Buffalo hands Kings first shutout of the season

LOS ANGELES — On a different night, Kevin Fiala’s slip probably wouldn’t have meant much. But in the Buffalo Sabres’ 1-0 win over LA on Wednesday night, the Swiss’ untimely discovery of a frozen banana peel seemed to sum up the Kings’ evening.

On the power play with just under eight minutes left in the third period, Fiala received the puck in space on the right wing and struggled for control before falling backwards and squandering one of many man advantages for LA.

Special teams ultimately made the difference for the Kings at both ends of the ice. A young Sabres team — a roster with the NHL’s lowest average age — gave LA five power-play opportunities, but managed to score on one of their own. It turned out to be the only goal Buffalo needed all night.

“That’s the difference in the game, clearly,” head coach Jim Hiller said postgame, referring to the two teams’ opposite fortunes on the power play. “They scored one. We didn’t get any despite all our opportunities. It’s a difference maker, both positively and negatively.”

Through the first two periods, which ended scoreless, the Kings’ offense seemed more concerned with creating the perfect shot opportunity than just trying to make Buffalo goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen work. Their four or five high-danger chances came from right in front of Luukkonen’s crease when the goaltender was already expecting a shot, so the Finn simply had to fill the net and stand his ground. LA failed to capitalize on transitional moments and didn’t make Luukkonen and Buffalo’s defense move side-to-side enough to create shooting space.

During one power play sequence in the second period, Hiller sent out his innovative all-forwards lineup with Fiala, Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe, Alex Laferriere and Quinton Byfield all taking to the ice, theoretically to generate maximum offense. Needless to say, given the game’s final score, it didn’t make much of a difference.

Despite consistently putting himself in the mix on offense with six shots, Byfield’s season continues to fall short of the standard he set in 2023-24. In addition to falling well under last season’s 55-point pace so far, Byfield was sent to the box for tripping at the very end of the second period, giving Buffalo a man advantage to start the third that the Sabres took quick advantage of. But Hiller isn’t overly worried about Byfield’s performances this season.

“I’m not concerned,” Hiller said. “I understand why [Byfield] gets evaluated on points. That’s the easiest thing to do, the easiest thing to evaluate… but we’re patient with him. He’s trying. He’s doing his job the best he can for the team.”

After a couple of benchings so far this season, Fiala didn’t help his case on Wednesday night either, even besides the slip. He also gave Buffalo a power-play opportunity with a high-sticking penalty and didn’t always take care of the puck when his team needed him to — another aspect he’s struggled with.

Having threatened David Rittich in goal for most of the night, Jason Zucker made the breakthrough for Buffalo, screening LA’s goaltender effectively and tipping in Rasmus Dahlin’s effort towards goal on the extra-man chance. Mikey Anderson’s failure to apply real pressure in the high slot left Dahlin with ample time to cause trouble for the Kings. That said, the Kings can be happy they didn’t give up a goal in five-on-five play, with Rittich standing on his head to make 18 saves and prevent 1.59 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck.

The team surely left Crypto.com Arena frustrated with their failure to capitalize, but the Kings can take solace in the fact they outproduced Buffalo offensively in the latter two periods. Byfield had a late opportunity at the back post that might’ve made the difference on another night, while Kempe also took two late shots that went wide of the net and acknowledged their quality after the game.

“I think we had good enough chances to put the puck in the net,” Kempe said. “We talked about it after the first couple power plays, that we maybe wanted to look to shoot a little bit more… it’s hard sometimes, when you have that pressure on you, you don’t want to just shoot the puck to shoot the puck.”

One shutout in the wrong direction doesn’t spell doom for the Kings, but Hiller will hope his squad puts one away early against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday to ease everyone’s mind. The puck drops at 1 p.m. at Crypto.com Arena for the Pacific Division matchup.