Vigneault laments Canucks many misses

[IE]

Daniel and Henrik Sedin love to pass the puck, especially to one another, so after being blanked in Game 2 Saturday, can we expect something new from the rascally redheads in Game 3 Monday?

"That's the thing," Daniel mused Sunday before the Canucks flew to Los Angeles. "Sometimes you're successful passing the puck and sometimes you're not. You can't really think too much about those things. If the pass is there, take it. But it's also never a bad thing to shoot the puck, like Mikael Samuelsson does."

Samuelsson has three goals in the series, now tied 1-1, and his third on Satuirday was simply a matter of putting the puck on Kings netminder Jonathan Quick during a routine 2-on-2 rush. Not fancy. Very effective.

"I think our biggest problem offensively [Saturday] was our lack of execution," Canuck head coach Alain Vigneault lamented Sunday. "We missed the net, I want to say, 15-20 times when we were in prime scoring-chance area. When you miss the net, you don't get a chance on the shot and you don't get a chance on the rebound. That was our biggest problem offensively."

The official scoresheet 'credited' the Canucks with 17 misses, including five by Alex Edler.

KING OF KINGS: Elite L.A. centre Anze Kopitar, who was available to the Canucks at pick No. 10 in the 2005 entry draft, is beginning to haunt Vancouver and ex-GM Dave Nonis's regime that passed him by.

Kopitar, 22, set up the tying goal Saturday night with a sublime pass to Wayne Simmonds and then netted the overtime winner when his power-play shot wound up in the air, hit the knob of Canuck goalie Roberto Luongo's stick and fell into the net.

"I didn't see it go in, I just saw our guys raising their hands and obviously I knew something good happened," said Kopitar, taken 11th overall in '05, one spot after the Canucks selected the late Luc Bourdon. "It was definitely a great feeling. If somebody would have offered the series would be 1-1, most of the guys would take that. Now we have the chance to go ahead on home ice, which would be great."

SHORT SHIFTS: Canuck rookie Michael Grabner's playoff debut Saturday was spent mostly on the bench as Vigneault opted to use three lines. Grabner and fellow fourth-liner Rick Rypien had just four shifts apiece.

The 22-year-old Austrian did have one scoring chance, a second-period rush down the left wing but put his shot right into the logo of Kings goalie Jonathan Quick. He played a game-low 2:53.

"I was thinking 'don't miss the net' but I probably should have skated it in more," Grabner reflected Sunday. "I was wide open and then the puck kind of flipped up so I just tried to hit the net. It was still a lot of fun to get a couple of shifts."

QUOTABLE: "I'm not a ref, big guy. I'm not a ref." ? Canuck captain Roberto Luongo on the controversial too many men penalty Saturday that cost Vancouver Game 2,.

 

[IE]

Kings' chemistry lining up well





NHL: Murray's risky tinkering with lineup produces high reward: an even series going back to Staples Center.

EL SEGUNDO - Here we thought Terry Murray was making changes up and down the Kings' lineup throughout the regular season, and all he was doing was collecting data.

In actuality Murray was doing both, and that data sure came in handy between Games 1 and 2 of the Kings' best-of-seven series against the Vancouver Canucks.

After losing in overtime to start the series Thursday, Murray scratched first-line right wing Justin Williams, enforcer Raitis Ivanans and defenseman Randy Jones.

Wayne Simmonds moved up to Williams' slot on the top line, Rich Clune and Scott Parse joined the fourth line, and Peter Harrold took Jones' spot.

A risky set of moves to be sure, but they resulted in a 3-2 overtime win Saturday that tied the series at 1. He hopes that one earthquake in the lineup will be enough, as there will be no aftershocks going into Game 3 tonight at Staples Center.

"I can't make a change," Murray said. "I liked what I saw."

The decision to bench Williams, in particular, was not easy. A former Stanley Cup champion with Carolina, Williams got off to a hot start with Anze Kopitar and Ryan Smyth to start the season.

But Williams was derailed by a broken leg in December, an injury that cost him only 11 weeks on IR but sapped his spark upon his return in March. Williams posted just two goals and three assists
in 16 games to finish the regular season. He seemed a step behind the playoff pace in Game 1, and Murray decided that he had seen enough.

"I want Justin Williams there. That's who I want to be on that line," Murray said. "I've seen a couple games where he's had that jump, and that chemistry, and that same Willie that we saw in the early part of the year. Then there's - for whatever reasons - when you have serious injuries it just happens that way, you take a couple steps backwards, another step forward, and over time you get back to the level you want."

Murray's decision came after wrestling with a season's worth of data. He liked the chemistry of Alexander Frolov, Jarret Stoll and Dustin Brown. He said he considered playoff veteran Frederik Modin for Williams' spot but kept coming back to Simmonds, who rotated in occasionally - though not permanently - while Williams recovered from his broken leg.

Simmonds was more than adequate as a replacement in Game 2, pushing the pace and combining with Kopitar to score his first career playoff goal in the second period. He also gave the line a vital forechecking element on the road, where the Canucks could take their pick of line matchups.

Suddenly the sublime Sedin Twins, Daniel and Henrik, no longer looked like they were in a shooting gallery. Neither player recorded a point and the Canucks' shot total dropped from 44 to 26.

"He's got the crazy legs," Smyth said of Simmonds. "He was very effective. The key was that he got in on the forecheck, the cycle got going, he capitalized on a goal - just gave us energy. It was great to see. ... I thought he delivered."

Though his strength lies in his speed and ability to agitate, Simmonds possesses enough touch to fit in with Kopitar and Smyth, a pair of 30-goal scorers. His goal was the result of a long, thread-the-needle pass by Kopitar that Simmonds was able to redirect through traffic.

"I think Terry put me up there for a reason, and that was to stir it up a little bit," Simmonds said. "That's what I would do if I was on any other line."

Clune and Parse, meanwhile, showed the same poise in limited minutes that all the Kings' playoff rookies have demonstrated in Games 1 and 2. They also bring more speed on a bad day than Williams and Ivanans at their quickest - something that Vancouver will surely adjust to as the series shifts back to Staples.