March 26 Rapid Reaction (feat. Jim Fox): Oilers 8, Kings 4

Rapid Reaction, feat. Jim Fox

Post-game Quotes

Willie Desjardins, on the loss:
We had a pretty good start to the game. Quick made some big saves too, it wasn’t that he didn’t, he made two or three really good saves in the first period. But it seemed other things were going in on us. They have a good team, they’re explosive, we know that, and when you get behind, you’re trying to come back and it’s a tough process because they’re going to turn some two-on-ones and they’re pretty skilled.

Desjardins, on whether the team was fatigued on the second night of a back-to-back:
Maybe, we played some guys hard last night, some of our bigger guys and I think they were a little bit tired tonight, but that’s no excuse you have to find a way to come in and win.

Desjardins, on the Oilers:
You look at the points they have, we’re not the only team that’s had trouble with them. When they’re going, they are hard to play against and I’ve always liked Nugent-Hopkins, I think he’s underrated, I think he’s a good player. They were good tonight they came out and capitalized on their chances.

Desjardins, on the team’s ability to make the game interesting:
You just try to get it turned around a little bit, we got a couple on the power play and then we got that four-on-four one as well. Going into the third, if you get the next one, you can make a game of it. It’s still a long ways to come back, but you’re taking it one shift at a time, you’re trying to take something to build and build a little bit for the next game. But it was a tough game for us.

Anze Kopitar, on the loss:
Not much to say about that one. I thought coming out in the second and getting a goal, that was obviously positive, but we can’t expect to win many games when you’re down 5-1.

Kopitar, on whether he thought momentum from last night’s win would carry over:
I don’t know. Obviously, it was a big win last night, but we got the first goal, but like I said, the first period was not the way we wanted it and that’s what it was.

Kopitar, on the challenge of shutting down McDavid and Draisaitl:
Yeah, you’ve got to contain them obviously. You’ve got to take their time and space away. We didn’t do a very good job obviously. They had a lot of space in the middle of the ice and when you have guys with that kind of caliber and that kind of skill, and that much space and that much time, they’re going to make you pay — and they did.

Kopitar, on whether they put this one behind them and look ahead to Vancouver:
Yeah.

Carl Grundstrom, on what was said in the dressing room that helped them battle back:
It was said, ‘We’re going to do whatever we can to try and tie it up here.’ I think we gave it a good shot here. We played good, so yeah. Obviously it’s tough to lose 8-4, but I think we gave it a chance at least.

Grundstrom, on whether they had a moment of ‘what just happened?’ after the first period:
I don’t know. Everyone talked what we wanted to do and we all knew that we needed better, so we just tried to do better in the second and third period.

Grundstrom, on trying to come back one goal at a time:
Yeah, of course. We needed a quick one there after the second period and we got it too. So, yeah obviously it’s a tough loss either way.

Grundstrom, on the challenge playing against McDavid and Draisaitl:
They’re really good players. You can’t say anything about that, that’s for sure.

Grundstrom, on how confident he is playing his game at the NHL level:
I feel pretty confident. I think it’s really fun to play in the NHL, of course. I just try to do my best and I feel pretty confident for the moment.

Post-game Notes

— With the loss, Los Angeles fell to 86-87-39 all-time against Edmonton, a record that includes a road mark of 39-50-18. The Kings and Oilers split the season series, with each team going 2-2-0. Since going 28-4-9 in the series from 2006-16, Los Angeles is 6-7-0 in their last 13 games against Edmonton.

— With the loss, Los Angeles fell to 19-21-4 against the Western Conference, 12-10-2 against the Pacific Division, 11-19 in games decided by three or more goals, 20-5-2 when scoring first, 3-25-3 when trailing after one period, 2-34-2 when trailing after two periods and 11-16-2 when outshooting their opponent.

— The Kings lost by at least four goals for the 11th time this season and allowed eight goals for the first time this season. They’d previously allowed seven goals three times.

— Dustin Brown played his 1,111th career game, tying Dave Taylor for the most games played in franchise history. In 17:58 of ice time, he finished with one goal, three points, a minus-three rating, eight shots on goal, 10 total shot attempts and one hit. By assisting on goals by Alex Iafallo and Drew Doughty, he recorded his 332nd and 333rd career assists, surpassing Rob Blake for ninth place on Los Angeles’ all-time assist list.

— Anze Kopitar played the 997th game of his career, moving him within three games of 1,000 in his career.

— Jonathan Quick allowed five goals in a period for the first time in his 599-game career.

— The Kings attempted 74 shots (38 on goal, 26 blocked, 16 missed). The Oilers attempted 53 shots (32 on goal, 10 blocked, 11 missed). Dustin Brown led all skaters with eight shots on goal, while Tyler Toffoli finished with six.

— Los Angeles won 37-of-66 faceoffs (56%). Adrian Kempe won 8-of-14, Michael Amadio won 6-of-9, Anze Kopitar won 11-of-18, Tyler Toffoli won 0-of-2 and Jeff Carter won 12-of-23.

Post-game Highlights

–Lead photo via Andy Devlin/NHLI