VANCOUVER - After making things look very easy for most of the season, the Vancouver Canucks are now trying to figure out why winning has become so hard.
Drew Doughty and Kevin Fiala each had a goal and two assists as the Los Angeles Kings snapped a two-game losing streak with a 5-1 win over the Canucks Thursday night.
It was a game the Kings controlled from the start. L.A. led 2-0 after two periods and any bounce the Canucks got from a Brock Boeser power-play goal early in the third was stymied by the Kings scoring three times in just over 11 minutes.
Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet used the word egregious several times in describing his team鈥檚 effort.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we gave them much,鈥 said Tocchet. 鈥淚t's just the fact what we gave them was egregious.鈥
The Canucks are 1-5-1 in their last seven games but still lead the Western Conference with a 38-17-7 record.
Defenceman Ian Cole said the Canucks must concentrate on the present, not the impressive 34-11-5 record they compiled coming out of the all-star break.
鈥淓very year there鈥檚 ebbs and flows,鈥 said Cole. 鈥淭hings ere going great early. We were winning games we probably shouldn鈥檛 have.
鈥淣ow we're not playing well. The only way to get out of these slumps is to work through it and understand maybe there needs to be a little more desperation. All cliches but they all apply.鈥
The Kings (30-19-10) were playing their third game in four nights after dropping 4-2 decisions to Edmonton and Calgary.
Anze Kopitar and Trevor Moore both had a goal and an assist. Rookie defenceman Brandt Clarke scored his second career goal while Quinton Byfield also had two assists.
鈥淲e played great right from the puck drop,鈥 said Doughty, who has 501 career assists. 鈥淚 was so proud and so happy with our team鈥檚 performance tonight.
鈥淓very single player played well. There wasn鈥檛 one dog out there and that鈥檚 why we won.鈥
Doughty was thrilled his 500th assist came on Kopitar鈥檚 goal.
鈥淢y entire career there is not a guy I鈥檇 rather play with than him,鈥 said Doughty. 鈥淔or it to be on his goal, I think that makes it extra special.鈥滽ings鈥 goaltender Cam Talbot stopped 22 shots while Thatcher Demko made 15 saves for Vancouver.
鈥淭hat was definitely the best 60 (minutes) of the year for us from start to finish,鈥 said Talbot. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 think of one fault in our game.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what it takes to win in this league every night.鈥
The Kings controlled the flow of the game. They took time and space away from the Canucks and played physical.
Boeser鈥檚 power-play goal was just the third in 38 attempts over 12 games for Vancouver.
Tocchet said his team is getting a taste of what to expect for the rest of the season.
鈥淲e鈥檙e losing those battles,鈥 he said. 鈥淢aybe it鈥檚 getting harder.
鈥淕uys have to realize that鈥檚 the game that鈥檚 going to be out there from here all the way to what ever. That game was about winning puck battles and they won more than us.鈥
The Kings came into the game battling to hang onto a wild-card playoff spot in the West.
Cole said the Canucks must be ready to face more desperate teams.
鈥淲e have just as much to fight for as anybody,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e want to try to secure home-ice, you want to get as high a seed as you can.
鈥淲e want to win games. You don鈥檛 want to go into the playoffs struggling to find our games. There should not be any reason why teams are more engaged.鈥
NOTES: Vancouver鈥檚 Noah Juulsen got a roar from the crowd with a bone-crunching second-period hit that flattened Alex Laferriere. 鈥 Demko started his fifth straight game for the first time this season. 鈥 Vancouver managed just three shots on goal in the first, including a power play. 鈥 Canuck defenceman Dakota Joshua missed his seventh consecutive game with an upper-body injury. 鈥 The teams meet three more times before the season ends. 鈥ings leading scorer Adrian Kempe missed his second straight game and returned to L.A. to evaluate the wrist he injured Monday in Edmonton. 鈥 Talbot started his second consecutive game after David Rittich played the previous three
WHAT鈥橲 NEXT: The Canucks head out for a three-game road trip against Anaheim on Sunday, L.A. on Tuesday and Las Vegas on Thursday before returning to Vancouver to open a nine-game homestand against Winnipeg on March 9鈥 The Kings return home for games Sunday against New Jersey, the Canucks on Tuesday, Ottawa on Thursday, Dallas on March 9 and the Islanders on March 11.
This report by 好色tvwas first published Feb. 29, 2024.
