FINAL – Kings 0, Sharks 5 – Kopitar, McLellan

The LA Kings dropped their second consecutive game against the San Jose Sharks, this by a 5-0 final on Saturday evening at SAP Center.

San Jose opened the scoring this evening with three goals in the first period to take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.

First, Timo Meier cashed in on the power play, as a centering feed to the slot found him with time between the circles, and the Swiss forward beat a screened Cal Petersen from point-blank range. San Jose made it 2-0 through Matt Nieto, as the hosts forced a turnover behind the net and Nieto worked his way free in front to put home the loose puck. Jonathan Dahlen made it 3-0, off of another defensive-zone turnover, as he fired home uncontested from the slot to put the Sharks ahead by three.

San Jose collected the lone goal from the second period, as Tomas Hertl scored his 24th of the season. With the Sharks on the power play once again, a shot from Meier hit the left post, deflected off of a Kings defenseman and right to Hertl’s stick at the back post, where he slotted home on the backhand to make it a 4-0 game.

The Sharks concluded the scoring on the evening late in the third period, as Hertl collected his second goal of the evening. Off a scramble around the net mouth, the puck bounced through the crease to Hertl, who swatted it home on the backhand for his second goal of the evening.

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

*Defenseman Matt Roy (lower-body injury) and forward Dustin Brown (upper-body injury) left the game and did not return. Brown will be out for an “extended period” per Todd McLellan, while no update was available regarding Roy.

Anze Kopitar

Anze Kopitar talks with the media following the loss#GoKingsGo | @LAKings pic.twitter.com/CP5GmA38n3

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) March 13, 2022

Todd McLellan
On the importance of structure when the team is missing so many regulars
Well, it puts a lot of stress on a lot of different areas. The structure of our team has been what has allowed us to have success. In moments of the game today we had it and other times we didn’t. Their top players took advantage of situations they should take advantage of. Our team right now has to forget about this one, it’s done, but we have to make a decision if we’re going to wallow in pity or if we’re going to attempt to overcome. We have a tough task ahead of us, with the teams we’re going to play, but we don’t give ourselves a chance if we’re going to wallow.

On if this is a big moment to limit this valley
We have to understand that we have to be confident in each other. Yeah, we lost some players, but when we do things right on the ice, confidence will grow. JAD is back up here, he can do it. Spence is a young player but he can do it. In the meantime, our top players need to play at a really high level and let that confidence grow. The longer we let that confidence grow, the longer it takes for that to happen, the tougher the task will be for us. It will be a critical point in the season, but we have played well and we banked some points in case something like this would happen. Let’s try and improve what we have.

On the team’s start to the game and early response
I didn’t think we were bad to start with, even after they scored the power-play goal, I thought it was a pretty evenly played game, we had some chances, Hill made some really good saves. The back-to-back turnovers really below the goal line really hurt our team and then they got rolling after that.

On Jordan Spence’s mindset and bouncing back from the goal in the first period
He’s playing against some really good players and they took advantage of a situation, but he had a lot of savvy to put it aside and come back and play. After we lost Roy, he had no choice really, he had to go back out and keep playing, same thing with Jacob and the rest of the group. Good for him to overcome it, there are going to be a lot of learning moments for him, Brownie and Kopi still have those and they’ve played for 15, 18 years. It’s part of growing up in the National Hockey League.

On the importance of bouncing back with special teams tomorrow against Florida
I think that, but I think the game for us, half of the game tomorrow, is going to be the decision we make in the morning coming to the rink. The other half is going to be playing against a really good team and Kopi is right, their special teams are outstanding, they have no problem scoring 4 or 5 goals a night. We’ll have to manage those situations right, playing 5-on-5 will give us a better opportunity so we can’t go marching into the penalty box. There isn’t an easy task ahead for us, everything is going to be difficult and that’s okay. The confidence we can gain in each other, over this next period, is going to be essential.

Notes –
– Defenseman Jordan Spence, playing in his second career NHL game, led all Kings players in time-on-ice (22:58).
– Goaltender Cal Petersen took the loss with 22 saves between the pipes.
– Forwards Alex Iafallo, Arthur Kaliyev and Trevor Moore led the Kings with three shots on goal apiece this evening.

The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow, and will return to the ice tomorrow evening as they host the Florida Panthers at 7:30 PM at Crypto.com Arena.