The Vancouver Canucks continue their three-game road trip, with game two being against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night.
Tuesday’s game is the second matchup of the season between the two Pacific Division clubs and the Canucks are looking for redemption after a tough outcome last week in their first game against the Kings this season.
The Kings picked up a 5-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Sunday as they kicked off a five-game homestand. Kevin Fiala has been red-hot over the past week. He’s picked up two goals and added four assists for six points in his last two games.
Fiala is playing alongside Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore on the Los Angeles’ second line. That trio has played 463 minutes together as a line and has been on the ice for 22 goals scored and 18 goals against while they control 59.8% of the scoring chances (254SCF-171SCA). Fiala is the leading point-getter for the Kings with 55 points in 60 games.
The Kings are going to be a team that looks to control the shot share and their ability to control possession time this season is a big reason why they are firmly set in a playoff position. Digging into the numbers a bit, you can see that the Kings are a top-five team in the NHL in terms of controlling the shot share, Corsi, and expected goal share.
When you add in a top-10 power play and the second-best penalty kill in the league, you can see why the LA is one of the league’s elite teams, even though they currently sit in a wild card position.
The good news for Canucks fans is that Los Angeles’ Achilles’ heel seems to be playing on home ice.
LA is excellent on the road this season and holds a 19-9-4 record away from the Crypto.com Arena. When they are on home ice, the Kings are 12-10-6 but have been good of late, going 4-1-0 in their last five home games.
The key for the Kings to win on home ice is taking a lead into the third period. They are 10-0-0 when leading after 40 minutes on home ice and if they are tied or losing, their record slips to a feeble 2-10-6. The first 40 minutes will be huge on Tuesday evening.
Quick Hits on the Competition:
- Drew Doughty scored in last week’s game against the Canucks and he is now up to 14 goals and is only two goals shy of tying his career-high of 16 goals – which he accomplished in 2009-10.
- Doughty is the league leader in average ice time per game. He averages 25:58 per game, including 3:18 on the power play and 2:21 on the penalty kill.
- The Kings’ best period this season has been the first period. They have scored 56 goals and allowed 39.
- Cam Talbot continues to carry the bulk of the load between the pipes. The 36-year-old netminder has started 36 of the Kings’ 60 games this season and he possesses a .916% save percentage to go with his 18-14-5 record.
- Trevor Moore and Adrian Kempe were battling for most shots on net this season but Moore should be able to pull away as the Kings will be without Kempe for at least a couple of weeks due to an injury. Moore has 189 shots on net through 60 games – he leads the Kings with 23 goals.
Turning our attention to the Canucks, they are looking to get back to their game and keep a structured approach to Tuesday night’s game.
LA did a good job of making breakouts hard for the Canucks in their game last week and the team spent a lot of practice time working on new ways to break through a neutral zone and keep possession in their practice time between games against the Kings.
Thatcher Demko continues to lead the league in wins but is now tied with Colorado Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev with 31. Demko has started 46 games this season and has a 31-13-2 record with a .914% save percentage and five shutouts.
With Tyler Myers out week-to-week due to an injury, Mark Friedman stepped in and played well against Anaheim in his first game since February 13th. Friedman was on the ice for seven shots on net and only three against at five-on-five. He finished the game with 12:54 of ice time and had a shot on net and a hit.
Vasily Podkolzin played in his first NHL game this season after scoring 15 goals in 44 games with the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL. Podkolzin was on a line with Conor Garland and Elias Lindholm and that trio looked great against the Ducks. They picked up five scoring chances in their 9:49 of ice time together and only allowed one scoring chance against.
Podkolzin saw time on the Canucks’ second power play unit and that aligns with his development on the man-advantage group with the AHL club.
Canucks’ Top Performers over Last Five:
J.T. Miller: 2g-6a-8p
Brock Boeser: 4g-1a-5p
Filip Hronek: 1g-2a-3p
Nils Höglander: 2g-0a-2p
Nikita Zadorov: 0g-2a-2p
Tuesday’s game is a big one on the schedule and it means even more to the Canucks after what happened last week. Conor Garland spoke about the importance of the divisional game on Tuesday night when he did a post-game chat with our reporter, Kate Pettersen.
“LA beat us pretty good, so we’ll be ready for that game,” said Garland.
The puck drop is a tiny bit later than a usual Pacific time zone game. The game is scheduled for a 7:30 start in L.A. and you can watch the game on Sportsnet or listen to Brendan Batchelor on the play-by-play call over on radio with Sportsnet 650.
