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Canucks Post-Game SixPack - The Kings are who we thought they were

DH Vancouver Staff
DH Vancouver Staff
|
Dec 19 2017, 10:21 pm
Canucks Post-Game SixPack - The Kings are who we thought they were

If the playoffs started this morning, the Los Angeles Kings wouldn’t have been a part of them. Sitting in 9th place in the Western Conference, the Kings haven’t had a banner year, but they aren’t fooling anyone. 

The Kings are who we thought they were. The Stanley Cup champs flexed their muscle tonight, beating the Canucks 4-0 and moving to within one point of Vancouver in the Pacific Division.

It was a statement game tonight. It was a chance for the Canucks to show everyone that they can hang with their nemesis. That they can play with a heavy team.

The statement game didn’t go well.

Now the pressure is on me to come through on Omar’s night off, in a statement SixPack:

1. Kings too big, too strong

The Kings give the Canucks all sorts of trouble. The Kings have beaten the Canucks in all 3 games this year, and went 4-1 against Vancouver last year.

The Kings look like champions every time they play Vancouver, yet they somehow manage to limp through the rest of the regular season.

They pose just a terrible matchup for the Canucks, who can’t seem to deal with the size and strength of the Kings.

The Kings don’t take cheap shots and try to intimidate you like the Bruins. They don’t overwhelm you with their offence like the Blackhawks. Yet when the game is over and you look up at the score clock, it reads Kings 4, Canucks 0.

The Kings are suffocating. They are deep. They are big. They don’t take a shift off. They are physical, yet they don’t take penalties.

When they play the Canucks, it seems, they are unbeatable.

2. TSN Turning Point

Because of how bad the last two periods were, it’s easy to forget how good the Canucks looked in the first period. They outplayed the Kings. They hustled, they were quick to every puck and they outshot LA 9-4.

Yet, somehow they ended-up down 1-0 at the end of the first period.

Derek Dorsett took an ill-timed slashing penalty away from the play to put the Canucks on the penalty kill. The Kings were opportunistic and took full advantage, taking a 1-0 lead despite the Canucks having the run of play.

Dorsett had a good game tonight and provided good energy throughout. But unfortunately, you can’t make mistakes against the Kings. They made the Canucks pay, and it was the turning point in the game.

3. Linden Vey

No other player drew the ire of Canucks fans on Twitter tonight more than Linden Vey.

It was not a good night for Vey, who as expected, struggled against the size and strength of the Kings. Vey finished the game at 31% in faceoffs and a non-factor offensively, which included time on the first unit power play.

Vey is still a rookie and he will get better and stronger. But until then, Brad Richardson can’t come back soon enough.

The Kings’ second goal, early in the second period started from an ill-timed bodycheck and line change from Vey, which took him out of the play.

But still, the Canucks can’t sit around and watch. Like a quarterback with no pass rush, Brayden McNabb had all the time in the world to sit back and wait for an open receiver. In this case, the receiver was Justin Williams, who put the puck into the open net.

Too bad that wasn’t Patrick Marleau receiving the pass.

That goal made it 2-0 Kings, but it might as well have been 5-0.

The Kings are in the Canucks’ heads.

 

With two more games against LA before the end of the season, Vancouver better find a way to beat them. Especially if this is a first round playoff preview.

4. Tan Man

Ok, how about some good news?!

Chris Tanev was excellent tonight. Tanev was tenacious, always in good position and finding a way to get his stick on the puck. Head coach Willie Desjardins wants to roll his lines, but it’s a shame that Tanev couldn’t be on the ice more than 20:21 that he played tonight. He played less at even strength tonight than Luca Sbisa.

Tanev brings a lot of what Willie Mitchell used to bring to the Canucks. A good stick. Intelligence. Smart decisions with the puck.

Like Mitchell, he doesn’t put up big points and like Mitchell, he will likely spend his entire career being underpaid.

But it appears people are starting to notice him. Now re-sign him before the price goes up anymore. Johnny Boychuk was given $42 million today. Give the man what he wants.

5. LA Force Field

The Kings suffocating defence is a killer matchup for the Canucks, who failed to make plays beyond the perimeter.

The Sedins showed flashes tonight, but once again they couldn’t put a goal past Jonathan Quick. I thought Zack Kassian was the right linemate for them tonight with his crazy eyes size, but too often the puck died in the corners.

The other lines showed very little. Daniel Sedin and Radim Vrbata were the only players the finished the game with more than 2 shots on goal. Linden Vey, Alex Burrows, Ronalds Kenins and Bo Horvat finished the game with 0 shots.

And when the Canucks managed to get a shot on goal, Quick didn’t break a sweat. He was picking cherries all night.

6. Fauxmar

When I started writing about hockey on the internet many years ago, it was not glamorous. You work hard, you spend a lot of time writing something, with the hope that someone finds it on Twitter or Google. But of course, hardly anyone does. The internet is a big place.

But then you keep producing content, people discover your work and you get a bit of a following. You get regular readers, other than your friends and family. And one day, you get your first hate comment from an internet troll.

That’s an amazing day.

To get a hate comment, you have to elicit an emotion from a reader. Instead of just dismissing you and moving on, they feel the need to put you in your place. It means you are doing something right. It means you are relevant.

Enter, Fauxmar:   fauxmar

The writers at Vancity Buzz are used to hate comments. We get them all the time. We have fun with them. But something we have never had, is a parody Twitter account.

Yes, that honour goes to the SixPack godfather, Omar.

 

I have to say I’m a little bit jealous. I can’t believe there isn’t a @RobbTheHockeyGuy or @RobTheeHockeyGuy account out there.

It seems Omar has had a profound effect on someone out there. I mean, Twitter has an “unfollow” button. It also has a “block” button. But no, the solution here is to create a fake account in the likeness of the godfather.

And that is a tremendous compliment.

DH Vancouver StaffDH Vancouver Staff
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