The LA Kings dropped a 6-4 decision against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday evening at Crypto.com Arena, falling in both games of a back-to-back set this week.
The Kings got goals from four different players, and goals in all situations, but came up short against the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Tampa Bay opened the scoring in a relatively tame opening 20 minutes, taking a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Victor Hedman picked up the puck in the neutral zone off a Kings turnover, went end-to-end on a breakaway and beat Kings netminder Cal Petersen on the glove side to put the Lightning on the board with his eighth goal of the season.
The Kings stormed back with two goals of their own in the middle stanza, as they took their first lead of the evening. First, Blake Lizotte beat Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy with a superb shot, on the glove side, to tie the game at one. With the hosts shorthanded, Alex Iafallo put his team ahead as he pickpocketed Mikhail Sergachev in the slot and snapped a shot past Vasilevskiy to give LA the advantage.
The Lightning answered with a pair of goals of their own, however, to reclaim a one-goal advantage. First, on the same power play on which Iafallo scored shorthanded, Nikita Kucherov one-timed a feed from Hedman past Petersen on the blocker side, tying the game at two. Less than two minutes later, the visitors added a shorthanded goal of their own, as Mathieu Joseph fed Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who deked to his backhand and past Petersen for the go-ahead goal.
On that same man advantage, however, the Kings tied the game at three to take the game into the second intermission all square. Walking in from the left-hand circle, forward Arthur Kaliyev fired a puck towards the back post, that deflected off of Hedman’s stick and in, Kaliyev’s seventh goal of the season.
Tampa Bay took control of the third period with a pair of goals at even strength, to pull away late. First, Hedman walked in from the right point and snapped the go-ahead goal inside the post, blocker side, to put the visitors up by one. Later in the final frame, forward Mathieu Joseph buried a one-timer from the right-hand circle to make it a 5-3 game.
An empty-net goal from Steven Stamkos and a late one from Phillip Danault brought us to our final score of 6-4 in favor of the Lightning.
Hear from Alex Iafallo and Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.
Alex Iafallo
Alex Iafallo speaks to the media following the tough loss to the Lightning @LAKings | #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/MAJgxke7GZ
— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) January 19, 2022
Todd McLellan
On 11 goals allowed on 41 shots over the last two games
A little bit of everything. You’ve heard us use the word identity a lot over the last month and it’s gone away on us a little bit. San Jose, we’ve already talked about San Jose, horrendous net play and rebounds. Tonight, you have the Stanley Cup champs come into town, the first goal is a gift, you can’t give a team an easier goal than that. The second goal, remember, we’re playing the Stanley Cup champs, we take a terrible penalty, we don’t get a clear and it’s in the back of our net. If we wonder why our penalty-kill numbers are where they’re at, that plays a big part in it. I know you guys have asked me what can we do, we can fix those two things. The third one, power play. We’re stubborn on the entry, we turn the puck over and now we’ve got to defend. We’ve got four players delinquent in defending. We’re playing the Stanley Cup champs, you give them three goals like that and you’re not winning. It doesn’t matter what happened with goals 4, 5 and 6.
On playing against four defensemen, but that group including Hedman, McDonagh and Sergachev
We didn’t put enough pressure on them, but they’re a really good team. They’re veteran players back there, Hedman, Sergachev, McDonagh, even Cal Foote is getting his feet wet. They know how to manage themselves in a game like this, to get on and off the ice, they were just fine. Their forwards took care of them, they played a good, team game to protect their backend.
On what got away in the third period
You’re talking about the back end, my issue was with the first three, but we can talk about the fourth one, I might as well throw that one into the pile. Late in a shift, we want to stickhandle at the blueline, sometimes the simplest play is the correct play. We want to go through everybody and then we don’t handle it and we don’t handle a d-zone coverage situation real well. We’ve been reviewing that with video and with some practice situations. These are the grow-up moments for some of our players. I didn’t think the veterans were very good tonight and the kids have to grow up, they have to learn these moments and these situations, so it’s a combination of everybody in the team tonight, it’s not old or young.
On what progress from the young players would look like for that group
Well, young and old, we’re making some mistakes right now that we didn’t make a week ago. Progress would mean cleaning that up. If you’re led to the water, eventually you’ve got to know when to drink and there’s some that continually get to the water and they’re not quite drinking yet. They’re making the same mistake at that spot, over and over again. We’ll be able to shuffle some stuff around. I expect Athanasiou to get back into the lineup here, perhaps as early as Thursday, it’s time, and Grundstrom will be back in, so we’ll have some bodies that we can likely inject, but we’ll have to see where everybody is with bumps and bruises as well.
On if he felt the Kings didn’t rise to the occasion against the defending champions
No, I thought we were a little bit flat early, the way we gave them the first goal deflated the excitement or energy, but I thought we had some pushback, some energy, got some emotion into the game in the second period. It wasn’t a lack of respect for the opponent, sometimes that happens, or over respecting the opponent, we just made way too many mistakes.
On if there’s any frustration with a 3-in-4 set
No, not at all, not one bit. COVID, that pandemic that’s out there has screwed everything up for the league and everybody. We play 82 games in 186 days, that’s almost every second night, so if you want a couple days, or three days off in between games, you’re going to have to play back-to-back and we do it 16 times this year. There’s teams that do it more than that, so tough luck. If we think the schedule plays into any success or failure for us, we’re dreaming. It works out the same for everybody.
Notes –
– The teams combined tonight to score at least one goal while at even strength, short handed and on the power play. This is the first time that has happened in a Kings game since Jan. 26, 2006 when the Kings hosted the Edmonton Oilers and fell 5-3.
– Forward Viktor Arvidsson extended his point streak to five games with an assist on Phillip Danault’s late goal in the third period.
– Alex Iafallo scored his first career shorthanded goal this evening. Iafallo’s goal was his 11th of the season, giving him four points (1-3-4) in his last four games played.
– Forward Phillip Danault scored his 10th goal of the season – his sixth in 2022 – making him the fourth Kings player to reach double-digits this season.
– Dustin Brown appeared in his 1,269th career NHL game this evening, tying Brett Hull for seventh all-time amongst Americans.
– Forward Arthur Kaliyev scored his seventh goal of the season, while forward Blake Lizotte scored his fifth, one shy of his single-season career high.
The Kings have a scheduled off day tomorrow, before they are set to return to action on Thursday for morning skate, in advance of that evening’s game against Colorado.
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