LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Los Angeles Kings play a boring, suffocating style of hockey. It’s painful to watch but it works, as the Vancouver Canucks found out firsthand during last Thursday’s 5-1 thumping. And at the first intermission on Tuesday night, down 1-0 and having generated few Grade-A chances despite decent offensive zone possession time, it looked like the Canucks might be in trouble again.

L.A. was exerting its low-event spell on the game again and with the Canucks’ recent five-on-five offensive struggles — especially against top Western Conference teams — the climb back to winning this game felt as steep as the Hollywood Hills. After a pair of listless power plays in the first half of the second period, you wondered if frustration, which is often followed by forced plays, turnovers and bad pinches, would start creeping into the Canucks’ game despite their solid possession and territorial control.

In a sign of maturity, it didn’t. Vancouver maintained its composure, continued problem-solving around the Kings’ 1-3-1 neutral zone forecheck and finally started breaking through.

L.A.’s 1-3-1 forecheck is tough to break because it completely clogs the neutral zone. Even if a puck carrier beats one or two players, there’s always another layer standing in the way. It’s nearly impossible to enter the attacking zone with complete possession. But because this structure requires forwards to sit back, the weakness of the 1-3-1 is that you’re gifting the other team tons of time for an easy zone exit and you’re flat-footed.

This is where Vancouver made tactical adjustments and executed better to exploit the 1-3-1’s weaknesses. Recognizing the extra time they’d have on zone exits, the Canucks appeared to run some set breakouts. It was especially noticeable when the Quinn Hughes pair and J.T. Miller line were on the ice. Hughes or Filip Hronek would often control the puck in a standstill, the forwards would reload and burst up ice to generate speed underneath and then the defenceman would hit one of those forwards in stride who’d dump it in and pursue with pace and tenacity.

This ability to generate speed underneath is one of the reasons why Vancouver’s forecheck was significantly more effective in winning loose pucks and 50/50 battles.

“Yeah, we worked on that yesterday in practice, had a strategy for it and that’s why I thought we got to loose pucks,” coach Rick Tocchet said about the set breakouts. “But it’s also will. To me, it’s not the puck carrier, it’s the guy without the puck, the second guy, I think he’s got to get the puck quicker and I thought he was tonight so that helped us.”

The Canucks didn’t spam this breakout strategy. Sure, they’d turn to it on occasion when the Kings were already set up, but in the second period, they also did a great job of connecting on quick-up passes before the Kings could get organized in the 1-3-1 in the first place. The result, either way, was a faster, sharper transition game to create quality possession time.

That’s important, but it’s not what separated the Canucks from the Kings in their 2-1 overtime victory. Vancouver flexed something Los Angeles doesn’t have: true star talent. Los Angeles doesn’t have a single player producing at a point-per-game clip. Meanwhile, every single one of Vancouver’s best players left a critical mark on this game.

It started with Elias Pettersson’s dazzling move to cut to the inside and dust Drew Doughty to tie it up in the second period.

Elias Pettersson scores his 30th goal of the season!

We’re all tied up at 1’s. #Canucks | #GoKingsGo
🎥: Sportsnet | NHL pic.twitter.com/iGTEacZfk5

— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 6, 2024

“There’s always pressure playing in a Canadian market,” Pettersson said about finding his game again with a new extension signed. “But I always put pressure on myself so it’s nothing new. It’s good to have pressure, I think.”

Hughes, on a night where Hronek was fighting the puck, singlehandedly dominated. He logged a monster 28:39, notched a pair of assists and drove the Canucks to a ludicrous 10-1 advantage in high-danger chances during his five-on-five shifts. It wasn’t just about the offence, either. He made an excellent defensive stop to deny a cross-seam pass shortly after Hronek gave the puck away early in the first period. And even when Hughes did make an occasional mistake, like the overtime pass he made that was off the target in the attacking zone, he turned the jets on to nullify a two-on-one break.

Thatcher Demko made a sensational cross-crease save to rob Alex Turcotte early in the third period after Nikita Zadorov was caught pinching in the offensive zone without an F3 covering.

Demko made Turcotte question all of his life choices with that save. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/QRaVOvZdpv

— Daniel Wagner (@passittobulis) March 6, 2024

“Unreal save, that’s a 10-beller,” said Tocchet. “That’s a highlight one, that’ll be on (TV) tonight and probably all month. That’s a big-time save for us at a crucial time. It kind of wakes your bench up too because we gave a couple odd-man rushes and you just can’t give a two-on-one and Demmer (Demko) just makes a great save.”

In overtime, it was Miller’s turn to shine. On a four-on-three advantage because of a delayed penalty, Miller loaded up for a one-time howitzer that squeaked past Cam Talbot.

Now compare the star players’ collective impact to the last time these teams met on Thursday. On that night, Hughes played arguably his worst game of the season, Miller and Pettersson each had turnovers that directly led to goals against and Demko couldn’t bail them out with big saves.

Yes, the Canucks transitioned the puck cleaner and, across the entire lineup, were more disruptive on the forecheck. The fourth line finally added some energy. Nils Höglander had another strong performance. Carson Soucy, in his first game back from injury, was rock solid defending the blue line and making clean zone exits. All of those were crucial, necessary ingredients but the decisive edge was that Vancouver’s star players each took a turn in the spotlight and L.A. couldn’t match it. If these two teams meet in the playoffs, that will be Vancouver’s key X-factor to lean on.

(Photo: Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)