Canucks lose another measuring-stick game to Kings and it wasn’t pretty

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Is anyone else worried about the Vancouver Canucks with the playoffs just two weeks away?

Faced with yet another measuring-stick game tonight, the Canucks came up short.

Again.

This time it came on the road against the Los Angeles Kings — a potential first-round playoff opponent. They lost 6-3.

The Kings and Canucks have played each other four times in the last 37 days, with LA going 3-0-1.

Vancouver has yet to hold a lead in any of the four games.

Worse still, the Canucks haven’t beaten a playoff team since March 9, perhaps not coincidentally, the last time we saw Thatcher Demko in game action.

And they do miss Demko.

But Casey DeSmith’s poor play of late isn’t the only thing wrong with this team right now. Their power play, which went 0-for-3 tonight, is atrocious. Their offence, which is supposed to be a strength of this team, has ranked near the bottom of the NHL since the All-Star break, which was more than two months ago.

And their defence and penalty kill showed plenty of cracks tonight.

The Canucks got off to a brutal start at Crypto.com Arena, following a missed call by the referees.

How did Quinton Byfield not get called for holding Tyler Myers’ stick?

Shortly after, Teddy Blueger was called for slashing the stick out of the hands of a Kings player. It was a soft call compared to the officiating standard set the rest of the game, particularly as Blueger appeared to be making a play on the puck, and it cost Vancouver.

Adrian Kempe converted on the ensuing power play.

Dakota Joshua took an undisciplined roughing penalty two and a half minutes later. The Canucks couldn’t kill it off, with Drew Doughty putting LA up 2-0.

Joshua must have said something to the referee, because he received a 10-minute misconduct after the goal.

Brock Boeser answered back for Vancouver, cutting the lead in half. It was Boeser’s 39th goal of the season, as he and Elias Pettersson cleverly exploited the fact that Pierre-Luc Dubois had lost his stick.

That was one of the few bright spots in the game.

The second period was when LA pulled away. Alex Laferriere deflected a point shot into the net 2:09 into the second period, while Kevin Fiala scored on his own rebound at 8:49, after he broke loose from Carson Soucy for a breakaway.

Despite outshooting the Kings 28-17 after 40 minutes, LA had a 4-1 lead heading into the third period, and the game was realistically over.

Dakota Joshua and Teddy Blueger scored for the Canucks in the third period, but that was effectively garbage time. LA answered back with two more goals of their own.

Cam Talbot stopped 39 of 42 shots he faced, while DeSmith let in six goals on 29 shots.

“It’s frustrating. We seemed to crack more than they did,” J.T. Miller told reporters in Los Angeles post-game. “They won the special teams… they capitalized on the power play and we didn’t.”

The Canucks’ leading scorer, who now has 97 points on the season, went on to say: “we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet liked his team’s effort tonight, but agreed they made too many mistakes. He also pointed to each team’s conversion rate on scoring chances.

“We had some chances. They converted, we didn’t… You can look at the score and think it’s bad… guys were trying hard. Just too many egregious mistakes, then it’s in your net.”

Demko would certainly help in that regard. Tocchet said he’ll be back “fairly soon.”

The Canucks now hold a slim lead over the Edmonton Oilers for first place in the Pacific Division. The Oilers won in Calgary tonight, which puts them just three points back of Vancouver, with a game in hand.

More bad news? If the playoffs started tomorrow, the Canucks would play Monday’s opponent: the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights.

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