Kings 6, Canucks 3: Once again, it’s next to impossible to come back

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In what is surely the most shocking lead of all time: It’s really, really hard to come back in the NHL.

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The Los Angeles Kings again demonstrated this Saturday night, defeating the Vancouver Canucks 6-3 at Crypto.com Arena.

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This was supposed to be a playoff preview.

If it is, the Canucks’ playoff run won’t be long.

Sure, more than once they did fight back to make things intriguing.

But in the end, they lost because they fell behind 2-0 early. Their offence showed signs of life against a very tough defensive opponent.

The took a silly penalty early in the game to hand the Kings a power play. Then they did a poor job killing the penalty, handing Adrian Kempe an open look which he made no mistake on.

Then they took another and the Kings struck again.

It was 2-0 less than six minutes in.

That’s a long way to claw back against any team in the NHL.

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It wasn’t about the goalie

Listen, Casey DeSmith has been much better.

He wasn’t great on this night. But it wasn’t all his fault.

He’s the team’s backup goalie, called upon in a crucial time. Sure, his 89.5 per cent save percentage isn’t great, but the league average is 89.8.

He’s kinda of what you expect in a backup goalie.

Sure, he probably wants Alex Laferriere’s goal, L.A.’s third of the game. It was from distance and DeSmith saw it all the way — but that was a pretty perfect shot too.

The fourth goal saw Carson Soucy simply get out-battled on a long-bomb puck clearance by Kevin Fiala. DeSmith got his pad on it but got no other help.

The fifth goal, by Trevor Moore, saw Conor Garland lose possession of the puck on the end boards, then Filip Hronek make a bad read and DeSmith was left facing a two-on-one in tight. Not much a goalie can do there.

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It wasn’t about the 1-3-1

Sure, the Kings play a hyper-defensive style, not really forechecking, instead parking the bus in the neutral zone and challenging their opponent to outskate them.

But the Canucks got two goals at even strength. Both goals came off great zone entries with speed.

The Canucks lost because their penalty kill let them down early and their power play let them down late.

They did generate some good looks on the man advantage, especially on the late opportunity, but in the end they went 0-for-3 and also gave up a short-handed goal late, to Kempe, to cap the 6-3 win.

It wasn’t for lack of getting inside or overall effort, really

Look at the heat map:

The Canucks got to the net.

They actually did a decent job of keeping the Kings on the outside. But defensive breakdowns hurt them

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Signs of life from Pettersson

There’s little doubt this was Elias Pettersson’s best game in weeks.

Too bad it was in vain.

The star centre finally had jump in his stride again. Finally he was driving the net with the puck.

He and his linemates created more than a few chances, beyond Brock Boeser’s goal.

He still not finding shots all that much, which makes you wonder, but the signs of life are important.

Drive. To. The. Net.

Funny how Brock Boeser took the puck to the net and scored.

And then where did Dakota Joshua’s goal come from? A great zone entry by J.T. Miller, then Miller took the puck to the net and Joshua drove the net to pick up a rebound.

The Canucks have struggled doing this lately. If you’re looking for positives from this game, maybe this is the a trend.

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Dumb penalties

For the third time in five games, Teddy Blueger took what can only be described as a silly stick foul.

Early in the game, he was caught slashing Jordan Spence’s stick out of his hands.

It was a silly play and it was no surprise he was whistled for a penalty. The Kings opened the scoring on the power play.

Tocchet has been decrying these penalties.

Shortly after, Joshua got called for getting his hands up into Akil Thomas’ face. The Kings scored on that power play as well.

The Canucks had killed just four of seven power plays against in Vegas and then Arizona.

Dumb penalties, bad penalty kill. That’s a nasty combination.

It’s really four points

Yes, the Oilers are three points back, but actually they need to pass the Canucks to win the division. If they finish tied on points with Vancouver, they’ll lose on the regulation wins tiebreaker to the Canucks.

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They do have a game in hand. Three of their games are against weak opponents: twice against Arizona, once against San Jose.

But they have a game next Saturday vs. the Canucks, a game Wednesday vs. Vegas — two days after the Canucks play Vegas — and their final game of the season vs. Colorado in Denver.

The Canucks have Vegas on Monday, Arizona on Wednesday, then the Oilers in Edmonton, then the Flames at home and the season finale in Winnipeg.

NEXT GAME

Monday

Vancouver Canucks vs. Vegas Golden Knights

7 p.m., T-Mobile Arena, TV: SN Pacific, Radio: Sportsnet 650

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