CANUCKS TOP KINGS BEHIND BACKUP GOALIE RAYCROFT

The Vancouver Canucks expected the worst when superstar goaltender Roberto Luongo went down earlier this week with a broken rib.  In their first game without him, however, they received a stellar effort from backup goalie Andrew Raycroft who responded to his first start of the season by stopping 45 of 46 Los Angeles shots en route to a 2-1 shootout victory over the host Kings.  Scott Parse scored midway through the first period to give L.A. a 1-0 lead, but Mikael Samuelson quickly answered for Vancouver.  That was all the scoring in the game, and Raycroft came up big in the shootout to give his team the victory.

NHL hockey betting fans who took the Canucks as road underdogs cashed tickets on the moneyline at +126 and on the puck line.  Vancouver improved to 7-6-0 on the season while Los Angeles dropped to 8-4-2.  The 3 combined goals went well UNDER the posted total of 6.  The Canucks have gone UNDER in 7 of their 13 games this season, while the Kings have gone OVER in 8 of 14.

Despite a solid performance on the defensive end, Kings’ coach Terry Murray was concerned about back-to-back shootout losses after a franchise record performance in the first month of the NHL season:

"It's the same feeling after two games -- bad feeling. It's a useless part of the game, the shootout. I hate it, but the fans love it. For that reason I like it, because the fans are excited, they're standing waiting for the next shooter. It is good for the game, but boy, do I hate it."

Scott Parse, who scored the Kings’ first goal, at least had a significant personal accomplishment in the loss.  In only his fourth game, he scored his first NHL goal:

"You play your whole life to make it here and score a goal, so this is great. Teddy set it up nice for me, and I just let it go. It felt good right off the stick."

Despite coming up big in a pressure situation, Vancouver goalie Raycroft said it’s just part of his job:

"I knew what I signed up for, and I knew what I was getting into. But if you work hard every day and try to stop every puck in practice, the game seems at a slower pace, just because guys don't have as much time and room and space."

Canucks’ goal scorer Samuelson gave his thoughts on the win:

"We know the Kings are a really good hockey team this year, and they showed it tonight. We tried to keep it tight in the defensive zone. They had to work for pretty much everything, and our goaltender played a great game. We didn't get a lot of scoring chances, but we scored on one of them."

Vancouver will continue their road trip through Southern California on Friday night, heading roughly a half hour south of L.A. to take on the Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center.  They’ll return home for their next two games, hosting the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday and New York Rangers on Tuesday.  The Kings are off this weekend and will next play on the road against the Phoenix Coyotes on Monday night.  They’ll return home for games later in the week against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators.