PRESEASON FINAL – Kings 2, Sharks 3 OT – McLellan’s takeaways + Clarke’s preseason debut & notes

The LA Kings came up short in their first game of the 2022 preseason, falling in overtime to the San Jose Sharks by a score of 3-2 at the SAP Center on Sunday evening.

Blake Lizotte scored to tie the game with less than three minutes to play in the third and force overtime, but Logan Couture eventually scored for San Jose at 3:33 of the extra session after the Kings were killed a late penalty to defenseman Brandt Clarke that was called with seven seconds remaining in regulation.

Carl Grundstrom, who was on a line with Lizotte and Brendan Lemieux, had the other goal in the opening minute of the third and finished with two points in the contest, earning the lone assist on Lizotte’s equalizer.

The Sharks controlled most of the action in the first period that included four San Jose power play opportunities. LA starting goaltender Jonathan Quick stopped 12 of 13 shots in the opening 20 minutes in an excellent performance to open the preseason and finished his appearance after 32 minutes of action while totaling 17 saves on 18 shots.

Luke Kunin scored the lone tally of the opening frame on a point-blank redirect in front of the net, which came off a cross-ice feed by Tomas Hertl and included a second helper from Timo Meier. The strike stood up during a scoreless second period and had the Sharks in front until Grundstrom’s goal 59 seconds into the third.

LA’s penalty kill was tested in the first, but the tables were turned in the second when San Jose kept the Kings off the board during six power play opportunities. Sharks goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen turned aside 20 shots during a barrage in the middle frame to hold a lead for the home team.

Matt Villalta came on in relief of Quick and made 11 saves on 13 shots, while Kahkonen stopped 43 of the Kings 45 attempts overall to earn the win.

Both teams came up empty overall on the man-advantage in the game, with San Jose going 0-for-8 and the Kings ending at 0-for-7. Clarke and fellow defender Matt Roy led the Kings in time on ice, each with 24:59 played, while Quinton Byfield played the most of the forwards (20:33).

Below are postgame thoughts from Head Coach Todd McLellan and Clarke.

Todd McLelllan
On what was it like to play a game with a lot of penalties that hurt the flow
“Well, the flow part didn’t exist for both teams. It was a long night, a lot of penalties. Obviously, we’ve got to get better in some areas as far as stick infractions and holding and hooking and use our legs a little bit more, but if they’re ever going to call a lot, now’s a good time for it. I thought the penalties took a lot of players out of the game for us particularly early, but even in the second period on the power play, it took a lot of players away. Tough night to evaluate. Some guys were noticeably good and as always, there’s a couple of disappointments but for night one, we’re fairly pleased.

On the early play of Quick
Well, he’s got a lot of experience and he trained quite hard over the summer. So he’s been on the ice for a while now. I believe his body probably felt really good. He was tracking the puck well, it’s a lot to ask right off the bat, but if anybody can do it, he can and he proved again, he could get it done.

On what he saw in Clarke’s first NHL preseason game
“A lot of the things that we thought we would. Poised with the puck, good playmaking, read the ice well, for him it’ll be getting acclimatized to heavier forechecks, perhaps some craftier, smarter players on the forecheck that are reading where the puck might go to. More time on the power play of course. We haven’t even talked about power play yet, we just put guys out and let them play. But I thought overall, he handled his minutes well and had an impact on the game.”

On his younger group going up against San Jose’s more veteran lineup
“We get to choose our lineup. It doesn’t matter who dresses what, we’re evaluating our players and the fact that we got to play against a pretty good team tonight was good for us. It was a big challenge for our players and a good evaluation tool for us. But the veterans on both teams are managing themselves. They’re trying to get themselves ready, they know how long the season is, and I think it’s sometimes misleading when you look at number of veterans in the lineup versus rookies.

On the play of Grundstrom, who was noticeable in the second half of the game
It was, he had a tough first period, simply because of minutes and flow and rhythm, but as the game wore on he did the things he needed to do. He played in straight lines, he was physical player and got to the blue paint, which is an area of the game I didn’t think we did a real good job of but he was one that did get there.

Brandt Clarke
On how he felt in his first action with the Kings in an NHL arena
“It was fun. It’s cool to see the superstars on their team, see quality NHLers all over the ice. They’re bringing it. They’re getting warm for the season and they’re bringing their best they can and it’s challenging but I thought I tried to step it up in the second and third. Definitely some nerves in the first, maybe I was gripping the stick a little too tight but I thought I got more comfortable throughout the game and I thought I was making more plays and I was pretty satisfied with how the second half of my game went.

On playing so much on special teams without a good flow to the game
Definitely, the first was pretty much all killing and the second was all on the man-advantage. It’s a big swing there, you gotta get adjusted and get ready for both sides. But you know, I thought we did a good job, we were phenomenal on the kill today. We didn’t even give them any shots and our power play was pretty good too. If you look at our shots we probably had like 15. I’m not even seeing the numbers but I’m guessing. Would have been nice to bury a couple and I think we had a couple of really quality chances and we were definitely pretty happy with our shifts when we came off at times but when you look at a zero in the goal column there it’s frustrating even when we know we had some really high quality looks.

On playing his first game in front of a goalie like Quick
“Oh, he’s an absolute rock. “It’s crazy seeing all the highlights on TV but you know it’s so much more calming when he’s actually back there and especially there was a lot of nerves for a lot of us today but he was so calm, cool and collected back there. He was making the big save, they had a really high quality chance eight seconds of the game and he was he was up for the challenge. You can just tell he’s a pro and he’s always ready for any moment. He definitely kept us in it. They could have put up three, four or five maybe in the first period but he held it to one and we’re really grateful for that to give us a chance in the game.

Notes –
– Grundstrom opened the preseason with a goal and an assist (1-1=2), leading the team with two points. Grundstrom also scored the team’s last goal in the playoffs during the 2021-22 season, giving him bookending goals to end one year and begin the next.
– Clarke (0-1=1) registered a point in his NHL preseason debut with an assist on Grundstrom’s goal.
– Quick is beginning the 16th season of his NHL career which has spanned from 2007-present.
– Lemieux (0-1=1), who is beginning his sixth NHL season, posted an assist on Grundstrum’s third period goal.

The Kings are scheduled to hold a morning skate at 10 AM tomorrow at Toyota Sports Performance Center ahead of a 7:00 PM game in Vegas against the Golden Knights. Those who won’t travel to the game will skate at 11:15 AM.