Get all the action from showdown with Kings
LOS ANGELES — It was two seasons in one night.
For 21 minutes Saturday, the Vancouver Canucks looked like the defensively-suspect, offensively-inert team that staggered to 28th place in the NHL last season. Then they played like the one that soared to Southern California at 4-0 this month for the first time since 1992.
The rally boys overcame a three-goal deficit to force overtime before losing 4-3 to Los Angeles Kings in a shootout.
With the Canucks skating six-on-four, Alex Edler tied it 3-3 with a short-side shot from the top of the circle that went past Loui Eriksson’s screen with 34.4 seconds remaining.
So the Canucks are no longer perfect, but they are impressive.
Against a Kings team reeling from injuries to both goalies and a 1-3 start, the Canucks were a distant second in every aspect — execution, intensity, physicality and finish — as they fell behind 3-0.
The game looked over 33 seconds into the second period when Dustin Brown scored an absurdly easy short-handed goal after overpowering Philip Larsen’s flimsy check on his way to the Canuck net. It was a dispiriting goal to surrender. But for the fourth time in five games, the Canucks rallied in the third period.
Actually, the rally began in the second period when Canucks Markus Granlund scored from Jannik Hansen’s pass and Henrik Sedin buried a power-play rebound to lift Vancouver back into the game.
Regardless of how they feel mentally in Anaheim, the Canucks may be physically tired playing their second game in 22 hours and their sixth in nine days to start the season.