LOS ANGELES — The Kings came into their Wednesday matchup with the division-rival Canucks on a roll offensively, scoring at least five goals in four of their last five games. Each of the four offensive outbursts resulted in a victory.
However, they knew that against a Vancouver team that sits right on the cusp of the playoff race in fifth place in the Pacific Division, a win wouldn’t come easy.
They were also dealt a blow as star defenseman Drew Doughty was a late injury scratch right before the game. Head coach Jim Hiller admitted that was a difficult pill for the team to swallow.
“To have [Doughty] go out, we miss him,” Hiller said. “And probably more so because of the circumstances that he’d missed most of the year.”
The first period went about how anyone would expect a first period between division rivals with playoff aspirations would go. It was very physical, perhaps even chippy. Tensions ran high several times within the first few minutes.
Unfortunately for Los Angeles, the Canucks strung together a good few minutes of offense midway through the period. Kings’ goalie David Rittich saved a breakaway opportunity for the Canucks, but despite constant defensive pressure from the Kings, left wing Nils Höglander stuck with the puck to score a hard-fought opening goal and give Vancouver a 1-0 lead. Ultimately, that was the score at the first intermission.
The pace of the game picked up at the start of the second, though neither team gave up on trying to impose their will physically. The second period was riddled with penalties — two for each team.
Despite the power play opportunities, the Kings were still unable to score during the period. Often, they would create what appeared to be a great offensive opportunity with high-pressure defense, only to fail to get a shot off because they couldn’t convert on a final, key pass near the crease.
To make matters worse, Vancouver took full advantage of their first power play opportunity that came about after a hooking penalty by right wing Adrian Kempe. The extra body served them well during a scrum in front of the net, as right wing Conor Garland poked in their second goal of the game to make the score 2-0 Canucks after two periods.
Fortunately for the Kings, their second penalty kill looked much better, even resulting in a couple of shorthanded opportunities. The scoreboard also showed they’d recorded more shots than Vancouver, 13-12. If they could continue to outshoot the Canucks, that certainly would be a good formula to put some points on the board.
Regardless, Los Angeles would need one of their signature third-period comebacks to have a chance against their division rival.
And like magic, that’s exactly what happened once again. Midway through the period, Kempe raced up the ice, veered left, and ripped a shot across his body to the top of the cage to give the Kings their first goal of the night. It only made sense that the Kings’ best shot of the night came from their leading scorer. Kempe secured his 26th goal of the season in his first game since announcing his marriage to his longtime partner Sian Nickson.
The highlight-reel wrister seemed to break the seal for LA. They had an elite period on the forecheck, keeping the puck in their offensive zone for what felt like the entire period. As a result, they outshot Vancouver 11-4.
The aggression led to yet another goal. Defenseman Jordan Spence ripped a one-timer towards the Canucks goal that left wing Warren Foegele skillfully tipped in to tie the game.
Spence’s shot that ultimately led to the goal was a result of his and the teams’ opportunistic mentality they’ve had to adopt down the home stretch of the season.
“I think all the goals that we’re going to score from here on out, I think the defense is pretty tight with every team we’re gonna play, it’s going to be a playoff style and those goals are really crucial,” Spence said.
The score stayed tied through the end of regulation, though LA seemed to still have the upper hand in terms of creating offensive chances.
That continued through most of overtime until the Kings seemed to slow up just a bit. The Canucks took advantage. Their only shot on goal of the entire extra period was a wrister from Garland that he buried in the top left corner of the net to give the Canucks a 3-2 win.
While the third-period comeback may have been electrifying for the home fans, the Kings acknowledged that was not something they could consistently rely on if they wanted to win meaningful games down the stretch.
“I think for us to win games, especially in the second half, we have to play a full 60 minutes,” Spence said. “If we played [all game] like we did in the third period, I think the results would have been different.”
Hiller said that despite the team’s rally in the third period, there was never a point in the game when the Kings’ performance felt like it was running on all cylinders.
“We just weren’t sharp,” Hiller said. “Even in that third period, I didn’t think we were sharp. We scored, it was great to see, we played much better, but I still don’t think we were sharp.”
Kempe thinks that consistent play is something the Kings will need to work on, especially ahead of their 3-game road trip. The Kings have been elite at home this season with a 19-3-3 record, but have been much less, well, sharp on the road, at 12-14-5.
“We don’t have to be perfect every game but we can’t have a really good 20 minutes and 40 minutes [that are] okay,” Kempe said.