LOS ANGELES – The red-hot Vancouver Canucks (7-3-1) open a quick three-game California road trip tonight when they face the Los Angeles Kings (4-8) at Staples Center.
The Canucks are 7-1-1 in their last nine games after a 7-2 romp over the Florida Panthers on Monday night. JT Miller scored twice with Brandon Sutter, Tim Schaller, Jake Virtanen, Josh Leivo and Brock Boeser adding singles. Thatcher Demko made 29 saves for his third victory of the season.
Demko will be replaced by Jacob Markstrom in goal tonight. That is the only line-up change for the Canucks. That means Loui Eriksson remains in the line-up for a second straight game after being a healthy scratch for the previous nine.
Schaller and Virtanen have each scored in three straight games while Boeser has scored in three of his last four. With four goals in his past three outings, Schaller has already surpassed his goal total from last season.
Elias Pettersson had three helpers on Monday – his second three point game of the season. Both he and Bo Horvat ride four-game point streaks into action tonight. Pettersson has 1+7=8 on his run while Horvat has 4+3=7.
With seven goals on Monday, the Canucks have now scored five or more goals in five of their 11 games this season including each of the past three (at Detroit, versus Washington & against Florida). The Canucks season-high for goals in a game came the last time they saw the Kings. Vancouver scored eight times on Jonathan Quick in an 8-2 win in the team’s home opener on October 9th.
All of this offense has the Canucks sharing fourth spot in the National Hockey League in average goals per game (3.64) – tied with Montreal and behind only Colorado, Nashville and Washington. Meanwhile, the Canucks are third in the league in average goals against per game (2.36) trailing only Arizona and Boston in that category. The Canucks are also the second best team in the face-off circle in the NHL winning 54.9% of their draws. Only Philadelphia has a better win percentage.
Tanner Pearson will skate in his 400th NHL game tonight – 325 of those were with the Kings who selected him 30th overall in the first round of the 2012 draft. He returned to Staples Center as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins last January but has not played here with the Canucks.
The Kings are reeling as they get ready to host the Canucks. Los Angeles has dropped three straight scoring just four goals in that span. The Kings fell 5-1 in Chicago in their last outing on Sunday. Sean Walker had the lone goal while Jack Campbell made 21 saves in goal.
Captain Anze Kopitar leads the Kings in all offensive categories with four goals, seven assists and 11 points. He is the only King in double-digits in points so far this season. Kopitar’s next point will be the 900th of his NHL career.
Los Angeles leads the NHL in shots on goal averaging 37.3 per game. They have outshot 11 of their 12 opponents this season while finishing tied on the shot clock in the one other game. At the other end of the ice, however, the Kings have allowed more goals than any other team in the league (49) and are dead last in the NHL in average goals against per game (4.08).
The Kings have struggled on the power play so far this season going 4 for 45 (8.9%). A big part of the problem has been at home where LA has just one power play goal so far – 1/21 (4.8%). Drew Doughty leads the Kings with a pair of goals with the man-advantage. Ilya Kovalchuk has the team’s lone power play marker at Staples Center. LA scored a power play goal in each of its first two games of the season. Since then, however the team finds itself in an 2 for 38 rut (5.3%) over the past 10 games.
Former Canuck Ben Hutton scored his first goal of the season last week in Minnesota. He has 1+2=3 in his first 12 games with the Kings and is third on the team averaging 20:24 of ice per game.
CANUCKS LINE-UP
Miller-Pettersson-Boeser
Pearson-Horvat-Virtanen
Ferland-Sutter-Leivo
Schaller-Beagle-Eriksson
Edler-Myers
Hughes-Tanev
Benn-Stecher
Markstrom
KINGS LINE-UP
Grundstrom-Kopitar-Carter
Iafallo-Kempe-Brown
Clifford-Lizotte-Wagner
Prokhorkin-Amadio-Kovalchuk
Hutton-Doughty
Martinez-Walker
Ryan-Roy
Quick
