After getting shutout in Anaheim last night, the Vancouver Canucks (25-26-7) move across town to face the Los Angeles Kings (23-28-5) at Staples Center tonight.
Despite 35 shots on rookie goalie Kevin Boyle making his first National Hockey League start, the Canucks were unable to score in a 1-0 loss to the Ducks. The Canucks have now dropped back to back games and five of their last six (1-4-1).
After missing Monday’s game with lower body tightness, Jacob Markstrom returned to the Vancouver net and stopped 20 of the 21 shots he faced last night. Jakob Silfverberg was the only Duck to beat him scoring six and a half minutes into the hockey game. If Markstrom gets the call again tonight, it will be the fourth time this season he has handled both ends of back to back games. Most recently, he did it just over a week ago in Philadelphia and Washington.
Last night’s loss was the seventh time this season the Canucks have been shutout and was the fifth time in their last 10 games in the state of California that they have failed to score a goal. Last March, the Canucks were shutout in back to back games in Los Angeles and Anaheim. That was part of a stretch of three straight games (including a game in Arizona) in which the Canucks did not score.
Troy Stecher logged a career-high 29:04 last night including 11:25 of the third period. The Richmond native has played over 25-minutes in three of his past five games. Stecher had a team-high 10 shot attempts last night in Anaheim with four of them on goal.
The Canucks need to find a way to jump start their power play which has gone ice cold at the wrong time of the season. They were 0 for 4 last night and have not scored with the man-advantage in their last 11 attempts over the past three games. They are 1 for their last 21 (4.8%) in the past six games and just 3 for 44 (6.8%) over the last 15 games.
With no morning skate, the Canucks line-up for tonight will not be revealed until closer to game time. Chris Tanev did not play the final 14 minutes last night with an apparent leg injury. If he’s unable to go tonight, rookie Guillaume Brisebois would draw in and make his NHL debut. Jake Virtanen was also limited in the third period last night after taking a heavy check from Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf earlier in the game. Virtanen is one of three Canucks (along with Bo Horvat and Loui Eriksson) to appear in all 58 games so far this season. The Canucks have Nikolay Goldobin and Tim Schaller as extra forwards should Virtanen be unable to play tonight.
The Kings are playing their first home game since January 21st. They started out of the All-Star break on a six-game road trip that concluded with a 6-4 loss in Washington on Monday. Austin Wagner scored twice while Tyler Toffoli and Oscar Fantenberg also found the back of the net while Jonathan Quick made 25 saves in goal. The Kings went 3-2-1 on the road trip. The team has played 18 of its past 26 games on the road skating just five times since January 1st in front of its home fans.
Los Angeles is 3-1-1 in its past five games and 4-2-1 in its last seven.
Captain Anze Kopitar leads Los Angeles in goals (17) and points (42) and has the most goals in the league this season without a power play goal. He is the only player on the Los Angeles roster with more than a dozen goals this season. Drew Doughty has the team lead in assists (26) and leads all NHL skaters in ice time averaging 26:45 per game.
As a team, the Kings are 30th in the NHL in offense with 134 goals in 56 games (2.39/game). However, they have scored four goals in each of their past two games and 19 goals over their last five. Their special teams have been an issue all season. The Kings are 28th in the NHL on the PP (15.7%) and 29th on the PK (75.9%).
Since Willie Desjardins took over the coaching reins from John Stevens on November 4th, the Kings are 19-20-4.
Former Canuck Brendan Leipsic has 2+9=11 in 29 games since being claimed off waivers from Vancouver on December 3rd.
He’s gone 10 games, however, without a goal. While Leipsic looks for his scoring touch, a couple of his teammates are holding hot hands right now. Tyler Toffoli and Adrian Kempe each have 4+3=7 on five-game point streaks.
Jeff Carter is not expected to play tonight. The veteran winger has missed the past four games with a lower body injury.
It’s expected Jonathan Quick will get the start in goal tonight. He has not faced the Canucks this season as Cal Peterson played both games against Vancouver when the teams split a late November home and home series with each team winning on the road. The Canucks triumphed 4-2 in Southern California and three nights later Dustin Brown’s goal gave LA a 2-1 overtime win in Vancouver. The teams will meet one more time at Rogers Arena in late March.
POSSIBLE CANUCKS LINE-UP
Roussel-Horvat-Virtanen (Goldobin)
Leivo-Pettersson-Boeser
Granlund-Gaudette-MacEwen
Eriksson-Beagle-Motte
Hutton-Stecher
Tanev (Brisebois)-Gudbranson
Pouliot-Biega
Markstrom
POSSIBLE KINGS LINE-UP
Iafallo-Kopitar-Toffoli
Leipsic-Amadio-Brown
Hagelin-Kempe-Kovalchuk
Clifford-Lewis-Wagner
Forbort-Doughty
Martinez-Fantenberg
Walker-Ladue
Quick
