Kings cruise past the Canucks, 4-2

So much for the book, those intensive pregame preparations for Canucks goalie and workhorse Roberto Luongo.

The man nearly everyone expected to see in goal Monday night, Luongo, left the ice with about four minutes remaining in the pregame warmups, and that was the extent of his ice time at Staples Center.

Luongo was a late scratch because of a lingering rib injury.

He had played in 26 of Vancouver’s 29 games before Monday.

First rule of facing an unprepared goalie? Shoot the puck.

Second rule? See Rule 1.

The Kings quickly took advantage, scoring twice on their first seven shots in the opening 9:19 against Vancouver backup goalie Curtis Sanford, and held on for an impressive 4-2 victory against the Canucks.

It was only the second victory in the last six games for the Kings, and only the third regulation loss for the Canucks in their last 17 games.

“It doesn’t change it a great deal,” said Kings Coach Marc Crawford of the goalie move. “We wanted to get pucks to the net. We wanted to create second chances . . . scored a lot of goals being persistent tonight.

“I know Roberto Luongo is a great player, but they’re playing against Jean-Sebastien Aubin as well. We’ve been without our No. 1 goalie for quite some time here.”

Scoring for the Kings were defenseman Brad Stuart (third of the season), Anze Kopitar (14th), Derek Armstrong (second) and Dustin Brown (14th). Vancouver’s two goals, both on the power play, came from Taylor Pyatt (seventh), in the first period and defenseman Alexander Edler (second) with 2:30 remaining in the game.

Armstrong, after going without a goal the first 27 games, now has two in his last three, and assisted on Brown’s third-period goal, at 11:41, with a nice centering pass on a five-on-three man advantage.

Brown, who also had an assist, is on a career-high, nine-game point-scoring streak, and Kopitar has a seven-game streak.

Kopitar’s clever backhander from the base of the right circle went over the left shoulder of Sanford and made it 2-1 at 9:19 of the first, putting the Kings ahead for good.

Aubin ended a streak of another kind, recording his first victory in a month. He had not won since the crazy comeback game here against Dallas on Nov. 10, coming in relief of Jason LaBarbera.

With LaBarbera out because of a rib injury, Aubin has started four of the last five games.

Finally, for the Kings, there was one key development, coming about midway through the third period.

Canucks forward Alex Burrows went after Kopitar, ultimately drawing a double-minor for elbowing and roughing, and the first player coming to Kopitar’s defense was none other than Michael Cammalleri, who was quickly followed by Rob Blake and Jack Johnson.

“He’s a great hockey player and we’ve got to defend each other,” said Cammalleri, who added that it was “unacceptable” to go after goalies as well.

“Try not to let anybody get any licks on us without knowing it’s going to come, that’s for sure. We’re doing a good job of responding when we need to. Blakey is our leader, and he’s the one showing us the way.”

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com