Three takeaways from Canucks 2-1 shootout loss to LA Kings

#1 The Canucks owe Jaroslav Halak free meals

Halak has looked good as the backup this year except he has only had one win so far and has not had a lot of goal support. There wasn’t a lot of goal support for him Thursday night, unfortunately.

Halak was clearly Vancouver’s best player. He managed to stop 34 out of 35 Kings shots. The veteran netminder was making some great saves particularly with his pads including this one on Kempe.

Without Halak, the Kings could have won by a much larger margin.

“He was unbelievable tonight,” said Bo Horvat. “That game could’ve been a lot worse than it was. He stood on his head.”

Halak also managed to stop Lemiuex on a penalty shot.

Halak also went two for four in the shootout but he was the biggest reason why the Canucks got to that point as he was saving shots that looked like they were going to be goals from LA.

Halak deserves some free food and drink or a late Christmas gift after a very good performance.

#2 The Canucks clearly looked tired

The Canucks were playing the second of a back-to-back and it was kind of expected that they would start off slow.

The team clearly looked tired and didn’t look like a team on a seven-game winning streak. For most of the game, the offence was hard to come by as they didn’t get any high danger scoring chances on Jonathan Quick.

They were also not connecting their passes, had a hard time winning the puck battles, and the defending let players like Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe get by them easily. There were also some pretty bad turnovers.

The second period was pretty much all Kings in particular. The Kings outshot the Canucks 17-3 in the middle frame. According to NaturalStatTrick, Vancouver had only 13.51% Corsi for in the second while LA 86.49%. The Kings had 36 shot attempts in the second while the Canucks only had six.

The Canucks looked like a bunch of zombies from the Walking Dead in the second.

“36-6 isn’t any indication of an NHL team playing well,” said Boudreau after the game per Patrick Johnston of The Province and Vancouver Sun.

It’s tough for a team to perform at the same level they did on the first game of a back-to-back but it can’t be an excuse. That second period was tough to watch and letting the Kings have 36 shot attempts in one period and having only six isn’t acceptable.

Thankfully, the Canucks only got scored on once and snagged a point thanks to Halak but they should have helped him out more.

#3 Bo Horvat and J.T . Miller come in clutch

Horvat got the only goal of the game for the Canucks on their only man-advantage of the game.

First, let’s talk about the assist from J.T. Miller. While falling, he manages to get the pass off to Horvat who buries it into the wide-open cage.

He looked like Superman making that pass.

Horvat also had the chance to end it in overtime on a breakaway but he was foiled by Quick. He also got the Canucks only goal in the shootout.

However, Boudreau wants more players than just Horvat and Miller doing the scoring and he didn’t hold back his words on the lack of offence.

“We can’t expect to win every night if it’s only Horvat and Miller and (Elias) Pettersson and (Conor) Garland doing the scoring,” said Boudreau. ” We need all our forwards to start contributing, and I didn’t think a lot of them were contributing a lot very much tonight.”

Other notes

• Speaking of Pettersson, it wasn’t a good game from him. Other than that one chance he skied over the net in the third, he looked like he was wearing an invisibility cloak. His 22.22% CF was the second lowest on the team and they were outshot 10-3 at five on five when he was on the ice.
• Tanner Pearson was chosen to extend the game for the Canucks in the shootout but he couldn’t convert. I would have gone with Nils Höglander or even Vasily Podkolzin,but oh well. It was a rough game for the former King as he made some pretty sloppy turnovers, didn’t register a single shot on goal and had the lowest CF on the team at 19.35%. The Canucks were also outshot 10-1 when Pearson was on the ice.
• Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman reported on Thursday afternoon that the Canucks home games on January 5 (against the New York Islanders.) and January 8 (against the Ottawa Senators) might be postponed. We shall await confirmation from the league within the coming days.

The Canucks will try to get back in the win column as they visit the Seattle Kraken next year. (The game is on New Year’s Day.)

On behalf of The Canuck Way team, I’d like to wish all of you a happy new year! Once again, thank you for reading our articles over the course of this difficult year and hopefully 2022 means brighter days for everyone are on the horizon.