With renewed patience and discipline, Canucks finally win playoff-style game

LOS ANGELES — The Vancouver Canucks, who have been thinking about the playoffs for a while, finally won a playoff-style game Tuesday against about the most playoff-style team there is in the National Hockey League.

The Canucks didn’t so much beat the Kings as survive them, winning 2-1 on discipline, patience and a goal by J.T. Miller during a delayed penalty to Los Angeles in overtime.

The Canucks’ commitment to grinding out a low-scoring game against the Kings was as much a turnaround as the score from last Thursday, when Los Angeles won easily 5-1 at Rogers Arena and the word of the day from Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet was “egregious.”

It is the second straight game since then that Vancouver has played with renewed discipline and focus, as the Canucks opened their three-game road trip with a tight-checking 2-1 win Sunday against the Anaheim Ducks.

Suddenly on their first two-game winning streak in three weeks, the Canucks may finally be able to put behind them their recent slump if they beat the struggling Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.

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“I thought we just did a better job of kind of not cracking,” Miller said. “That team over there will make you do dumb stuff and then that’s how they get their opportunities. A couple of loose plays in the third. . . but other than that, that’s a game I think we can expect moving forward against a good hockey team that defends really well. 

“I’m really proud of the way our team hung in there and was able to be patient. The pucks just aren’t going in like they were earlier in the year right now, but that’s okay. We have to find a way to not let that defeat us in a hard-battle game.”

Trevor Moore opened the scoring for the Kings at 10:54 of the first period when a couple of bobbles by Canuck defenceman Filip Hronek left Los Angeles with an open shot at the back post.

Vancouver took over the game in the middle period. They had to wait until 16:36 to tie it when Elias Pettersson scored his first goal since Feb. 19 by taking Nils Hoglander’s pass, then splitting two Los Angeles forwards before rounding defenceman Drew Doughty and shooting low through Kings goalie Cam Talbot.

With the Canucks skating four against three in overtime during a delayed penalty to the Kings, Miller worked a give-and-go with Brock Boeser before overpowering Talbot with a shot that went under him at 1:36.

“I thought we were a lot better,” Vancouver centre Teddy Blueger said, comparing the effort against Thursday’s embarrassment. “It was kind of a tough game because it really did kind of test your patience the way they play and just kind of the way the game was going. We had to. . . not get ahead of ourselves. I thought we did a really good job of that.”

The Kings frequently line up in a 1-3-1 defensive formation across the neutral zone, daring teams to try to skate or pass through their mosh pit and often forcing turnovers that lead to transition chances for Los Angeles. 

At times, as the Canucks regrouped with the puck in their own zone, with the Kings retreating to centre ice, the crowd at Crypto.com Arena loudly booed. It was difficult to say which team they were booing.

THATCHER CATCHER

The win may not have happened had Canuck goalie Thatcher Demko not made a stunning glove save against Alex Turcotte to take away a Kings goal on a two-on-one two minutes into the third period. A minute later, Trevor Lewis hit the side of the net on another Los Angeles two-on-one while Doughty dinged the post to the right of Demko.

But the Canucks certainly were not lucky to win. They outshot the Kings 31-24, including 26-15 in the final 41 minutes, and naturalstattrick.com had shot-attempts at 57 per cent for Vancouver, expected-goals at 63 per cent, and high-danger scoring chances 14-3 for the visitors.

POWER PLAY CHANGEUP

The Canucks beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 in overtime two Saturdays ago when Miller and Boeser worked a set play during a four-on-three power play that saw the latter convert a shot-pass to the back post. On Tuesday, however, Boeser moved across the net front, took a pass down low from Miller and then teed up a return pass for his teammate’s slapper from the top of the circle.

Coming off the bench during the delayed penalty, Miller said he called an audible with Boeser.

“We just looked at each other,” Boeser explained. “I think back door would have been open, too, because they had two forwards and one D so they were kind of scrambling. I think we just kind of read they were being very aggressive, so something low was going to open up.

“They probably didn’t know what we were going to do. If there’s a whistle there, they might call timeout and (their coaches) will tell them what we’re going to try. I think we just kind of caught them off guard.”

Miller said: “That’s a lick-your-chops situation and you can even try something that you’re not really sure about because if they get (the puck), it’s not a big deal. But we’re a pretty dangerous group four on three. I think we have some confidence in that setup and it’s good to see that different options are working.”

NO TRADE (YET)

After The Athletic insider Chris Johnston tweeted Tuesday afternoon that the Canucks were talking about a three-way trade that would flip recently-acquired Elias Lindholm to the Boston Bruins and bring winger Jake Guentzel to Vancouver from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Lindholm’s departure for the dressing room late in the first period got a lot of attention on social media.

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Turns out, he wasn’t traded, but cut and needed stitches. Lindholm missed some time early in the second period but finished the game and logged 14:45 of ice time. He told Sportsnet after the game that he was unaware of the online commotion and trade speculation involving him.

“Obviously, I want to help the team more (than I have),” Lindholm said. “But this is the way it is right now and I’ve just got to work hard. If the team is winning, we’re fine.”

Canuck general manager Patrik Allvin declined an interview request before the game but offered the following statement to Sportsnet through the Canucks’ communication staff: “The coaches and players have put in the work this year, so we owe it to them to explore each and every option. Trades are not easy to make but we are willing to do what is necessary to help our team.”

Allvin and other senior members of the hockey-operations staff are flying to Vancouver on Wednesday to set up the Canuck “war room” ahead of Friday’s NHL trading deadline.

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