Out of the National Hockey League playoff race for months, the Vancouver Canucks continue to be formidable “spoilers.”
On Thursday, they spoiled the Nashville Predators’ wild-card chances by losing 4-1 to the Los Angeles Kings. Impacting the race at the top of the Pacific Division, the Canucks hurt the Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Ducks by losing twice in nine days to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Before that, the Canucks dealt a setback to the San Jose Sharks by losing to the Kings, and the Winnipeg Jets by losing to the St. Louis Blues.
At the most critical stage of the NHL playoffs races, the Canucks have lost nine out of 10 games in regulation and the only game they won hurt no none — because it was irrelevant to the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche.
The Canucks haven’t exactly fulfilled the spoiler role they envisioned for themselves. They are 7-30-5 since peaking at two games under .500 on Dec. 20.
It’s not for lack of trying.
At the embryonic stage of their rebuild, the Canucks just aren’t good enough. They played a far better game Thursday in their three-goal loss against the Kings than they did in their 11-shot, one-goal loss to the Knights on Tuesday.
The Canucks pressed the Kings for stretches, and especially in the second period, generated offensive-zone time with their forecheck, put 25 pucks on Los Angeles goalie Anton Forsberg, outhit their heavy opponents 21-19 and out-attempted them 57-50.
But the Canucks haven’t the talent to outscore their mistakes, and haven’t the experience to prevent them. Marcus Pettersson scored the only Vancouver goal on a shot-pass that caromed in off Los Angeles defenceman Brian Dumoulin.
A step ahead of Linus Karlsson, Adrian Kempe was open in the Vancouver slot to open scoring, Joel Armia made it 2-1 for Los Angeles with an unscreened wrist shot from the high slot after a turnover by Jake DeBrusk, before Kempe and Trevor Moore scored on deflections.
The victory moved the Kings back into the Western Conference’s final wild-card spot, one point ahead of Nashville, three ahead of Winnipeg and four up on San Jose.
Among their four games remaining, the Kings get to play the Canucks for the third time in less than three weeks in Vancouver’s final home game on Tuesday.
In the meantime, the Canucks will visit the Sharks and Ducks in back-to-back road games starting Saturday.
With a 7:39 pm puck drop, and overwhelming evidence about which way the game was going, referees Kelly Sutherland and Brandon Schrader worked a power-play free contest. There were a few things they could have called (see item below) besides offsetting minors to Elias Pettersson (Junior) and Jeff Malott, but at least the game ended in less than 2 ½ hours.
Easily the most positive aspect of the Canucks’ game was the growing confidence rookie defenceman Zeev Buium exhibited in the offensive zone. The 20-year-old was a one-on-one handful for Kings checkers, using his edges and tight turns to spin away with the puck and create space for himself. He could have drawn a couple of penalties, especially in the second period when Kempe got his stick between Buium’s legs and knocked him down as the Canuck was sidestepping him inside the Los Angeles blue line. Sutherland spent the next television timeout explaining his non-call to Vancouver coach Adam Foote.
Buium’s forays still generally lack endings — sharp passes or superior scoring chances — but his willingness and ability to challenge players with the puck is an excellent sign for someone who will be expected to drive the Canucks’ attack a couple of seasons from now.
Sportsnet’s cameras caught veteran defenceman Filip Hronek, iPad in hand, apparently upbraiding his young defence partner at the Canuck bench after Artemi Panarin easily split the defenders to force a strong save from Tolopilo early in the second period. Whatever the discussion was about, we can confirm that Buium, like half of Vancouver’s young lineup, still has a lot to learn about defending at the NHL level.
Hear from Head Coach Adam Foote on tonight’s game versus Los Angeles.#Canucks | @theprovince pic.twitter.com/3IEAmqX04M
On a night when the Kings clobbered the Canucks in the faceoff circle and top Vancouver centre Elias Pettersson went 4-14, it’s easy to see why second-year centre Aatu Raty’s short-term NHL future is connected to the dots.
Although he was 7-10 in L.A., the 23-year-old is fourth in the NHL with a 61.3 per cent win rate on faceoffs among players who have taken at least 300 draws. The three guys ahead of him, Claude Giroux, J.T. Miller and Jonathan Toews, have combined for 3,423 NHL games. Raty has played 110.
Despite his limitations offensively and defensive misreads at times, Raty is already being relied on late in games to win the Canucks the puck. Raty also leads the current Canucks with 159 hits. So, he’s big (6-2, 205 pounds), physical and wins a lot of faceoffs. Players have built careers with less.
Adam Foote to reporters in Los Angeles: “The second period was probably one of our best second periods of the last 30 games. We were great on the forecheck and spent more time in their zone than they did in our zone, and we just had two guys go to the same spot in our end (on Kempe’s goal that made it 3-1) and then they got one. So it was hard to come back.”