Los Angeles Kings Decimate Vancouver Canucks 5-1

Saturday night the Los Angeles Kings took on the Vancouver Canucks at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. The Kings came away with a routing 5-1 victory.

Six minutes into the game the Kings managed to kill off a 5-on-3 power-play. Drew Doughty managed to block a slapshot from the point, then blocked a pass, and cleared the puck as the first penalty expired. It was an important kill that gave the Kings the momentum.

Then, with the puck in the Canucks zone, Anze Kopitar made a pass to Alec Martinez at the point, who took a snapshot through traffic. Marian Gaborik was right on the doorstep and able to swat home the rebound over the right leg pad of Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller.

It was Gaborik’s first goal of the season.

Not five minutes later, on a 3-on-2 the shot was flubbed and went wide, the puck went behind the net and Tanner Pearson took a hit to make a pass out to Jake Muzzin at the point. Muzzin quickly wristed a shot from the point high into the net. 2-0 Kings.

That got the Miller chants going.

Fans inside Staples center began taunting the Canuck’s goaltender: Mill-er, Mill-er, Mill-er.

It was far from over. The Kings smelled blood in the water and went after it.

Gaborik left a drop pass for Anze Kopitar right at the Canucks blue line. Kopitar brought the puck into the Canucks zone, and broke down the wing. Kopitar got to about the face-off dot and fired a sniper shot, right underneath the bar and right over Miller’s shoulder. 3-0 Kings.

Can’t teach that. That was a beauty of a shot. What a snipe.

That exacerbated the chanting. Not an easy night for Miller. And that was just the first period.

Right at the ten minute mark, halfway through the second period, the puck came back to Alec Martinez at the point. Martinez fired a shot, and Tyler Toffoli was in front to shovel the rebound in. Miller got a piece of Toffoli’s shot, but not enough to prevent the puck from crossing the goal line and going into the net. 4-0 Kings.

Poor Miller.

Miller was pulled after the second period.

That didn’t stop the Kings from scoring. So much for RinkRoyalty’s game preview prediction that it would be a low scoring affair.

Two and a half minutes into the third Martinez fired a pass up to Toffoli at the center-ice line along the boards. Toffoli chipped the puck forward while drawing a Canucks player and a check. Toffoli’s pass led Jeff Carter to a breakaway. Carter walked in, fired a wrist shot from the hash-marks in the slot, ripping a dinger off the post and into the net. Carter made it look easy. 5-0 Kings.

With 7:51 left in the third, a shot attempt by Linden Vey, a former L.A. King, got deflected off of Muzzin’s stick and turned into a goofy pass right to Chris Higgins who one-time slapped a shot in, ruining Jonathan Quick’s shutout, and breaking the hearts of fantasy owners, who needed that shutout, all over the world.