One must beat the best to be the best. But the Los Angeles Kings?

Los Angeles entered Monday's action tied with the San Jose Sharks atop the Western Conference and one point behind the Washington Capitals in the overall NHL standings — a remarkable turnaround considering the Kings have missed the playoffs in each of the past six seasons, a franchise record for futility.

A decade has passed since the Kings reigned supreme in the standings and they came within a Kesler of reaching that pinnacle again Monday, falling 3-1 to the Vancouver Canucks.

Ryan Kesler keyed Vancouver's attack with one goal and one assist, as did Mason Raymond, while Roberto Luongo made 24 saves.

"We didn't quit for 60 minutes," Kesler said. "We continued to come at them and won an important hockey game."

Equally important for Kesler is having put a lengthy drought firmly behind him by scoring in three of the last four outings.

"It's about time," he said. "I was biting it for a little bit there — 14 games, but who's counting?"

Sami Salo tallied the decisive goal as the Canucks (19-14-0) remained unbeaten in the first three of eight straight home games over the holidays — a generous stretch at GM Place to be sure, but one in which it is vital to compile as many points as possible because what awaits them is an unprecedented, 14-game road swing between Jan. 30 and March 10 to accommodate the Vancouver Olympics.

"Everybody's a little happier now that we've won three in a row," Salo said.

"They understand the importance of the games and we're doing good," noted Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault.

Alexander Frolov scored for the surprisingly lacklustre Kings (21-11-3), who had a four-game winning streak end.

"You cannot play against good hockey clubs without intensity," Kings head coach Terry Murray said. "I thought, in the second and the third period, there were some good things happening.

"We had our opportunities on the scoring side of things. We just couldn't get it done."

Kings netminder Jonathan Quick faced 28 shots in defeat.

Quick was a torrid 7-1-1 in his previous nine starts, with the lone regulation loss a 4-1 decision at Vancouver on Nov. 30.

"We didn't come out strong as we wanted to," he said. "We didn't play that first 20 as well as we wanted to.

"It's not an easy task coming into this rink and taking control in the first period. But you still have to compete and fight off that wave of momentum they throw at you right at the beginning."

'I'm getting bounces now'

Kesler opened the scoring 64 seconds into the contest, whacking in a Mikael Samuelsson rebound from the top of the crease for his eighth goal of the season.

"I'm getting bounces now and hockey's starting to be fun again," Kesler said.

The Canucks then capitalized on a power play when Henrik Sedin sent a diagonal pass out of the corner into the slot for Salo, who ripped it high over Quick's left shoulder for his second goal at 17:15 mark.

"He is intense," Vigneault said of Salo. "He is battling hard and, except for one faux pas he did in the Nashville game, he has been very dependable on D and played very well for us."

It was Vancouver's fourth power-play goal in two games, but Frolov shaved the deficit with 17 seconds left as he chipped a rebound past Luongo for his ninth.

It remained 2-1 until Kesler slid a pass to Raymond, who burst in and tucked a backhander between Quick's pads for his 12th with 5:12 remaining in the third.

"We made high-percentage plays," Vigneault said. "We waited until they made a few mistakes that we could jump on and extend our lead."

With files from The Canadian Press