2023-11-21 00:46:21
The Week That Was
With two games this past week, the Kings put together an important two wins on home ice. In two very different types of games, the Kings first came away with a tightly contested 2-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night before convincingly beating the St. Louis Blues 5-1 on Saturday. The pair of wins moves the home record to 3-3-3 and keeps the Kings safely in the third spot of the Pacific Division. The Kings now sit just two points shy of the Vancouver Canucks for second in the division and are five points ahead of the Anaheim Ducks and Seattle Kraken.
The week began late when it came to gameplay, having to wait until Thursday for Kings to take the ice. Well worth the wait, the Kings wasted no time to score. Kevin Fiala struck just 1:20 into the first period to put the Kings up 1-0. From there, the game tightened up on both sides of the ice. The remaining 48:20 of regulation saw just two goals, one coming from each team. The Kings expanded their lead to 2-0 in the second period when Anze Kopitar found the back of the net for the team-leading eighth time this season. Coming on the power play, Kopitar tagged a one-timer of off a pass from Fiala. With the assist, Fiala collected his fourth multi-point game of the season.
Up 2-0 late in the third period, Same Reinhart beat an outstanding Cam Talbot with just over eight minutes to go in the game. Talbot was perfect from then on, stopping 30 of 31 shots across the 60 minutes and picked up his eighth win of the season.
Two nights later the Kings offense came out firing, potting four first period goals against the St. Louis Blues. Impressively accomplishing this in the first period, the Kings scored goals in all three phases of the game for the first time since March 26, 2023 (also against the St. Louis Blues). Quinton Byfield kicked off the offensive affair with a power-play goal 2:25 into the game. Then, just as Kings fans were sitting down from celebrating the early goal, Blake Lizotte got the crowd back on their feet with a goal 19 seconds after Byfield’s. Lizotte took advantage of a Blues turnover near the net and beat Jordan Binnington shirt-side. The goal for Lizotte puts him at 98 career points (34-64=98).
Not done scoring, Adrian Kempe netted his eighth goal of the season to tie Kopitar for the team lead. Poking a loose puck passed a Blues defender, Kempe went down on a breakaway all alone shorthanded and scored. Pierre-Luc Dubois capped off the first period scoring on a beautiful give-and-go with linemate Arthur Kaliyev just above the circles. Dubois’ goal marked his fifth of the season.
Fiala added to the Kings lead in the final minute of the second period for his fourth of the season, sending the Kings into the second intermission up 5-0. Late in regulation, Talbot was beat by Jake Neighbours with 3:54 to go, spoiling his effort for a second shutout bid of the season. Talbot improved his record to 9-3-1 with the win, good for second in the NHL in wins.
Notable News From The Week That Was:
The Kings have not allowed a power-play goal in six straight games, killing 20 consecutive shorthanded situations off dating back to Nov. 4 at Philadelphia. The Kings are one of three teams with an active penalty-killing streak of at least five games, joining Washington and Pittsburgh. The last time the club did not allow a power-play goal for six consecutive games was from March 8-March 24, 2021.
Through 16 games this season, the Kings have allowed just six power-play goals in 55 shorthanded situations. It is just the eighth time in franchise history that the Kings have allowed six or fewer power-play goals though their first 16 games to start a season.
The Kings remain second in the NHL in offense for the third consecutive week, averaging 3.94 goals per game.
Kevin Fiala finds his name back in this section as the team’s leading scorer this past week. It was just two games, but Fiala notched three points (2-1=3) alongside his new look like of Fiala—Danault—Moore.
The Kings power play went 2-for-4 across the two games, placing them tied for 15th in the NHL (20.6%).
The Kings penalty kill went a perfect 8-for-8 in the two games, moving up to 2nd in the NHL (89.1%).
The Week That Is
The Kings have three games on the schedule this week, with an unusual two afternoon games a few days ahead. We begin with a pair of road games this week before a Saturday matinee back at Crypto.com Arena. Starting with a game against the Arizona Coyotes tonight, the Kings will make a trip to the desert, to their Freeway Face-Off foes on Friday afternoon and then play hosts to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
Starting with that game later tonight, the Kings and Coyotes are set to face off for the third and final time this season. While leading the head-to-head battle 2-0-0 against the Coyotes, neither game has been straightforward. Each game has included a goalie pull, one from each team. The difference between the two games; the Kings overcame the early 4-1 deficit after pulling their goalie just shy of nine minutes into the game. Both Kings wins came in regulation, defeating the Coyotes 6-3 on home ice on Oct. 23rd and 5-4 in Arizona on Oct. 26th.
The Coyotes hold an 8-7-2 record through 17 games and are currently the placeholders of the Western Conference’s final Wild Card spot. Coming off of a 2-2-1 five-game road trip, the Coyotes will host the Kings in their first of two consecutive home games. Offensively, the Coyotes have been power play dependent, ranking fifth in the NHL (29.5%). Clayton Keller leads the Coyotes in scoring with 17 points (7-10=17) and has two points (1-1=2) in the two games versus the Kings.
Following a Thanksgiving feast on Thursday, the Kings hope to avoid the annual dangerous food coma that presents itself with a Friday afternoon game against their rivals. It’ll be the first of four meeting against the Anaheim Ducks this season. Off to an encouraging start, the Ducks are 9-9-0 and tied with the Coyotes for that last playoff spot in the conference. After multiple years of struggling to keep the puck out of the net, the Ducks currently sit 13th in the NHL in GA/GP. Second-year Duck Frank Vatrano has been outstanding offensively and sits sixth in the NHL in goals with 12. Another Duck who has gotten off to a great start is the 2023 second overall draft pick Leo Carlsson. Carlsson sits in second among rookies in goals with six despite missing a third of the team’s games this season.
Closing out their games for the week that is will be a Saturday game, the third set of back-to-back games this season. It’ll be the Montreal Canadiens coming to town, the youngest team in the NHL (averaging 25.7 years old). In contrast, the Kings are the 11th youngest team in the NHL (27.9 years old). Like the Kings, the Canadiens will also be on the second half of a back-to-back. As it stands currently, the Canadiens are on a four-game losing streak and are 2-7-1 in their last 10 games. With a 7-9-2 record, the Canadiens sit in 15th in the Eastern Conference, ahead of only the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Team stats aside, the dangerous Captain Nick Suzuki and talented Cole Caufield have led the way offensively for the Canadiens with Suzuki tallying 16 points (6-10=16) and Caufield tallying 15 points (5-10=16) through the team’s first 18 games. Heading into Saturday’s game, the Kings have beaten the Canadiens in four straight games.
Upcoming games this week:
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