FINAL – Kings 2, Sharks 6 – Kopitar, McLellan

The LA Kings saw their four-game winning streak come to a close in a 6-2 defeat against the San Jose Sharks on Monday afternoon at SAP Center.

Anze Kopitar and Mikey Anderson scored for the Kings, in defeat, as both players extended their respective scoring streaks in the process.

San Jose scored the game’s first four goals, to take an extended advantage into the first intermission.

First, forward Timo Meier opened the scoring just over three minutes into the game, with a power-play goal from the left-hand circle. Meier took a cross-ice pass from Brent Burns, through the slot, and fired past Kings netminder Jonathan Quick on the stick side. The Sharks doubled their advantage later in the period, as Rudolfs Balcers collected a blocked shot in the slot and put home the rebound, through the five hole, to make it a 2-0 game.

Meier quickly turned a 2-0 game into a 4-0 game in a span of just 21 seconds, as he completed his first-period hat trick. First, Meier collected the rebound off of a deflected point shot that was blocked but not cleared and sniped his own effort top glove for a three-goal advantage. Shortly thereafter, Meier got to the front of the net and finished off another broken play, this on a rebound, to make it 4-0.

The Kings did pull one back shortly before the first intermission, however, to take a bit of momentum into the second period. Anze Kopitar intercepted a clearing attempt in the offensive zone, walked in and beat San Jose goaltender James Reimer on the shortside from the left-hand circle, for an unassisted goal, his 12th of the season.

Meier made it a four-goal game early in the second period, as the Sharks made it 2-of-2 on the power play on the evening. Stationed at the bottom of the right-hand circle, Meier went top shelf to extend the San Jose lead back to four goals, with his personal fourth of the afternoon. The Swiss-born forward added his fifth of the night just over a minute from the second intermission, as he took a cross-ice feed, dragged the puck into the slot and fired inside the far post.

The Kings pulled one goal back in the third period, as defenseman Mikey Anderson extended his point streak to three games with a goal from just outside the crease. His partner, Drew Doughty held the puck in the left-hand circle and hit Anderson for a tap-in from in tight, his second goal of the 2021-22 season.

Hear from Kopitar and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Anze Kopitar
On the scoreline being slanted one way and the shot counts slanted the other
This one is tough to explain. Obviously it’s a score that sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s hard to say that we didn’t play a very bad game, because we had some chances, we had some o-zone time, but at the end of the day you’re playing for the two points and you didn’t get them. It’s especially more important being a division game, I believe they were right behind us and I don’t know if they’re still behind us after this one. It’s a race for the playoffs and they got the best of us.

On if tonight’s game felt “out of the blue” considering the run as of late.
It happened very quickly, in the first period, we saw that. Like I said, we didn’t play terribly, but nowhere near good enough. Sometimes, when you don’t play terrible and get away with it, maybe a 2-1 game, 3-1 game, it doesn’t look as bad as it does at 6-2. There’s another game tomorrow that we have to prepare and focus on and go from there.

On if a player scoring five goals made the scoreline any more deflating
That doesn’t really matter. Listen, when you’re down 4-1 after the first, it doesn’t matter who’s scoring. With the late goal in the first, we thought we could maybe come out in the second, get some jump, get something going quickly, but it didn’t happen.

On the struggles on the penalty kill tonight
The first one, they obviously made a nice play through the seam, and usually when the puck goes through the seam like that, it’s a good chance there will be a grade-A scoring chance, very good odds for the puck to go in. The second one, hats off to Timo, he picked the corner, he obviously found the spot.

Todd McLellan
On tonight’s game
You could probably summarize this game by looking at the game sheet. One, it would tell you the score, 6-2. You’d look at the shots on goal and go “that shouldn’t be like that” but it should be, because one team played on the inside, in and around our paint, and we didn’t get inside at the other end. A lot of the other parts of our game weren’t bad, so that was enough to lop-side it one way or the other. Once the game deteriorates, you try to stay from bad habits, we’ve got to play tomorrow and you try and improve individually than as a team. I felt some did that, others fell off a little bit, but it was one that was lost in and around the paint and we’ve got to get ready for tomorrow.

On if cleaning up those inside chances is an “easy fix” considering that the Kings have handled that area well of late
Nothing’s easy in this game, whether you’re fixing or moving forward, so no, it’s not an easy fix, but it’s addressable. We can be better in those areas for sure.

On Timo Meier’s five goals and if that was at all a shock to the team
No, he’s a hell of a player, the fourth leading shooter in the league as far as volume in the NHL. He’s playing with a guy that’s red hot, in Tomas [Hertl] and he has the ability to do that. He scored five on six shots, that’s a career night, and it didn’t change the way that we felt about our game, he just happened to be the guy who had it on his tape.

On the main focus points heading into tomorrow’s game.
Get some rest and put this behind us. If we drag bad habits or we sulk, we’ll be in trouble tomorrow, we know who we’re playing against. Let’s move on.

Notes –
– Anze Kopitar extended his point streak to four games with his goal late in the first period. Kopitar leads the Kings with 35 points (12-23-35) this season.
– With an assist in the third period, forward Viktor Arvidsson extended his own scoring streak to four games. Arvidsson has nine points (4-5-9) from seven games played in January.
– Defenseman Mikey Anderson extended his point streak to three games, as he scored midway through the third period, his second goal of the season.
– Forward Samuel Fagemo played his second career NHL game, recording three shots on goal in 18:30 in time on ice.
– Timo Meier became the second player to score five goals in a game against the LA Kings (Alexei Zhamnov on 4/1/95 with Winnipeg)

The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow, before tomorrow evening’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Crypto.com Arena.