The LA Kings lost a 4-3 penalty shootout to the San Jose Sharks on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena, dropping their current homestand to 1-1-1.
Neither team found the net in the first period despite the Kings taking 18 shots, but San Jose took the lead early in the second period with two goals just 80 seconds apart.
First, after the Sharks scored on a late penalty against the Kings, forward Fabian Zetterlund gave the visiting team a spot. Skating 6-on-5, defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov blocked a shot from the point, but the puck fell directly to Zetterlund, who took the shot, past San Jose goalie Kaapo Kahkonen for his 14th of the season. I scored a goal. Less than two minutes later, forward William Eklund doubled his team’s advantage by firing a shot past Kahkonen off the rush for a 2-0 lead.
With less than three minutes left in the second period, Kings forward Trevor Moore came off the bench and scored his team-leading 21st goal of the season, cutting the lead to one point in 40 minutes. Moore received a pass from forward Kevin Fiala off the boards, danced his way into the offensive zone, and fired a shot past San Jose netminder Kaapo Kahkonen, who was on the blocker side, for a 2-1 goal. The scoreline was .
After making some adjustments up front, with Quinton Byfield returning to the team’s top line alongside Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe, the trio immediately paid off with the game-tying goal. After an extra shift in the offensive zone, Kempe spun and fed an uncovered Byfield up front for his 14th point of the season, bringing the score to two.
San Jose took the lead on a breakaway by forward Justin Bailey, putting the visiting team in front 3-2. After receiving a stretch pass from forward Ryan Carpenter, Bailey weaved his way between the Kings’ defenders, crisscrossed the ice, and slid his shot into the 5-hole for his third goal of the season and a one-point lead. I stole it.
With less than two minutes remaining, the Kings were skating to a 6-on-4 advantage with an empty net and defenseman Drew Doughty scored his 11th goal of the season to bring the score to three points. The game went into extra innings. Doughty lined up at center point and connected home a pass from Kevin Fiala for his third power-play goal in the last four games.
As the game went into five minutes of overtime and eventually went to penalties, San Jose forward Logan Couture and Zetterlund scored, but Moore and Kempe were denied points by Kahkonen, giving the Sharks their second goal. Ta.
Hear from Kempe, defenseman Brant Clark and head coach Todd McClellan after tonight’s game.
Brant Clark
Adrian Kempe
Turn on if you feel like tonight was a point gain or a point loss.
As of now, I feel like my points have dropped. Of course, we made a good comeback and tied the score late in the game, so that was good, but overall, I think we played pretty well because we had chances. Yes, it’s frustrating that we can’t play as efficiently as we would like and not be able to score with the chances we get. I’m frustrated now.
What the Kings need now to get out of this predicament
Not to mention scoring goals. I think we are playing well enough. Defensively, I think we’re going to make a few mistakes every game, but you know it’s going to happen. I’m pretty happy with how we’re doing in PK and PP, and I think 5-on-5 is all that matters right now. It’s easy to get frustrated when we don’t score a lot of points, so we’ll have to be careful about that and not seek too much offensive power.
Regarding the team’s mindset heading into the third period when they finally tied the score.
We just talked about being patient. We had chances and some good shots. I think we had a chance before we got into the third, I think we had a really good shift in that second, but the puck just didn’t go in. That’s what we talked about during the game. Locker room, just hang in there, keep working low and keep getting shots on net. We tied the game, but obviously we couldn’t get the second point, but I still think we did a good job getting the third goal.
Concerns that the Kings may be losing momentum after a strong start to the season
No, I don’t think so. As I said earlier, I think there are still some things we need to improve on when it comes to 5-on-5. I thought our special teams were really good, we had good goaltending every game. It’s obviously been a tough stretch here, and considering the amount of OT losses that could have clearly gone in the right direction, it would have been a pretty solid month. I feel like we’re playing pretty well in almost every game, but it’s frustrating that we keep running away with just one point.
tod mcclellan
On his assessment of tonight’s match
I thought it started very slowly and the track meet went both ways and after the first 10 minutes I thought we were starting to take control and solidify the game, but then we made some mistakes. And suddenly we lost 2-0. From there we had some good attacking moments, but we didn’t get much reward, but we made another mistake that almost led to a goal. We should be able to score three points and win the game now, but we couldn’t do that tonight. The last two goals were very preventable with a faceoff, a turnover, and from wide, but the other goal was a pinch and not very good coverage.
Regarding the decision to move Byfield and Dubois in the third period.
I didn’t think our first line or top line, whatever you want to call it, they weren’t doing very well. I thought they needed a little more energy, but obviously Q has been there before and he did it on that line. That’s why the change was made.
