There are three things which the Canucks should be looking at, all of which are of varying importance and had an impact on tonight’s loss.

The first, clearly, obviously, is the penalty kill. Allowing three straight goals on essentially the same plays is problematic, regardless of this the preseason, regular season or postseason. More worrying is the fact that the bulk of these goals came with the Canucks top penalty killing unit out on the ice. People can start pining for Ryan Johnson all they want, but the problems transcend any sort of contribution he could be making on the penalty kill. Kesler and Burrows are supposedly the Canucks best guys on the penalty kill and they were on the ice for 2 goals against, Burrows was on for 3.

Prior to tonight, Kesler and Burrows were on for 1 PP goal against in Game 1 and the game winner in overtime in Game 2. Including the 3 goals scored tonight on the man advantage, Burrows and Kesler have been on the ice for 5 goals against, all within 30-4o seconds of the penalty kill starting. Not a good number when the number of games played is 3.

Something needs to be done with the Canucks penalty kill. Whether it’s a matter of blocking shots or being less passive (seems to me that the Canucks are collapsing in on Luongo far too readily and aren’t clogging up passing/shooting lanes enough) the Canucks penalty kill needs to be readjusted to address the Kings and their approach to the man advantage.

I’d also argue that Luongo, while he has made some timely saves and has looked a lot better than he did in the regular season, needs to step it up and play better on the penalty kill. That one goal where he sort of blankly looked at the puck for a second before trying to glove it was heartwrenching, as though it were a sign of things to come. As Alain Vigneault said post-game, your best players need to be your best players.

The second thing that needs to be looked at in the face of tonight’s loss is how effectively the Kings are shutting down the Sedins. I thought that they looked good in Game 1 and 2 (despite no points in the second game) but tonight’s game was a continuation of the Kings efforts to basically crowd out the Sedins and their game. It’s clear that the Kings have been directed to lay into the twins at every opportunity and that they need to be aggressive with getting their sticks in the way of oncoming pucks to shut down their cycle game. I’d say the Canucks need to either start directing more shots from the point on net (shots on net, of course, being the rub) or find another way to stop the Kings from getting all up in their grills. No idea how they’ll be able to do that, as the Kings have been doing a great job of dictating the pace so far.

The third thing that needs to be looked at is the officiating. Now, I’m not looking to say that there’s a conspiracy. That’s rubbish. I was talking to @mlse over on Twitter and he made the point that the NHL is too inept to ever be capable of working out a conspiracy. I’d be inclined to agree. That said, I think that this series has been marred by bad officiating. Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot that the Canucks can do about it besides sucking it up. It’s frustrating, with the Henrik Sedin stick in the visor, the too many men call, an incredibly blatant holding the stick non-call against Bernier tonight as well as the ‘no goal’ call there are a lot of things Canucks fans can be complaining about.

Unfortunately, these blown calls don’t fix the PP nor do they get the Sedins producing. Canucks need to take a look at themselves and address those internal problems before they start looking outwards.