Jeff Misenti
Adrian Kempe scored twice, and the Vancouver Canucks fell 4-1 to the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday night.
Joel Armia and Trevor Moore also scored for Los Angeles, while Marcus Pettersson had Vancouver’s only goal in a game that slipped away a little more each period.
Positively for Kings fans, the bigger picture favored LA almost as much as the scoreboard did. Los Angeles won its third straight game, improved to 4-0-1 over its past five, and moved back into the second Western Conference wild-card spot.
Anton Forsberg stopped 24 shots, and Artemi Panarin added two assists as the Kings kept getting exactly the kind of timely production playoff-chasing teams need in April.
From a Canucks’ fan perspective, the game felt like it was getting ahead of the team long before the score ever got out of hand.
The Canucks stayed close on the board for a while, but the room for error felt tiny from the opening shift, and once the Kings got a lead back, it never really looked comfortable again.
The flow of the game
At 1:29 of the first period, Brandt Clarke circled the net and found Kempe alone in the slot for a one-timer that beat Nikita Tolopilo.
The Canucks answered at 14:17 when Marcus Pettersson’s slap shot deflected in off Brian Dumoulin’s skate while Marco Rossi battled at the crease. It was a lucky bounce, sure, but it counted, and for a moment it looked like the Canucks had settled the game down, for about 91 seconds.
Armia put Los Angeles back ahead at 15:48 after Jared Wright forced a neutral-zone turnover and Scott Laughton dropped the puck back for a clean shot from the high slot.
Then came the stretch that really hurt. Kempe made it 3-1 at 19:31 of the second by redirecting Joel Edmundson’s point shot, and Moore added another at 9:15 of the third after a bouncing play in front turned against the Canucks again.
The Canucks offense
What stands out most is how little offense the Canucks could build once they fell behind again. They did get 25 shots on goal, but very little of it felt dangerous enough for long enough.
Forsberg looked settled, Los Angeles kept the middle of the ice tight, and the Kings’ best players were the ones making the difference at the key moments.
Stats from NHL.com shows Kempe now has 12 points in his past seven games, while Panarin has 25 points in 22 games since joining Los Angeles on Feb. 4. That is top-end production, and the Canucks just did not have an answer for it.
There’s no grand revelation for Canucks fans here. Just another hard night for a team that keeps showing bits of fight without enough finish to change the result. The team has now lost four straight and 10 of its past 11 games.