If he has any sense, the season could slip away for the group after this stretch.
No, I’m not saying the season is over, but I think there’s concern and frustration, definitely frustration. Again, three is enough for now. It’s not very often that you get three or four points, and with this way of scoring, we didn’t have to do that because of mistakes on the part of the defense and the goalkeeper had to go past and score. . So now we’re chasing it in both directions. Trying to fix the offense creates problems for the defense and vice versa. Regarding the first question, I don’t feel that way at all.
About the team’s performance in the shootout
Well, let’s be honest, when there’s 18,000 people here and you’re on TV and you get points. [matter]… You guys can come to TSPC and the four of you can sit upstairs, you can’t even see them, you can pick your shooters, your goaltenders are tired, whatever you can do. Do it, but it’s fleeting and it’s an individual skill. There have been players in the past who have had great success as both goalkeepers and shooters. It wasn’t going the way I wanted it to, I didn’t make the saves, I don’t know, I probably had eight shots in a row. The goaltenders are trying and doing the best they can, but the shooters have to bail them out. Again, both ends end there.
Filling in for Matt Roy in tonight’s Brant Clark play
He’s the type of player that’s very good when we’re down. He creates, dives, makes plays, is smart and very deceitful. All of those skills help him on offense, allowing him to go from a one-point deficit to a chance in overtime, and he’s very good at that, obviously that’s his game. I didn’t think he did much damage to us offensively, he was a little off the mark on turnover goals, but I don’t think there’s much he can do to change things.
On what he sees now from Dubois
Well, we took him from center and put him on the wing, and he ended up moving back to center. I mean, as long as his play is his play, we might confuse sending him around, but at the end of the day, PL gets 4 minutes or PL gets 24 minutes. But he has to be a difference maker. Or maybe without a pack, we’ve been through this enough and it’s about time.
Note –
– Trevor Moore (1-0=1) scored his 21st goal of the season. With this goal, Moore became the sixth Kings skater in the last 20 years to score at least 21 goals within the team’s first 44 games of the season, and the first since Jeff Carter (44 GP, 23 wins, 17 draws, 40 losses). It was a great achievement. From 2016 to 2017.
– This was Moore’s fourth career goal against San Jose (4-4=8) and his eighth career goal, making him the third-most goal in league history by a California-born skater against the Sharks, trailing only Matt Nieto. Lined up with (2-6=). 8) Third most points scored by a California-born skater against the Sharks in league history.
– Quinton Byfield (1-1=2) scored his 14th goal of the season and had one assist in his eighth multi-point game of the season. In doing so, Byfield tied Anze Kopitar for third on the team in goals. Byfield scored in back-to-back games for the first time this season and the first time in his career. Byfield also becomes the third Kings player under the age of 21 to score 14 goals in the same season, joining Artur Kaliyev in 2021-22 and behind Adrian Kempe’s 16 goals in 2017-2018. He scored 2 goals.
– Drew Doughty (1-0=1) scored his 11th point of the season and fifth power-play goal (PPG) of the season. This is Doughty’s ninth season with at least five PPG, making him the second-most such season among Kings defensemen in franchise history behind Rob Blake (10 points).
– The goal marked Doughty’s seventh game-tying or go-ahead goal with less than two minutes left in regulation time, making him the all-time favorite among NHL defensemen behind Ray Burke (12 goals) and Larry Murphy (8 goals). They ended up occupying the third place. .
– Kevin Fiala (0-2=2) recorded his 29th and 30th assists of the season and his 11th multi-pointer, tying him with Adrian Kempe for the most on the team this season. Fiala has now scored in three consecutive games against the Sharks (1-4=5) and has 15 points in his last 10 games with San Jose (4-11=15) dating back to April 24, 2021. It is recorded. With this assist, Fiala became the first Kings skater to have 30 assists and 40 points this season (11-30=41). This is the second time in Fiala’s career that he has scored at least 40 points within the team’s first 44 games, starting last season (44 GP, 15-31 = 46 points).
– Jordan Spence (0-1=1) recorded his 14th assist of the season. Spence recorded an assist in three consecutive games starting on December 19, 2023 against San Jose (0-3=3).
– Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) recorded his 25th assist of the season, tying him for second on the team in assists with Anze Kopitar. With this assist, Kempe marked his 40th point (15-25=40), tying him with Kevin Fiala for the team’s all-time leading scorer. Kempe has scored four points (3-1=4) in his last four games against the Sharks dating back to January 11, 2023.
The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 11 a.m. at the Toyota Sports Performance Center.