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Vancouver Canucks Game Review: L.A. Kings Dominate, Sven Baertschi Hurt |
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Monday December 28 - Los Angeles Kings 5 - Vancouver Canucks 0
The Vancouver Canucks showed some snarl, but it wasn't enough to compete against a dominant Los Angeles Kings team on Monday night at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
The Canucks opened the night with a video tribute to members of the organization that have passed over the past two decades as part of their #20in20 event. The loss of Luc Bourdon seemed especially poignant on Monday night since he was drafted one slot ahead of Anze Kopitar back in 2005—and Kopitar was an absolute bull on the ice on Monday. He picked up four assists on a top line with Milan Lucic and Tyler Toffoli and went an astonishing 23-5 in the faceoff circle.
Willie Desjardins may have had the last change, but it must have been frustrating for him to keep looking up and seeing Kopitar waiting on the dot and know that his best option was Linden Vey, who won three of the 10 draws he took against the big Slovenian.
If Bourdon was still with us, he'd be 27 right now—in the prime of his career. Imagine how different things might have been...
That being said, the Kings are now moving on nicely after losing an important defenseman of their own in Slava Voynov—and this year's free-agent signing Christian Ehrhoff was a healthy scratch on Monday for the second straight game. In 29 games this season, Ehrhoff is 2-6-8 and a minus-6. He has been bumped from the lineup not just by 2010 first-rounder Derek Forbort—a 23-year-old who scored his first NHL goal last night—but also by journeyman Jamie McBain, who has worked his way up the L.A. depth chart after joining the team through a tryout contract with the Manchester Monarchs when Voynov was initially suspended back in October of 2014.
On Monday, the Kings also iced two forwards who were key parts of Manchester's Calder Cup win last spring, Michael Mersch and Jordan Weal. Both played limited minutes—Weal and Milan Lucic were the only Kings players held without a shot on goal—but it got me thinking back just a couple of years, to when Toffoli, Tanner Pearson and Linden Vey were the minor-league call-ups for the Kings.
Look at Toffoli now—his hat trick last night gives him 17 goals on the season and he now leads the league in plus-minus at plus-21. Still just 23 years old and earning a reasonable $3.25 million for this season and next year, he has supplanted Marian Gaborik on L.A.'s top line and looks like he's on the cusp of turning into a true star. Not bad for a guy chosen 47th overall.
Toffoli's old linemate, Linden Vey, stayed in the Canucks lineup on Monday in order to help in the faceoff circle with Henrik hurting. With a 7-10 record last night, Vey was one of the team's better options. He also spent some time parked in front of the net during a first-period power play, harkening back to the beginning of the 2014-15 season, but was replaced by Bo Horvat later on.
The Canucks' winning record in the four games leading into Monday night has disguised the fact that Vancouver is now in an eight-game power-play drought. The last goal with the man advantage came back on December 9 against the New York Rangers. Yikes.
The Kings resorted to a familiar game plan to get an early upper hand in the game, targeting the Canucks' best players. It was great to see Alex Biega jump in immediately to defend his captain after the banged-up Henrik Sedin took an elbow to the head from Brayden McNabb during the first shift of the game, but it makes my blood boil when L.A. gets away with cheap shots like that.
I was worried that the hit would further hobble an already-broken Henrik, but he played a pretty typical 19:29, including late power-play time with the game well out of reach.
The Canucks did lose Sven Baertschi in the second period to what's being called an upper-body injury. No update was provided after the game, and no one seems to know what happened.
If he's out for any period of time, that'll be a loss. Baertschi was one of the few Canucks that has been scoring and his line with Bo Horvat and Radim Vrbata was looking better and better as he gained confidence.
I couldn't help but assume the worst when both Chris Higgins and Ben Hutton were felled by high pucks during the second half of the game. The memory of Dan Hamhuis' injury is still pretty fresh.
After a few scary moments down on the ice, both players were able to stay in the game.
The banged-up Canucks don't play again until Anaheim rolls into town on Friday. Hopefully that extra time will give a few of the guys a chance to feel better. The team is on the ice this morning. Here's what we have so far:
Here's one note from last night:
Before the game, I was chatting with some of you in the comments about the relative value of Higgins and Burrows as they came back into the lineup. Neither player was prominent last night—Higgins played 12:33 and was a minus-two with two shots on goal, while Burrows played just 11:18 and was a minus-one. On a night like last night, it's hard to lay much blame on individual players when the Canucks were dominated from top to bottom but overall, I don't think a team like Vancouver that's not very deep and badly banged up can afford to turn its back on its veterans.
On the bright side, Alex Biega has now played 13 games with the Canucks and is a tidy plus-three during that time. Sounds like he is endearing himself to the coach:
Biega has now been up with the Canucks long enough that he'd need to clear waivers in order to be sent back to Utica. He was the last cut on the blue line out of training camp; it sounds like he's about to become a full-time NHLer.
In his second game on the blue line, Andrey Pedan was more of a mixed bag. He was impressive in winning his fight over Jordan Nolan, but his own goal that gave the Kings the 2-0 lead was a back-breaker. We've seen this many times before—once L.A. is up by two, the chances pretty much vanish for the rest of the game.
I do like Pedan's size, his grit and his energy on the ice. If he can keep it going at this level, he'll be fun to watch as this long homestand rolls on.
With Vancouver having most of the week off, this is the big chance for the other Pacific Division teams around them to catch or pass them. The Canucks are currently tied with the Arizona Coyotes with 37 points while the Sharks and Flames have 36.
Before Vancouver's next game:
• Arizona will play Chicago tonight and Winnipeg on Thursday
• San Jose will play Philadelphia on Wednesday
• Calgary will play Anaheim tonight and L.A. on Thursday
A quick update from Helsinki before I sign off for today. As I type this, Jake Virtanen's sitting in the penalty box for a high stick as Canada trails Switzerland 2-1 midway through the second period. Looks like Canada will successfully complete the penalty kill.
Team USA is idle today.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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