March 9 Rapid Reaction (feat. John Hoven): Coyotes 4, Kings 2

Rapid Reaction, feat. John Hoven

Post-game Quotes

Willie Desjardins, on Carl Grundstrom’s debut:
It was good to see him get rewarded. I thought he played well. Just the goal, I thought he made some smart plays, I thought he battled hard, I thought he was physical, so lots of good things. [Reporter: Does he have that element to his game – it seems like he has battle and some skill and speed. Is that a nice mix to see in a young player?] Yeah, it is. He does do quite a few things, and it’s not just the big things you see He does a lot of really small things well too that sometimes go unnoticed, so it was good. He fit right in. [Reporter: What’s the process on ad ay like today where you have an optional skate and go right at it. Who does he speak with and how do you get him as caught up as possible?] He talked both with Marco and Dave Lowry. Like, both guys talked to him just a little bit on different parts of the game that we do. We’ll integrate him a little bit more as we go along as well. [Reporter: Did you talk to Stothers at all just to get any read on him or any sort of info on him?] I didn’t talk to him, but we had talked to him previous to that just on things. I’d talked to Kempe, who’d played with him. I had a pretty good read on what he could do. [Reporter: Stutts is really impressed with the physical aspect of his game and the power forward element and not just his speed. Was that something you were looking to take advantage of here?] We knew he was a good two-way player. He’s probebd that at a couple different levels. He proved when he was back in Sweden that he could score. He hasn’t scored as much over here in the pro game, but he does have that element as well. Whenebver you go to the net, you’re going to get chances.

Desjardins, on whether Arizona’s two third period goals going against the run of play was surprising:
I don’t know, I thought we’d played a good third period. The first was probably the worst, we got better as the game went on, and I thought our third period was good. Guys played hard. We could’ve had a better fate.

Desjardins, on whether Jonathan Quick will start in Anaheim on Sunday:
Yeah. He’ll be in and he’ll be ready to go.

Adrian Kempe, on Carl Grundstrom making his NHL debut:
.. He did a good job and a solid first game and hopefully he can keep going that way.

Kempe, on whether he and Grundstrom had ever played on the same line:
We played on the same line, at least in playoffs, when we were under 20. So, I’ve been playing with him before, so I kind of know him.

Kempe, on what parts of Grundstrom’s game will work well with the team:
Obviously, like I said, I think he’s got a lot of skill. He plays really hard. You could see it tonight, he plays heavy on the forecheck and got a lot of pucks back and turned a lot of pucks over on our advantage and that’s what we need him for and he’s doing good so far. Hopefully it will keep going that way.

Kempe, on Grundstrom scoring in his first game at the NHL level:
That was awesome. Obviously, first game and there’s not very many that guys that score in their a first game and he’s been playing well in the minors too, and we knew he was a goal-scorer, so I was happy for him.

Kempe, on the team pushing back to start the third period:
I think we had good chances. It was a tight game and they ended up getting two goals late in the third, so obviously a tough bounce and we just have got to regroup and go on forward to the next game.

Kempe, on what introducing new guys does for the chemistry of the team:
I think it’s a good experience for them and we need our younger guys, including me, to push older guys to get better every day, starting at practice and in games as well. We’ve had a lot of young guys this year, and we’ve been doing a pretty good job, so we’ve got to keep pushing for the rest of the year.

Carl Grundstrom, on how it feels scoring a goal in his first NHL game:
Unbelievable, of course…It was unbelievable, a real good feeling.

Grundstrom, on how long he has been dreaming about scoring his first NHL goal:
Since I was five, maybe.

Grundstrom, on how Mike Stothers told him he was getting called up:
He just said that I wasn’t going to play. I got a little surprised of course, so then they said that the Kings called me up so that was a great feeling, of course.

Grundstrom, on his read on his goal:
I just stayed in front of the net and picked up a rebound and put it in the empty net, so nothing special like that. A goal is a goal, I guess.

Grundstrom, on whether he had a “welcome to the NHL” moment at any point today:
It was like, of course it’s a little different from the AHL. A little nicer hotel and better meals and stuff like that and so, but otherwise than that I tried to play my best game and tried to play, be me out there.

Grundstrom, on how much it helped to have Kempe centering his line:
I think so. I think we played together before, maybe not on the same line, but on the same team at least. So, yeah, of course that helps a lot.

Post-game Notes

–With the loss, Los Angeles fell to 90-103-36 all-time against the Arizona franchise, a record that includes a road mark of 40-56-19. The Kings are 1-2-0 against the Coyotes this season with one game remaining, April 2 at Gila River Arena.

–With the loss, Los Angeles fell to 15-18-4 against the Western Conference, 8-9-2 against the Pacific Division, 3-12 in two-goal games, 7-32-6 when the opponent scores the first goal, 3-22-3 when trailing after one period, 1-30-2 when trailing after two periods and 9-14-2 when outshooting their opponent.

–The Kings have allowed at least three goals in eight consecutive games and 13 of the last 14.

–In his NHL debut, Carl Grundstrom appeared in 13:03 and logged one goal, a plus-one rating, one shot on goal, five shot attempts and one hit. He became the 19th player in Los Angeles history to score a goal in his NHL debut and the first since Tanner Pearson did so on November 14, 2013 at the New York Islanders.

–By going 6-1-0, Arizona won six home games in a single home stand for the first time in Coyotes history.

–Since moving to Staples Center in 1999-2000, the Kings’ lowest point total for a full season was 68 points in 2006-07. To exceed that, they would need to earn 13 points from the remaining 14 games.

–Alec Martinez led the team with 23:21 of ice time.

–The only two Los Angeles skaters to fail to register a shot on goal were Alex Iafallo and Jeff Carter. Both finished with one missed shot.

–The Kings attempted 71 shots (35 on goal, 17 blocked, 19 missed). The Coyotes attempted 60 shots (32 on goal, 14 blocked, 16 missed). Clayton Keller finished with a game-high five shots on goal, while Drew Doughty, Trevor Lewis and Matt Roy tied with a team-high four shots. Roy led all skaters with 11 shot attempts.

–Los Angeles won 33-of-63 faceoffs (52%). Adrian Kempe won 6-of-13, Anze Kopitar won 10-of-19, Trevor Lewis won 4-of-8, Tyler Toffoli won 1-of-3 and Jeff Carter won 12-of-20.

The Kings are scheduled to report to Toyota Sports Center Sunday morning for a brief team meeting before departing for the game in Anaheim.

Post-game Highlights

–Lead photo via Norm Hall/NHLI

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