FINAL – Kings 2, Panthers 1 – Kopitar, Talbot, McLellan

The LA Kings skated to a 2-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Kings opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game through forward Kevin Fiala, who buried his third goal of the season. Fiala’s goal was a full-line sequence, as Trevor Moore started the play on the wall in his own zone, springing Phillip Danault and Fiala on a 2-on-1 rush. Danault dished the pass to Fiala off the rush and the Swiss winger deked to the backhand and slotted past Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky to the the hosts on the board.

Midway through the second period, LA doubled its advantage with a power-play goal to take a 2-0 lead through 40 minutes. Off a nice rotation, Fiala fed forward Anze Kopitar in the slot, where the captain made no mistake with the one-timer for his team-leading eighth goal of the season. Fiala made it a multi-point night with the primary assist, with defenseman Drew Doughty also collecting a helper on the play.

Florida snapped the shutout bid with just over eight minutes remaining in the game, as forward Sam Reinhart scored his 13th goal of the season to get the visitors on the board. Off an extended offensive-zone sequence, the puck came to Reinhart in the slot, where he fired underneath the crossbar and in to beat Kings netminder Talbot for the only time on the night.

The Kings killed off multiple penalties in the third period, as well as a late 6-on-5 situation, to hold on for the 2-1 victory.

Hear from Kopitar, Talbot and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Anze Kopitar

Cam Talbot
On what he felt the difference in tonight’s game was for the Kings
Special teams. Power play gets us a big one in the second there and that turns out to be the winner, but if not for our PK, that could have been a different game. We got caught out there, that’s a pretty elite unit over there and they had control of the puck quite a bit. We bent, but we didn’t break and got some big blocks, big clears when we needed them and battled until the end.

On the dedication of the team in blocking shots in front of him tonight
Yeah, unbelievable. I mean, they gave me a chance to pretty much see every puck and they kept them to the outside for the most part. When they do that, I’m able to control the rebound, help us out and not play in our end too much. So, like I said, other than the power play, I thought that we did a heck of a job 5-on-5 in eliminating their chances and a big two points at home

On an improved performance from the group as a whole, coming off Saturday’s loss to Philadelphia
You can see that we were a little bit crisper tonight, we were coming out of our zone a little bit better. The other night, it seemed like we were a little bit scrambley and trying to make too many long plays, cross-ice plays are getting knocked down. Tonight, we were more direct, got the puck deep and went to work. When we’re doing that, that’s where we’re at our best and you can see we were sharper tonight.

Todd McLellan
On his overall impressions from tonight’s victory
Well, I guess we can work backwards, we’re obviously really happy with the win, but some of the things that we worked on and wanted to fix this week throughout practice, showed up. I thought our shift length and our commitment to the battles, to shot blocking was significantly better than it was last week and it showed up in the game. I thought we played an aggressive game, third period got on our heels a little bit, but that was due in large part to the continuous penalties. Our penalty kill was outstanding, I think we were 5-for-5, but I think of it as 6-for-6 because we had another two and a half minutes with the goaltender pulled and we got one on the power play. Usually when you find a way to end up on the positive side of the special teams, you have a real good chance of winning the game.

On a strong performance from the Fiala – Danault – Moore line
Their first shift was really important for them. They got a lot of confidence and energy from that, obviously scoring, but I thought they were, how to I put this, a true line. They played all over the rink, not just offensively minded. Tonight, they played a solid game both ways and that made them dangerous the whole night. Really happy for Kev, he had an outstanding game I thought Phil played one of his better games lately and they look like they were dangerous.

On a difference-making performance from Fiala specifically
I think so, yeah. I think I said this to the media before, Kevin is, I don’t know if he’s our leading scorer now, but he’s right up here at the top and we’re 15 or 18 percent into the season. By the end of the year, he’s going to be way up there, we’re going to be really happy with us offensively. Tonight, you saw the energy and the drive and the battles and the commitment. If we get that all the time, we have on hell of a player and it’s there. He’s been a little bit frustrated and we’re trying to help him but I was proud of him tonight. He made some really good plays and responded well.

On what scoring an early goal can do for a team playing at home
Not that the fans weren’t into the game, but it certainly gets them into it real quick and after four days off, that’s the key in all of this. After four days off, you’re anxious to watch and see what’s going to happen early in the game. For us to score right away, it kind of gets the confidence level up right away. Everybody feels good about it and it takes us right into the night.

On the Kings commitment to shot blocking in tonight’s win
We did block a lot of shots. A lot of those came in penalty-kill situations that may not be the true block, where you get full body like Kempe had in the last few seconds, but just a nick on the stick, something to throw the other team off a bit, we had a lot of that, and then Talbs fought through traffic too. We did a real good job of net play, it was one of our goals at both ends.

On handling the momentum swings in a game against a team that plays in a variety of ways
The momentum swings in the game are important. I think sometimes we forget that team went the Stanley Cup Finals. They understand that, they have some agitators on their team, so you’ve got to figure out what you’re going to do in those situations, how are you going to handle it but I thought we did a real good job in those moments. Both teams had pushes, both teams handled it well, pretty evenly played night.

Additionally, McLellan indicated that he did not have an update regarding the status of forward Pierre-Luc Dubois, who left the game in the third period and did not return. McLellan indicated he should have a firmer update after practice tomorrow.

Notes –
– Kevin Fiala (1-1=2) registered his fourth multi-point game of the season. This goal was Fiala’s fourth against the Panthers in his career, tying him with teammate Phillip Danault (4) for second-most goals against the Panthers on the active Kings roster.
– Anze Kopitar (1-0=1) recorded his eighth goal and team-leading third tally on the man-advantage this season.
– Drew Doughty (0-1=1) notched his third assist and seventh point of the season (4-3=7). Only Mikey Anderson (1-7=8) has tallied more points among Kings blueliners this season. Doughty is the first Kings defenseman this season to score multiple power-play points (1-1=2).
– Phillip Danault (0-1=1) recorded his sixth assist of the season. Danault has recorded assists in three straight games (0-3=3) against the Florida Panthers, dating back to Nov. 5, 2022.
– Trevor Moore (0-1=1) tallied his sixth assist of the season his fifth point (2-3=5) in his last five games against Florida.
– Cam Talbot turned aside 30-of-31 shots for his first win at Crypto.com Arena this season and improved his record on the year to 8-3-1.
– The Kings went five-for-five on the penalty kill tonight. It is the fifth straight game the Kings have been perfect on the penalty kill against the Florida Panthers, dating back to Dec. 16, 2021.
– The Kings have scored the first goal of a game for the eighth time this season and improved to a 7-0-1 record in those contests.

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