Hoping to reclaim their former throne, Los Angeles is focused on winning and not worrying about the dreaded D word – dynasty.
The visitors dressing room at Rogers Arena was almost empty. Darryl Sutter, the Los Angeles Kings coach, took questions from three reporters after his team had its way with the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.
Sutter was his usual softly acerbic self, a muttering voice, frank and unadorned. Some answers were gruff, truncated. But asked about his hockey team's remarkable ability to turn it on when it counts, he expounded – or expounded as much as a man who does not expound.
"We're trying to make the playoffs. There's nothing magical about that," Sutter said. "There's good teams that are not going to make it and there's good teams that are. I know the big story at the start of the year was something about a dynasty."
Here, he paused. In an era of hockey parity, some observers had the audacity to suggest the winner of two of the past three Stanley Cups had a shot to become something even greater. Sutter intoned the D word with such a skeptical scoff that, obviously, anyone who suggested this last fall was a damned fool for crazy talk.
"When your team changes," Sutter continued, alluding to L.A.'s juggled roster, "it's a tough division. We're fighting Vancouver and Calgary to try and make the playoffs."
The air has changed. The playoffs have begun. One can feel it in the game of defenceman Drew Doughty, who was coiled like a cobra as the puck dropped Thursday night and serves as his team's essential ballast. And Sutter can play the modest hayseed, but each winter, and spring, he proves he belongs in the conservation of all-time bench maestros. His Kings, who five weeks ago were in 12th in the Western Conference, five points out of a playoff position, have once again flipped the switch. Calgary and Vancouver aim to hang on but the Kings Express rolls.
Since their low ebb, the Kings are 12-4 – and 7-2 on the road, where the team before especially struggled. Going back to 2012, when they made their first Stanley Cup run, the Kings have been excellent each year in March, winning two-thirds of their games. Watch out.
"We have a team that I feel is able to get to another level when we need to," said Kings forward Justin Williams after L.A. clobbered Vancouver 4-0 and ratcheted itself into eighth in the West, fractionally behind Vancouver and Calgary.
On the Williams goal, the second of the night, the Canucks looked confused. Williams had circled alone behind the net and eyed Brayden McNabb back at the top of the opposite faceoff circle and when Williams emerged, no Canuck near him, McNabb delivered the puck and it was in the net.
Vancouver's performance is emblematic of much of their season. They are the epitome of average. Some nights, they are on, and can defeat top teams. Other nights, it's ugly. And it's a situation particular prevalent against Los Angeles, against whom Vancouver is overwhelmed by the fore-check. The Canucks get pinned in their own zone, and struggle to move the puck out. Defenceman Dan Hamhuis was asked if there was any easy way to gain the Kings zone, with Doughty in the way for upwards of half the game. "No."
The Canucks were demolished in their previous two meetings, losses, against the Kings this year – even-strength shot attempts were 114-54 for L.A. – and while Vancouver acquitted itself better on Thursday, the Canucks look like they would have an approximately zero per cent chance to win a playoff series against the Kings, if they meet in the first round, which appears at least somewhat likely. In any case, the teams play twice more before the regular season is over.
The worst thing for the Canucks, what potentially bodes badly for their final 15 games, was the team's lack of fire when it counted. Down 2-0, Vancouver disappeared late in the second, failing to put a single puck on the L.A. net in the final 5:25 of the middle frame. Then, the third opened with a Hamhuis giveaway – the Kings' forecheck at work – and an unassisted Anze Kopitar goal. 3-0. Difficult to rally. But: always be rallying. The Canucks had nothing. They didn't register a shot attempt until 7:09 had passed in the third.
More than 12 minutes of playing time – 20 per cent of the entire game – and the Canucks didn't put a single puck towards the Kings net. Hard to believe.
Henrik Sedin was uncharacteristically defensive after the game. He spoke about "ebbs and flows." He said the Canucks dominated the middle of the third – which wasn't really how it looked. He several times said the Cancuks were close to opening the scoring in the first. The period included one Canucks power play. They didn't get a shot on goal – typical of Vancouver's abysmal power play in 2015.
"We could have won this game if we scored a few in the first," said the Canucks captain. "But that didn't happen, so I'm standing here trying to find excuses."
David Ebner