FINAL – Kings 1, Capitals 2 – Kaliyev, Danault, McLellan

The LA Kings saw their five-game winning streak come to a close, following a 2-1 defeat against the Washington Capitals on Wednesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Midway through the first period, the Kings got on the board through forward Arthur Kaliyev, who buried his fifth goal of the season. Defenseman Andreas Englund sent a shot through from the left point that deflected off the endboards, right into the slot, where Kaliyev hammered it home for the game’s first goal.

Washington equalized just over three minutes later, taking the game into the first intermission tied at one. The Capitals created a 2-on-1 rush offensively, with forward Connor McMichael feeding forward Anthony Mantha through the slot, with the latter finishing at the back post for the goal, his fourth of the season.

The Capitals scored the lone goal of the second period, as McMichael and Mantha swapped roles, to put the visitors up 2-1 after 40 minutes of play. Off a turnover in the defensive zone, Mantha’s effort was turned aside by Kings netminder Cam Talbot, but the rebound was whacked out of mid-air by McMichael for his fifth goal of the season and his team’s first lead of the evening.

The Kings pushed in the third period, with a 15-3 advantage in shots on goal, but could not find the game-tying goal. Forward Anze Kopitar appeared to equalize midway through the final 20 minutes, but his goal was disallowed due to a successful offsides challenge from Washington.

Hear from Kaliyev, forward Phillip Danault and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Arthur Kaliyev

Arthur Kaliyev speaks with media after tough loss 🎤@LAKings I #LAKingsLive pic.twitter.com/0lPP2rYqTV

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) November 30, 2023

Phillip Danault
On his general takeaways from tonight’s game
They played pretty tight, they were like two guys quick on us most of the time. Yeah, they playeda solid first period, but the second thing was good domination.

On if tonight was a matter of not getting the right looks, or not getting the right bounces
I think Charlie Lindgren played really well, gave his team a chance to win and they did. I think he shined tonight and I think we had some Grade-A’s as well, he made some big saves.

On “one of those nights” was bound to happen eventually with how things have been going
Some games you play not as good and you score five, so it happens, but we always want to find a way. It’s not that we didn’t try, we definitely tried our hardest and we didn’t play bad. Yeah, it happens sometimes.

On if a lot of time off between games was too much time off between games
Almost too much. You could tell in the first period, when we’re trying to find out beat at little bit, but the second and third was there, you can tell. We obviously like breaks, it’s good for the energy and everything, but other than that, it’s obviously not too much I think.

Todd McLellan
On his takeaways from tonight’s game
I’d say there’s a lesson in every game you take away from it. Tonight’s lesson, first of all, I didn’t think we were a disaster. I don’t think we played poorly, but early in the game, we gave up two goals based on details and when you don’t score four or five in a night, and you’re going to heave those nights, those details become important and we could clean that up a little bit, but we’re going to make mistakes, we’re not perfect. At the other end of the rink, I thought at least from my perspective, I saw kind of two teams. I saw our early team and then I saw our late team. I thought the early team had the puck a lot and we looked good sometimes not doing a lot, but we looked good. Then I thought late in the game, we were real direct and we had a desperation to us and you could see the two teams play the A game and then the B game. So, maybe there’s a lesson for us too. I know you’re probably going to say shots and volume and all that type of stuff, well a lot of that came in the third period when the desperation went up, but I’m not sure if the result would have been the same. It might have been, if the goalie continued to make the saves he made, but it would have been nice to see some of that earlier in the game.

On if he felt there were rhythm issues early in the game, after an extended layoff
No, because we weren’t a disaster. I would say if we came out and we looked really flat, unenergetic, unenthused then I would agree. Rhythm is important to a team and to have five games or whatever we’ve had in 19 days, next week, starting Sunday, we go Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, [Sunday], there’s four in a week. So, rhythm is something that players are used to and staffs are used to and we don’t have it right now but we’re going to get it pretty quick and that’s okay, because at the end, we all have to play 82 games and we’ll figure it out.

On what he saw on the first goal tonight, and mistakes made on the evening
We had a probably an ill-advised pinch and the cover wasn’t completely committed to it and we didn’t play a 2-on-1 very well. So, three three detail-like scenarios, all in succession, that leads to a goal against. Other than that, we missed a faceoff coverage, or blew the faceoff coverage on the second one and didn’t get a clear, made a few other mistakes where Talbs had to bail us out, but we didn’t have to kill a penalty. Usually those nights you win, but we didn’t tonight.

On his notion of “looking good doing nothing” at 5-on-5 and if it was on of the first times this season it’s happened at even strength
Again, A-Game, B-Game. I thought first period, we wanted to come out and be a little direct. I thought in the second period, every now and then I’ll just use the word globetrotters, casually throw that out and I thought I saw that a lot. A lot of bobbing and weaving and dropping and swinging around, saucer passes, when it just had to be direct. In the third period, we came back, power play, that would be a disappointing area, although we created some opportunities on it, including the 6-on-5 at the back end here, but it has to get you a goal and it’s a 2-1 night and the other team doesn’t have a chance on the power play.

On Arthur Kaliyev’s game tonight and how he can make it a more regular occurrence
He’s just got to look at this game and replicate it and do it again and do it again. He’s a big, strong man that produces offense, okay, we know that. We need to see that from him, but there’s other things that happen in the game. There’s faceoff battles, there’s the backcheck, there’s the physicality, there’s the shot block, there’s getting your nose dirty in the blue paint and finding a rebound. You can just make a checklist, not just for Arthur but for any player, and you could put all those things there and then just start checking them off and watching the player. You look and you go well, this guy’s got 23 checkmarks and this guy’s only got four. Pretty easy calculations.

Notes –
– Arthur Kaliyev (1-0=1) scored his fifth goal of the season, extending his point streak to three games (2-1=3). The goal marks Kaliyev’s first career point against Washington. Kaliyev ties Kirby Dach and Nils Hoglander for the ninth-most goals among 2019 NHL draftees (33).
– Andreas Englund (0-1=1) recorded his sixth assist of the season in his 100th career NHL game. In doing so, Englund becomes the 15th defenseman in Kings history, and first since Sean Durzi (0-1=1, Dec. 29, 2022), to record a point in his 100th career game. Englund is the second Kings skater to record a point in his 100th career game this season (Quinton Byfield; 1-0=1, Oct. 11, 2023).
– Jordan Spence (0-1=1) notched his ninth assist and point of the season, establishing a new single-season career-high in points (0-9=9), surpassing his previous career-high (1-7=8) set in the 2021-22 campaign.

The Kings have a scheduled team off day tomorrow and will return to the ice for practice on Friday, December 1 at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.

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