Vancouver Canucks end 2017 with loss to Kings, Pettersson dazzles at WJC (kings)

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Vancouver Canucks end 2017 with loss to Kings, Pettersson dazzles at WJC

By Carol Schram

Dec 31, 2017 • 4:23 pm

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Saturday December 30 - Los Angeles Kings 4 - Vancouver Canucks 3

Saturday night was all about secondary scoring for the Vancouver Canucks, but despite getting three goals against one of the NHL's best defences, they dropped a regulation loss to the Los Angeles Kings.

Here are your highlights:

The Canucks got off to a strong start, drawing a penalty just 1:19 into the game. Brock Boeser got two point-blank chances with the man advantage, but couldn't beat Jonathan Quick.

Troy Stecher did, though—a deflected puck that sailed over Quick's left shoulder to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead at the 4:31 mark of the first period.

After that, the Kings took control of the play. Vancouver didn't get another shot on goal for more than 10 minutes—and by that time, the score was 2-1 for the visitors.

I was impressed with L.A.'s pace of play in that period—they were moving the puck up ice quickly and efficiently, and players were getting to the net for tip opportunities.

Jake Virtanen's starting to try to drive to the net sometimes when he carries the puck into the zone. I'd say the next stage in his evolution will be to see him heading for the net-front area when he doesn't have the puck, trying to be that big body who can screen the goaltender and pick up points off tips and rebounds—James van Riemsdyk-style, and like the Kings were doing on Saturday night.

The second period started off choppy, with a long stretch of icings, and I noticed that Travis Green was aggressively matching his checking line of Dowd, Granlund and Virtanen against the Kings' top line of Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Tanner Pearson. It worked, too—the trio was held pointless while Dowd and Granlund both finished the night at plus-two after the former King scored his first goal as a member of the Canucks.

That goal came at the end of the penalty kill, early in the third, and gave the Canucks a brief 3-2 lead. But I'm jumping ahead. The highlight of the night was Vancouver's second goal—the second of the year by Nikolay Goldobin, after a spectacular deke around 2016 Norris Trophy winner Drew Doughty.

The Vancouver Canucks rebuild is not without its frustrations, but we've seen more highlight-reel goals in the last three weeks than I think we saw in the entire three years of the Willie Desjardins era.

Of course, the Kings quickly came back to seize the win in the third on goals by Kyle Clifford, then Doughty.

I didn't see the winner when it happened because I was watching four or five players giving it to each other near the Canucks bench. Henrik spent a long time talking with the referee afterward, which made me think it had been an offside play (which the Canucks couldn't challenge because they'd already burned their time out on an unsuccessful goaltender interference challenge on L.A.'s first goal).

Apparently the gripe was actually a possible Too Many Men situation:

Whatever the case, the goal stood as the game winner, and Doughty admitted afterwards that it was sweet revenge for having been shown up by Golodbin.

A couple of other notes:

• Very active game for Ben Hutton. His 17:26 of ice time was the lowest of the six defensemen, even after Troy Stecher missed some time in the third period after going to the dressing room with an apparent wrist injury (Stecher did return and says he's fine). Hutton finished the night with two assists, three blocked shots and this monster hit on a tough guy to knock down—Dustin Brown.

• Adrian Kempe is a beast—listed at 6'2" and 195, but the 21-year-old Swede plays much bigger and has a definite mean streak. He finished the night with one assist but wreaked havoc for much of the night. I was impressed with how Erik Gudbranson effectively neutralized him in one especially tough net-front battle in the third period.

The Canucks are off today, then practice on Monday ahead of the last game of their homestand against Anaheim—and Ryan Kesler—on Tuesday night. After that, we don't see them again at Rogers Arena until just before the All-Star Break, on January 23, when the Kings return.

Now, turning to World Juniors: today's the last day of the round robin, then the teams will take Monday off before the nail-biting quarterfinal round.

Canada wrapped up its round-robin schedule on Saturday with an 8-0 win over Denmark and will cross over to play fourth-place Switzerland from Group B on Tuesday. Everything else is up in the air—Denmark could still grab a quarterfinal berth with a win over Slovakia this afternoon, The U.S. and Finland are still jockeying for second place in Group A, and while Sweden's looking good at 3-0 in Group B, Russia could still grab first place in Group B with a regulation win over the Swedes in the last game of the day at 5 p.m. PT.

Elias Pettersson scored twice in Sweden's 7-2 win over Switzerland on Saturday, including this beauty:

With three round-robin games left on the schedule, Pettersson is tied with five other players for the tournament scoring lead (6 points) and with two others—including his linemate Lias Andersson—for the most goals (4). Will he add to that total today?

The new is not so good for Canucks prospect Will Lockwood of Team USA:

What are you up to for New Year's Eve? I'll be—you guessed it—watchin' hockey.

With the Canucks starting to harvest their crop of young talent, the future looks brighter for 2018.

Happy New Year! 🎇 🍾 🎉

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