The Real Season Begins for the Vancouver Canucks

The hockey gods were smiling favourably on the Canucks this weekend, as the team that matches up the best, turned out to be the one the Canucks get to play and that’s the LA Kings.

No one out of the top eight was looking towards meeting the Detroit Red Wings, just the hottest team in the NHL since the Olympic break.

Nashville also was a team that the Canucks have struggled with at times and so with LA, the Nucks get a team in their own time zone and the travelling is just a two and a half hour jaunt down the coast.

Now this is a real plus after the amount of travelling the Canucks have done this year and who wants to start out a series traveling across the country?

Let’s have a look at how these two teams match up.

Goaltending :  The two goaltenders have not been at their best with Jonathan Quick having lost his last eight outings and Roberto Luongo having been pulled seven times this year and would have been eight against the LA Kings 8-3 spanking, if not for the fact that Andrew Raycroft was to play the following night.

So the two goaltenders look like an even match with Quick finishing 15^th and a 2.54 GAA and Luongo 19^th and a 2.57 GAA.

Luongo reached the 40 Win mark (fifth in the standings) while Quick finished with 39 (sixth in the standings) and if Quick had not gone into that losing streak, surely would have passed Luongo.

Even the losses are close with Luongo’s 22 and Quick’s 24.

The telling stat is in the save percentage as Lou is 19th with a .913, and Quick 31st at .907.

What all these stats tell us is that neither of the goalies has the advantage. Who would have thought that about Luongo going into a series?

Backup Goaltending :  Andrew Raycroft became the best backup goalie that has ever played behind Luongo. He won some important games and finished with a 9-5-1-1, 2.42 GAA and a .911 SV%.

The team feels confident enough that if Luongo is struggling, Razor may definitely see some action. It’s all about winning at this time of year.

Little is known about the Kings backup who is another Jonathan with the last name of Bernier. He only played in three games but what incredible stats. He was 3-0 with a Shoot Out loss, 1.30 GAA and a .957 SV%.

The Kings coach, Terry Murray will be watching and making decisions on a game by game basis and if Quick falters, than look for Bernier to start.

This one is hard to tell because I haven’t seen Bernier play enough, so for now I’ll call it a draw.

If you went by NHL playoff experience alone than Bernier has none and Raycroft, seven games with the Boston Bruins.

Defense :  Advantage here has to go to LA, with the emergence of Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson. Doughty led all LA defensemen in most categories and was third in the NHL with 59 points amongst D-men.

Anyone who watched Doughty in the Olympics saw the best D-man on Canada's squad.

His remarkable poise under pressure really stood out and his skating abilitiy, spin-a-rama moves  and the way he jumped up into the attack, reminded me of the great Bobby Orr.

Jack Johnson also was impressive with the US Olympic team and with his mobility, toughness and playmaking ability, makes him and Doughty a twosome the Canucks wish they had on defense.

With the addition this year of Rob Scuderi of the Stanley Cup champs Pittsburg Penguins; the Kings have an all around better set of D-men who are also in better health than the Canucks.

Forwards :  Although the Kings have four 20+ goal scorers their overall totals do not come close to the six Canuck totals, nor compare to the Canucks who were second in the NHL for most goals per game to LA’s ninth.

I would say the Kings have more size at the forward position and have a couple of forwards of will give Luongo grief around the net in Dustin Brown and Ryan Smyth.

In the playoffs last season, the one thing that seemed to throw Luongo off his game was Chicago’s Dustin Byfuglien. He was able to get under Luongo’s skin, by his chirping, bumping into him and causing commotion around his crease.

Now there has been a lot said about the mobility of Andrew Alberts, but the one positive about him, is his size, his willingness to engage the opposition and move them out from in front of the net.

This may be the tonic that neutralizes Brown and Smyth.

I don’t see anyone else on the Canucks that can play that role.

Special Teams :  PP%—Canucks sixth, Kings seventh. Even the one area that I wrote about on many an occasion the PK%, is close with Vancouver 18th and LA 20th . No real advantage here to either team.

The PK is one area that can change dramatically in the playoffs if either goaltender gets on a hot streak, since we all know that the best PK player is the goalie.

Intangibles : Playoff experience would have to go the Canucks since the core of the LA Kings has not played in any. Remember, LA last made the playoffs in 2002, so most of them were not even with the team.

They do have a few playoff veterans in Ryan Smyth, Sean O’Donnell and Rob Scuderi.

That key position, namely goaltending, well Luongo has been two a couple and has felt the pressure of the Olympics while Quick will be entering into his very first playoff game.

Advantage here, the Canucks.

Outcome :  All in all, these two teams match up pretty evenly.

It should be a long series, six to seven games but the Canucks will prevail as long as their one through four defensemen remains healthy.

By this I mean Christian Ehrhoff, Sami Salo, Alex Edler, and Shane O’Brien.

Otherwise, LA will upset the Nucks.