The Canucks remain cemented to the bottom of the NHL standings with a 21-42-8 record. The team has given up the most goals per game this season (3.72), has the worst penalty kill (71.2 per cent) and was the first eliminated from playoff contention. <\/p>\n
They were outshot 38-19 on Thursday, outhit 23-14, and won just 26.2 per cent of the faceoffs. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust couldn\u2019t get anything going tonight,\u201d said Canucks blueliner Zeev Buium. \u201cI think they pretty much dominated us most of the game. So that just sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
L.A., meanwhile, is still chasing a post-season berth. <\/p>\n
With Thursday\u2019s win, the Kings (29-25-18) sit a single point behind the Nashville Predators, who hold the second and final Western Conference wild-card spot. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard. It\u2019s hard knowing that you\u2019re eliminated, obviously. And there\u2019s other teams that have so much to play for. We\u2019re playing a lot of teams that have a lot to play for,\u201d said Canucks winger Brock Boeser. \u201cSo it can be hard at times, but you\u2019ve got to keep the right mindset. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of guys have a lot to play for to finish the year out here. So, I think we just got to stick together as a team. We got to work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emotions boiled over in the final minutes of Thursday\u2019s game when Buium, a rookie defenceman, dropped the gloves with Brandt Clarke. <\/p>\n
It took officials several moments to separate the pair and diffuse the scrums that popped up around them. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think you lose like that, especially on home ice, it\u2019s never fun,\u201d Buium said of what sparked the tilt. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you see your teammates getting kind of jumped a little bit. And, they\u2019re up 4-0, I don\u2019t think that necessarily needs to happen, but, you know, I\u2019m glad that we all stuck up for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
HOME ICE ADVANTAGE?<\/p>\n
The Kings now head back to Los Angeles for a seven-game homestand before closing out the season with a three-game road swing. <\/p>\n
Home ice hasn\u2019t been kind to the team this season, with the Kings going 10-16-8 at Crypto.com Arena. <\/p>\n
That will need to change as L.A. continues its push for a playoff spot, said interim head coach D.J. Smith.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just got to play good. Doesn\u2019t matter who we play. We got to play good, and we got to defend. We\u2019re creating enough right now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe just got to make sure we\u2019re defending enough, we\u2019re disciplined and, for whatever reason, we haven\u2019t been great at home. I think it\u2019s our time now to get hot here in the last little bit, and really give ourselves a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kings will see some familiar faces down the final stretch, including the Canucks, who they\u2019ll play two more times \u2014 once at home and once in Vancouver \u2014 before the end of the regular season. <\/p>\n
KUEMPER\u2019S CLEAN SHEET<\/p>\n
Darcy Kuemper stopped all 19 shots he faced in L.A.\u2019s net to post his third shutout of the season and the 39th of his career. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re always fun, but it takes a whole team to get one, so I think it\u2019s just a credit to how well we played and how focused we were tonight,\u201d the veteran goalie said of the milestone. \u201cWe were responsible start from finish and huge win for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canucks remain cemented to the bottom of the NHL standings with a 21-42-8 record. The team has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5128],"tags":[894,5,4,893,27,5313],"class_list":{"0":"post-525521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver-canucks","8":"tag-canucks","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-vancouver","12":"tag-vancouver-canucks","13":"tag-vancouvercanucks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116300753531707820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}