LOS ANGELES — Following Thursday’s loss to the Nashville Predators, Head Coach DJ Smith and captain Anze Kopitar harped on the Kings’ lackluster starts and were determined to turn the tide. However, those words were not put into practice on Saturday. The Kings made multiple horrid miscues early and put themselves in an early hole, down two goals after one.
Darcy Kuemper let a soft wrist-shot past early, and an ugly Kopitar turnover on a power-play led to a Steven Lorentz breakaway, which gave Toronto a 2-0 lead. The game seemed over before it hardly began.
Following the first intermission, the sloppiness continued, but LA found its scoring touch. Their top two lines were buzzing, as Quinton Byfield and Adrian Kempe found goals to tie it early in the second period.
In perhaps the weirdest sequence of the season, the Maple Leafs put the puck in LA’s net twice in three minutes, just for both goals to be waved off for offsides following a review, and a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty, respectively. Leafs captain John Tavares eventually notched a power-play marker to make it 3-2, before both teams traded goals at the end of the period.
In the third, LA scored three consecutive goals within about 90 seconds, capped off by a Sammy Helenius snipe, which put the Kings up 6-4.
While the Kings continued to play sloppy hockey and turn the puck over, Kuemper did them no favors. He gave up six goals on 19 shots, and was lucky the team was finally able to outscore his goaltending woes.
His biggest save of the night happened to be in overtime, on a William Nylander breakaway, which set up the nifty game-winning sequence between Kempe, Panarin, and Byfield.
Los Angeles absolutely dog-walked Toronto at even strength. Their 2.53 expected goals at 5 on 5 usurped Toronto’s measly 0.94, according to MoneyPuck.
Alternatively, the Leafs did the same to the Kings on special teams. Toronto’s power play scored twice, while the Kings’ man advantage went 0-for-4 and surrendered a shorthanded goal.
On paper, LA should have beaten the breaks off Toronto, but they will happily take the two points.
“At this point, I think it doesn’t matter [how we win games]. We need points,” said Kempe post-game. The juiceman has now scored two goals in back-to-back games, and tallied four total points on Saturday evening.
It’s a rare occurrence when a team wants to flush a game that ends in two points, but if there ever was one, it would be tonight.
“We’re gonna take the two points, throw the tape away, and move on to the next one,” coach DJ Smith said.
Notably, this was the 31st time this season the Kings have sent a game past 60, setting an NHL record. This comes two nights after LA set a record for OT or Shootout losses with 19.
The Kings are an incredibly weird team, and even more difficult to diagnose. Heck, I still have no idea what this team is and what they are capable of after 76 games, but the bottom line is every game until the season’s end matters. Perhaps none more than Monday’s rematch against the Preds, as the winner will have sole possession of the West’s second wild card spot.
“We’ve got ourselves another playoff game on Monday night,” said Smith.