The Kings concluded their four-game road trip with a mark of 0-3-1, as they fell by a 3-0 final against the St. Louis Blues on Monday evening at Enterprise Center.
Jonathan Quick was stout between the pipes, with 32 saves on 34 shots, but the Kings were not able to solve Ville Husso, who posted a 34-save shutout at the other end of the ice.
The first two periods featured some action at both ends, but ultimately no goals scored.
The Blues were the better team in the first period, possessing the game’s first ten shots on goal, with Kings netminder Jonathan Quick turning aside all 18 shots he faced. The Kings were unable to create many Grade-A scoring chances in the first 20 minutes, with Quick doing his part to keep the game without a goal.
In the middle stanza, however, the Kings started to settle in and had more of the puck. Rasmus Kupari had a solid opportunity, off a toe drag, while the Kings started to establish themselves, creating turnovers and playing in the offensive end, but to no avail in the goals scored column.
The third period saw the Blues take control on the scoreboard, with a pair of Vladimir Tarasenko goals, to take the win. First, Tarasenko went around Mikey Anderson in a 1-on-1 situation, and finished top shelf, before he took a stretch pass off a blocked shot, went in on a breakaway, and finished for a multi-goal effort. David Perron iced the game with an empty netter with just over a minute to play.
*Sean Walker suffered a lower-body injury in the first period and did not return to the game. An update on Walker, from Head Coach Todd McLellan, is provided below.
Hear from defenseman Matt Roy and McLellan from after the game.
Post-Game Quotes
Matt Roy
On his overall assessment of where things are at right now
When we’re aggressive and hunting the puck, we’re good, but at times, it just breaks down and it ends up in our net. At the end of the day, we have to limit our turnovers and put our foot on the pedal.
On if he can be happy with a bounce-back effort, when it ended in a loss
I mean, it doesn’t really matter, a loss is a loss. With everything happening, we all just need to step up and make it happen, some way or another.
On taking more of the burden upon himself with Doughty and Walker out
Yeah, naturally, but I think we all need to do that, on a daily basis, even with them in the lineup, so we can help them out a bit more. I was trying to do that today, but I think we all need to pitch in and do more of our parts.
On seeing that responsibility be contagious throughout the group
I think it’s just a daily mindset. Practice days, game days. Personally, I need to do a better job myself at that, there’s a lot of stuff that I can do better. Moving forward, that’s going to be my mentality and hopefully it’s going to be others as well.
On Jonathan Quick’s performance tonight
He was great. He’s the hardest-worker on the ice whenever he plays and it’s always fun playing in front of him. You want to win for him, so it’s good to see him out there.
Todd McLellan
On if he felt his team was better, to a man, as he hoped this morning
We were certainly tentative to begin with, their momentum from last game carried over and we were on our heels a little bit. We were afraid to make mistakes. Once we got through that, it was a much better effort from everybody, starting with Quickie in goal, to keep us in it early. After that, we were out to play four lines, we competed with them, but we have to score a goal, obviously, to win. Just a couple of individual mistakes that cost you, but it’s such a fine line when you’re down a few d-men and it’s not going in at the other end. That was the outcome tonight.
On the play of Matt Roy and the other four defensemen after Walker’s injury
All five did. If you’re talking about hands, it was [Roy] and Strander that were left as righties, but all five of them stepped up and gave us what they had, and they were fine. A couple mistakes, a 1-on-1 mistake, a blocked shot at the blueline, but other than that, they defended well and Quickie made saves when he had to. There’s never a perfect game for sure, but they played well.
On the play of Matt Roy and the other four defensemen after Walker’s injury
It’s appreciated all the time. When you call your team out, and we called our team out, they responded with an effort. The only negative things about tonight, really, are an injury and a loss, and those are big things for us. There’s a lot of checkmarks when it comes to the competitiveness and the effort from everybody, players 1 through 20, everybody found a way to give us something, but it’s obviously not enough right now and that needs to improve.
On any update he has on Sean Walker’s condition
It’s going to be the same as Drew, we’ve got to get home and get our doctors to look after him, evaluate everything. He didn’t return and he couldn’t put any weight on it, so it’s not a minor injury by any means.
Notes –
– Defenseman Matt Roy logged an NHL career-high 28:45 in time on ice tonight. Roy surpassed his previous career-high by nearly three minutes.
– Forward Viktor Arvidsson led the Kings with six shots on goal in the defeat this evening.
– The Kings were shutout for the first time this season, and the first time overall since May 12, 2021 at Colorado.
The Kings are traveling back to Los Angeles following tonight’s game, and are not scheduled to practice tomorrow. The team returns to the ice on Wednesday afternoon, in advance of Thursday’s game against Winnipeg.
Rules for Blog Commenting
Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.
Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.