What an ugly finish. And I’m not talking about Kopitar’s grinning mug as he scored his very first powerplay goal. Fans serenading the on-ice officials as the Canucks lost in OT tonight wasn’t exactly what I was wanting in Game 2, nor was I looking for another instance of Kevin Bieksa getting sliced up by a skate blade or the Canucks taking a bench minor.

But it all happened, unfortunately. And as nice as it would be to blame the referees for the loss, as great as it would be to point to officiating as the reason why the Canucks were ’screwed’, you can’t really pin that on anyone but the Canucks themselves.

Or, more specifically, Andrew Alberts. I’ve tried to be optimistic about the big lug, but he’s taken on a propensity for stupid penalties and slow plodding play not seen since I dreamt Ed Jovanovski and Eric Weinrich had a child that was a first round draft pick of the Canucks. Dude had 6 minutes of penalties tonight and, going off of his terrific debut in Game 1, where he saw himself become the mastermind between both LA goals, has been a disaster on the Canucks blueline. I’ve tried being optimistic about Alberts, figuring it was just a matter of adjusting to systems play, but it seems like everytime I think he’s rounded the corner he finds a new way to screw things up and earn the ire of angry Canucks fans.

Harsh words? Probably, but Alberts was deserving of a lot of criticism tonight. It’s unfortunate, as the Canucks need someone to help balance out the backend with Mitchell out of the lineup. Unfortunately, it’s looking like that Alberts isn’t gonna be that guy. Bring in Rome, if he’s healthy or Baumgartner. If either could be relied upon to eat up some minutes and not take any penalties, they’d be an improvement on Alberts.

Beyond the Alberts sideshow that was tonight’s game, the only other thing I could take issue with for the Canucks was Hansen’s inclusion on the third line. I know that he’s a popular player, but the guy is single handedly dragging down our third line due to his lack of finish or offensive instincts. I’m not a fan of him on the penalty kill, either, but the thing that I really don’t get is why do you dress Michael Grabner and only give him 2:53 of icetime, none of which was on the powerplay. Heck, I don’t get why Bernier was playing on the second line for stretches at a time, either.

I’m not trying to rage on Alain Vigneault, but these were very curious decisions. Grabner with Wellwood and Raymond could be a good third line that has a chance at generating offense. Both Raymond and Wellwood are defensively responsible and should be able to let Grabner go out there and do his thing. If you really want to babysit Grabner while giving him minutes, put him with Kesler.

I honestly don’t see the logic in dressing someone to play on the fourth line and then not giving him any icetime at all. Hansen is rather brutal 5 on 5: out of all Canuck regulars this past season he was the second worst forward for 5 on 5 goals allowed, behind Kesler, who logs more minutes and tougher assignments. Additionally, he’s been on for a fair number of goals against and is a statistically worse penalty killer than Matt Pettinger. Hansen’s either still growing or he’s hit his ceiling. In either case, he needs to have his minutes sheltered and should be primarily playing on the PK. Putting him with Wellwood and Raymond does nothing.

Pettinger, in my mind, is the superior player and would make a better match on the PK. People were saying he looked brutal on the PK on Thursday, although I’m not seeing anything that stood out as being exceptionally horrendous. He was only on the ice for one goal against alongside…you guessed it…Jannik Hansen (for the reference, Hansen’s partner on the PK for tonight’s goal was Mason Raymond.)

Beyond that, I thought the Canucks played a mostly good game, taking it to the Kings for good portions of regulation. The too many men call against Bieksa could be construed as being a garbage one, but in my mind, the Canucks shouldn’t have found themselves in overtime. The Sedins looked good, Kesler had a good game and Samuelsson continued his goal scoring.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens on Monday and who, if anyone, draws out of the Canucks lineup.