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Kings run out of gas against the Canucks |
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The Los Angeles Kings had an early 2-0 lead but they failed to keep the pedal to the metal as they went on to lose to the Vancouver Canucks 3-2.
Tanner Pearson scored 23 seconds into the game then less than two minutes later Anze Kopitar scored to give the Kings (11-5-2) a two goal cushion. However, the Canucks worked to score three unanswered goals during the rest of the game to solidify the win.
This is the Kings third loss in a row after starting the season 11-2-2 and the teams behind them are starting to catch up.
“Any time you lose hockey games, you’re concerned, and you’re losing games in the division,” said coach John Stevens after the game. It’s a reality check, hard lessons for your team to learn because you lose hockey games with it. Concern? We’ve got work to do.”
This is now the second game in a row where the Kings have gotten off to an early lead and not able to hang onto it. The ability to maintain the level of play that it takes to win is something that is concerning to the Kings.
“I think we just need to look at ourselves and we all know the way we can play and we’ve done it in spurts,” explained Pearson. “Some games we’ve done it the whole game, so we’ve just got to do it for 60 minutes and not just ten minutes in the first period and back off.”
Jonathan Quick, who stopped 29 of 32 shots on Tuesday, has had some bad luck of late on the goals he did allow.
The first goal for Vancouver was a pass by Henrik Sedin that deflected off of Nick Shore’s skate and past Quick to put Vancouver on the board. There was not much Shore, could do on the play as he was doing his job by tending to Daniel Sedin in front of the net.
Later in the second period, with Alex Iafallo in the penalty box, Brock Boeser took a shot on Quick where the rebound went high into the air, just to land on Bo Horvat’s stick alone in Quick’s crease where he made no mistake.
It was almost three goals in the second period as Derek Forbort got his stick in on the hands of Brandon Sutter while streaking to the net, leading to a penalty shot. Quick was able to stand tall, recovering from his failed poke check and stop Sutter from going five hole to keep the game tied.
In the third period, with the Canucks pouring pressure on the Kings throughout, it was only a matter of time before Sven Baertschi wristed a puck past Quick on the power play to give the Canucks their first lead of the game that they never gave up.
“I think we just stopped playing,” lamented Alec Martinez. “We stopped playing our game and they didn’t. Credit to them, they stuck with it and ended up getting the two points.”
Help will be on the way soon for L.A. as the newly acquired Jussi Jokinen is on his way from Edmonton. As well, GM Rob Blake has said that Marian Gaborik has begun to take full practices and could be targeting a late November, early December return for the injured winger.
Coming up next for Los Angeles, the Boston Bruins storm the Staples Center on Thursday as they look to get some revenge for Tyler Toffoli’s last second goal that beat them at the end of October. Boston is currently on a three game losing streak and will be on the back end of a back-to-back as they play the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night.
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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