of the year last weekend in Minnesota.
In net, things haven't gotten much better for Jonathan Quick since the Canucks lit him up for the eight-spot earlier this month. Now with a 2-5-0 record for the year, Quick has a 4.48 goals-against average and .849 save percentage. He got the night off in Chicago on Sunday, so it's expected that he'll be back between the pipes against Vancouver.
As for the Canucks, drama is at a minimum as the team continues to roll along. Now healthy, Oscar Fantenberg was assigned to a conditioning stint with the Utica Comets on Tuesday, with Ashton Sautner recalled once again as the team's extra defenseman.
The Comets are back in action on home ice on Wednesday at 4 p.m. PT, hosting Binghamton.
Loui Eriksson's return to the lineup on Monday went pretty well, as all four Vancouver lines got in on the scoring. I don't imagine Travis Green will make any changes against the Kings, other than probably putting Jacob Markstrom back in net ahead of a split between the goalies in Anaheim and San Jose this weekend.
Green is doing some teaching at his fully-attended morning skate.
On Tuesday night, Jake Virtanen stopped by Staples Center to watch LeBron and the Lakers beat the Memphis Grizzlies 120-91.
Of course, the other big news of the day on Tuesday was Nils Hoglander's lacrosse-style goal over in Sweden. Slick little move to bounce it to himself off the back of the net to set it all up, too?
Who did it better — Hoglander, or Andrei Svechnikov later that night for the Carolina Hurricanes?
I'm biased, but I feel like Hoglander had a little more style.
With that, you're up to date. Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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