FINAL – Kings 4, Jets 6 – Kopitar, McLellan

The LA Kings dropped a disappointing, 6-4 loss against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Forward Trevor Moore led the way with two points (1-1-2), while forwards Arthur Kaliyev, Blake Lizotte and Gabe Vilardi all scored in the defeat.

A high-event first period saw the teams combine for five goals, ending with a 3-2 advantage for the Kings. It was Winnipeg, however, that opened the scoring as Mark Schiefele scored on his team’s first shot of the game, a breakaway, to put the visitors on the board

The Kings pushed back, however, as forward Arthur Kaliyev tied the game at one with a power-play goal midway through the opening period. Off the rush on a zone entry, Kaliyev worked his way into the right-hand circle and wired a wrist shot past Winnipeg netminder Connor Hellebuyck on the stick side to knot the score at one apiece.

The hosts struck twice more, both at 5-on-5, to open up a two-goal advantage. First, just over a minute after Kaliyev tied the score, forward Carl Grundstrom fed linemate Blake Lizotte for a gritty goal at the near post and a 2-1 advantage. Later in the period, forward Gabe Vilardi stayed hot as he redirected a Kevin Fiala shot past Hellebuyck for his team-leading sixth goal of the season, his second tally in as many nights.

The Jets capped off the first period with a shorthanded goal for a 3-2 scoreline at the intermission. Off a turnover, Winnipeg went the other way on an odd man rush, resulting in Adam Lowry in alone, where he deked to the backhand for the goal.

Winnipeg scored the only two goals from the second period to re-take the lead, this time by a 4-3 margin. First, the Jets scored a power-play goal, as Pierre-Luc Dubois took the puck to the front of the net and fired home on the stick side for his third goal of the season. Just 65 seconds from the intermission, defenseman Nate Schmidt made it 4-3 as his shot from the center point evaded traffic and found a hole, going straight in for his first goal of the season.

Less than five minutes into the third period, the teams were tied again as forward Trevor Moore buried his first goal of the season to level the score at four apiece. After relentless puck pursuit in the slot from Moore and Phillip Danault, the latter fed the former alone in front where he scored on the forehand, tying the game in the process.

Off of a shift when the Kings were unable to clear their defensive zone, Winnipeg took the lead for good with a deflected effort from the slot. Forward Axel Jonsson-Fjalby redirected a shot from the left point past Quick, for a 5-4 advantage. Forward Blake Wheeler scored an empty-net goal to bring us to the final score of 6-4.

Hear from Anze Kopitar and Todd McLellan following tonight’s defeat.

Anze Kopitar
On how the Kings stop the mistakes defensively
We can’t expect to win many games with giving up six goals. Whether we can blame it on the PK, not scoring on the power play, bad changes, turnovers, whatever, the bottom line is we can’t give up six and think we have a chance to win.

On how the Kings stop the mistakes defensively.
The first one, stuff like that happens and we were still going, we scored three goals and then we proceeded to give up a shorthanded goal. That should not happen.

On if he felt the shorthanded goal was a momentum changing play
You’re still up one, but you certainly don’t want to give one up there. In that moment, we should have been extending our lead instead of giving up shorties.

On what he feels the team needs to do to turn around the goals against
It’s just playing more responsible.

Todd McLellan
On how the Kings stop the mistakes defensively.
It’s 29, 30 of us because I’m including us as coaches and we’ve got to decide again and I’ve been saying this for 10 games. 12% of our schedule is gone and we still don’t know how we want to play. I would think the experiment of run and gun that we’re trying to play, like how much more evidence do we need that it doesn’t work. There are simple hockey principles, you don’t turn pucks over at the line, you get pucks in deep, you forecheck, short shifts. The penalties that we’re taking are unacceptable, so there’s a lot of game management situations that go into it and unless the group decides as a whole, we’ll experiment for another 10 games. Maybe we will become the run and gun team. I don’t like our chances, but if that’s how we want to play and that’s what we’re going to keep trying, we’re probably going to keep getting the same results.

On the first period tonight, with the puck possession but also the goals conceded
Power play. We’re on the power play and our only thought process on the power play is offense. There are times where there’s risk involved in it, but we don’t play risk at all, we just assume everything’s going work out fine and it comes back the other way, what, three times on two power plays. So, you’re in a situation where you have a really good period, you should be up and close to putting a team away early in the game and they’re right back in it, but you want to run and gun, you don’t understand risk, you don’t play risk and you’re not responsible for risk. That’s what happens.

On moving Gabe Vilardi up to the top line late in the game
Gabe has been probably our best offensive player. There are some things going on with Kopi’s line that I’m not happy with and I thought that that Gabe needed an opportunity there. [Would it be considered in future games?] Maybe. What we have right now isn’t working so we’ll have to address it tomorrow.

On what he felt he needed more of tonight
We could use a better coaching staff, we could use some forwards that committed, we needed D that move the puck and we needed goaltending. There isn’t one area. I told the guys between the second and third, we all own a piece of this. So, dig yourselves out and we didn’t do it.

Notes –
– Gabe Vilardi scored his team-leading sixth goal of the season, tying him for fifth in the NHL in goals. Vilardi has goals in back-to-back games for the third time this season.
– Trevor Moore (1-1-2) recorded his first goal of the season and third muti-point game of the year. Moore is tied for second on the team in scoring with seven points (1-6-7) from nine games played this season.
– Blake Lizotte scored his second goal of the season and now has goals in each of his last two outings. This is second time in his career he has scored in consecutive games (12/18/21 at CAR, 12/19/21 at WSH).
– The Kings conceded their third shorthanded goal of the season tonight, the most in the NHL.
– The Kings have conceded four or more goals in seven of their first nine games games this season and have allowed an NHL-high 39 goals this season.
– The Kings set a season-high with 44 shots on goal this evening.

The Kings are scheduled to skate tomorrow morning at Toyota Sports Performance Center, with practice set to begin at 11 AM.