With a 3-0 shutout of the Nashville Predators Monday followed by a 5-1 victory versus the Minnesota Wild Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Kings seemed to really establish a winning rhythm on the road following a successful homestand.
The Kings have had many obstacles to overcome at the outset of the season, including a long Crypto.com Arena refurbishment-induced road trip to open the season and several injuries to key players. After finally having a homestand, the Kings gathered points in every game except for their upset loss against the San Jose Sharks, and things seemed to be trending upward. But the road trip to Nashville and Minnesota only proved this further, as the Kings continuously established their momentum they appeared to have already started the homestand.
Monday night’s matchup versus Nashville started as a sprint for both teams. Fans watched as the players raced back and forth across the ice numerous times in a very quick start. Both Darcy Kuemper, who started in net for the Kings, and Predators’ goalie Juuse Saros, did an excellent job stopping the oncoming rush several times with rangy saves.
But the Kings proved to be relentless. Captain Anže Kopitar opened the scoring with a goal off his own rebound in the first period, banking the puck off the back of Saros and into the net.
Los Angeles doubled its lead later in the game on a beautiful two-on-one by Kevin Fiala and Philip Danault. Fiala initially passed to Danault who took a smart shot on net that caused Saros to have to make a ranging save, which opened up part of the net for Fiala to bury the rebound.
An empty-netter from Adrian Kempe at the end of the game sealed the 3-0 victory for the Kings. Kuemper picked up a shutout and was aided greatly by his teammates who limited the Preds to only 16 shots on goal. Energy and relentlessness in all three phases of the game ultimately keyed the win.
There were, however, two troubling developments during the Kings’ win Monday night. For one, center Alex Turcotte sustained an injury on a hit from Predators’ defenseman Jeremy Lauzon and ultimately could not play Tuesday versus Minnesota.
Secondly, concerns only grew about Quinton Byfield during the contest. Byfield has been one of the Kings’ most exciting prospects since he was drafted No. 2 overall by the team in 2020. But, to this point, his career has been a roller coaster defined by flashes of brilliance in conjunction with a lot of inconsistency.
Through the end of the game versus the Predators, Byfield was still scoreless on the season. He had several good opportunities to cash in his first goal of the season versus Nashville but couldn’t convert, which only amplified the nervous buzz around some of his early season results.
Byfield would finally add his name to the scoring list against the Wild, shutting down the chatter surrounding his drought.
Overall, the Kings felt good heading into the backend of their back-to-back versus Minnesota, minus those two small storylines hanging over them.
Despite Kuemper’s shutout performance against Nashville, the Kings opted to start David Rittich in goal against Minnesota, who has had strong career numbers versus the Wild.
The Wild tried to barrage Rittich with high shot volume early, and he did a mostly very good job of stopping them until one shot squeaked through.
But the Kings kept the energy high and stormed back offensively while the Wild offense slowed down. They scored their first three goals all off the rebound just like they had the night before, with offensive relentlessness and opportunism being the keys again.
Byfield scored their fourth goal off the redirect, finally getting on the board after one of his most frustrating games of the season versus Nashville. A big smile spread across his face as he celebrated the goal with his teammates. The Kings only hope that the goal sparks a scoring surge from the young forward.
Trevor Lewis’ empty-netter finalized the 5-1 result and made the Kings 3-0-1 in their last four games. Los Angeles now sits in first place in the Pacific Division as a result of their recent hot streak.
The Kings will return home to face the Vancouver Canucks Thursday at 7:30 p.m.