Game 14: Canucks 2, Kings 1 (shootout)

The Kings were coming in with franchise records on the line for October, Franchise records, you ask? Who gives a crap about franchise records?

Well, the season is young, sometimes you have to put things in perspective. A win against the Canucks would give the 2009-10 Kings nine wins and 19 points. Not since 1990, when The Wayner laced them up for L.A. have the Kings been sitting this pretty. The same year the Kings snuck into the playoffs and reached the second round by beating the Calgary Flames, the NHL's second-best team in the regular season.

Sure, getting that record would have been nice. But I would've rather seen someone other than Andrew Roycroft in goal for Vancouver.

Roycroft turned away 29 of the 30 shots he faced, then held on to beat the KIngs for his first win of the season. Having his club dominate the game for so long, only to walk away with one point, coach Terry Murray was exasperated when asked if he likes the shootout.

It’s a useless part of the game, the shootout, but the fans love it. For that, I like it, because the fans are excited. They’re standing up and waiting for the next shooter. It is good for the game, but boy, do I hate it.

Well coach, you might hate it, but to reach the shootout is fine with me. But instead of just poo-pooing it by choosing who does well in the morning skate, why not put your hot sticks for the game on the ice. I really doubt the shooters really think to themselves during the morning skate "Golly, if I do good this morning, I may or may not get into the game tonight to do it."

It's established Anze Kopitar is a rising star in the NHL. Do yourself and the league a favor and just ink his name into one of the three slots right now. You wanna flip a coin and decide who shoots with him, be my guest, but put your best player on the ice. Sidney Crosby has been on the ice every Penguins shootout this season, and guess what? He's scored four times.

BY the way, kudos to Scott Parse for tallying his first NHL goal. Rick Shanley over at mlive.com has a great feature about Parse. Check it out!

AP: Samuelsson, Raycroft lead Canucks past Kings

“It was a nice, greasy road win,” Raycroft said. “I’ll take them all year. We did a great job killing penalties and keeping their top line off the scoresheet. We knew they played last night and it was a tough road game for them, so we wanted to just make it hard for them all night.”

LA Times: Kings struggle in shootout for second night

Holding a good opponent to one goal but losing a shootout became repetitive for the Kings, who came out on the short end of a 2-1 loss after the NHL's entertaining but absurd tie breaking procedure for the second straight night.

LAKings.com: Deja vu all over again

"It's a useless part of the game, the shootout, but the fans love it," Murray said. "For that, I like it, because the fans are excited. They're standing up and waiting for the next shooter. It is good for the game, but boy, do I hate it."

CBC: Canucks riding Raycroft wave

Despite the Kings outshooting Vancouver 31-15 and dominating the puck, Raycroft kept it even — a possible sign of what's to come tonight.

They said it

“You got to take away the positives. The team’s playing great and we took both teams into a shootout. Unfortunately we ended up on the short end of the stick there, so you just got to keep pushing, keep doing what you’re doing, and get back at it tomorrow.” - Jonny (Don't Call Me Jonathon) Quick, on his thoughts from the game.

Around the Kingdom

My Views from Section 310: Coach Murray Cheating Kings? & Randoms

After two frustrating shootout losses; I had to do some research.  I read that Coach Terry Murray chooses his shooters based on how they did during the morning skate shootout drill.  That's fine if you have a bunch of stiffs like Toronto but we've got the leading scorer in the NHL sitting on bench?

The Throne Room: Two Nights in a Row, and More…

While I give Kudos to Andrew Raycroft for playing a good game (he was the first star), the Kings simply could not finish to save their lives Thursday night. There were multiple opportunities in the last half of the third period and overtime to finish the game that Raycroft never had to touch - fanned shots on wide open nets. This is really what sealed the Kings’ fate.

Kings Examiner: Kings aren't 'Tragically Hip' enough

Still, that first period, during which the Canucks registered just four shots on goal (none in the first 13 minutes), wasn’t a full 20 minutes of domination by the Kings. Michael Samuelsson scored with under 90 seconds to go in the period, to knot things up at 1-1. The next 45 minutes saw both teams play rough and tumble but neither team could find the back of the net.

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