Vancouver Canucks

Vancouver Canucks deliver better effort but still shut out by LA Kings
April 1, 2017, 3:20 PM ET [86 Comments]
Carol Schram
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Friday March 31 - Los Angeles Kings 2 - Vancouver Canucks 0

Following a no-show loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, a better effort from the Vancouver Canucks wasn't enough to deliver a good result on Friday at Rogers Arena. The Canucks were shut out 2-0 by the Los Angeles Kings.

Here are your highlights:



The Canucks were outshout 44-21 when they stole the 4-3 win in Los Angeles back on March 4, so it's easy to think of Friday's game as the counterbalance. For the first time in six games, Vancouver outshot its opponent—this time, by a 35-26 margin. But Jonathan Quick was on his game and gave up nothing.

The Kings came out on the positive side of the hit ledger by a margin of 20-16, but defenseman-turned-forward Alex Biega was a wrecking ball once again. He was credited with a game-high five hits, including this first-period beauty on Tanner Pearson.




Nikita Tryamkin also stepped up on Dustin Brown:




But once again, the penalty kill was an issue. A Jarome Iginla deflection proved to be the game-winning goal on the Kings' only power play of the game, after Alex Edler got dinged for concealing the puck in the goal crease midway through the second period.

The Canucks' penalty kill was already down to 25th in the league with a 77.8 percent success rate before Alex Burrows and Jannik Hansen were dealt at the trade deadline. Since that time, it has dropped, but only a bit—to 75.5 percent. Overall, Vancouver now ranks 27th in the NHL with a 77.3 percent penalty kill.

According to Sporting Charts, Friday's game was the 10th time in 77 games that the Canucks have been shut out this season. That ranks them second in the league—tied, ironically, with the Kings, and behind only the Colorado Avalanche, who have been shut out 12 times. Four of Vancouver's shutout losses have come at home—against Edmonton and Ottawa back in October, and against the Penguins and Kings in March.

The Canucks are now 29th in goals scored per game—again, ahead only of Colorado, averaging just 2.19 goals per game. The previous franchise low was 192 goals scored in 1998-99. Right now, the Canucks are at 169 with five games to go—they'd need to score 23 goals in their last five games just to hit their previous low-water mark!

For the record, the Canucks have scored exactly 23 goals in their last 13 games.

In 1998-99, Markus Naslund led the Canucks with 36 goals and 66 points. The team's fourth-leading scorer was Bill Muckalt, with 36 points. That was also the year of players like Harry York, Brandon Convery, Steve Washburn and Robb Gordon. Thirty-two skaters and three goalies wore Canucks colours in that tumultous year—which lead to the drafting of the Sedins after Vancouver finished 29th in the standings.

This year, the Canucks have dressed 36 skaters and three goalies, after Griffen Molino made his NHL debut on Friday. Molino showed good wheels in his 9:33 of ice time on the fourth line, and managed two shot attempts—one on goal.







With five games to go, Bo Horvat remains Vancouver's scoring leader with 50 points.

Though Nikolay Goldobin was expected to be scratched on Friday, he drew back into the lineup as Loui Eriksson remained sidelined with his knee injury. It was another uneventful night for the young Russian, though—he played a team-low 9:00 and his stat line is completely blank.

The Canucks practiced at UBC today, ahead of their Sunday afternoon game against San Jose.




Sunday's game will be our first time seeing Jannik Hansen in teal since his trade-deadline move. He has dealt with some injury issues since joining the Sharks, so he's 2-3-5 in 11 games, but had a Gordie Howe Hat Trick in San Jose's 5-3 win over Edmonton on Thursday.




To finish off today—after falling behind 3-1 in their first-round playoff series, Olli Juolevi and the London Knights pulled out a 2-1 win over the Windsor Spitfires at home on Friday night to stay alive. Game 6 goes Sunday at 11 a.m. PT in Windsor.

If the Knights get eliminated, Juolevi would be eligible to play with the Utica Comets for the rest of this season, even though he's too young to join the AHL team on a full-time basis next year.