FINAL – Kings 5, Sabres 2 – Arvidsson, Danault, McLellan

The LA Kings made it two consecutive wins coming out of the break with a 5-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Monday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Forwards Viktor Arvidsson (1-2-3) and Phillip Danault (0-3-3) each had three-point nights in the victory, while forward Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist, giving him seven goals over his last three games played. Forward Arthur Kaliyev, as well as defensemen Matt Roy and Sean Walker, also scored in the victory.

After a scoreless opening period, the Kings exploded for four goals in the second to open up a 4-0 advantage through 40 minutes.

First, Kempe made it five straight goals scored as he buried shorthanded to get the hosts on the board. Off the rush, Kempe worked his way into the slot and beat Buffalo netminder Craig Anderson clean with a wrist shot for his 27th goal of the season. Kaliyev made it 2-0 with a special teams goal of his own, this on the power play. After Danault deflected a centering pass from Arvidsson, Kaliyev made no mistake in burying it for the goal, his tenth of the season.

The Kings got a pair of goals from defensemen, just 33 seconds apart, to take a 4-0 lead. First, Walker moved in from the right point, took a pass from Danault and snapped his shot past Anderson for his third goal of the season. Roy made it 4-0 as he executed a give-and-go with Kempe, finishing with the half slap shot from the slot for his seventh goal of the season, giving Kempe a multi-point night with the primary helper.

A fortunate bounce gave the Kings their fifth goal of the evening, less than five minutes into the third period. A Phillip Danault dump into the offensive zone ricocheted off the endboards, directly between Anderson’s legs, with Arvidsson crashing the net and knocking home the puck for his third point of the evening.

Buffalo picked up two goals late in the third period, to bring the final score to 5-2. First, off the rush, forward Dylan Cozens put a changeup of a shot through Copley’s legs to snap his shutout streak at just over 110 minutes. Forward Peyton Krebs closed out the scoring on the evening with a power-play goal, tapping in a Victor Olofsson feed for the 5-2 scoreline.

Hear from Arvidsson, Danault and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Viktor Arvidsson

Phillip Danault
On winning twice coming out of the break
I mean, we’re scoring and we’re tight defensively as well, Cops is kicking, so we’ve just got to keep going the right way. We’ve got to bring that every game, game after game. When we show up to the rink, we know our teammates are going to show up and that’s what makes the difference every night.

On if the 2 goals allowed are just as exciting as the 11 for over the last two games
Yeah, big time. I think it’s even more exciting for us, that’s Kings hockey. That’s how you win, that’s how you make it to the playoffs and that’s how you need to play in the playoffs as well. We’re just growing our game.

On his line finally getting a couple of positive bounces
Yeah, a couple of good bounces, we were working hard and got rewarded. I thought we played a solid 60 minutes. We were better as the game got going and obviously good to get a couple of bounces. We’re all good players and sometimes the little things are welcomed.

Todd McLellan
On his assessment of the win over Buffalo
First of all two wins, the goal scored are great, the few given up were fine. We’re happy to put the points in the bank, but I thought the two games were opposite of each other, really, when it came to details. We got away with a lot of stuff tonight. I know we’re supposed to appreciate and enjoy wins, but I wasn’t overly impressed with our team tonight. I thought we did things that we shouldn’t be doing, three offensive zone penalties, one late in the game to give them a chance to get back in, turnover after turnover. Rarely do I come in and over-critique a win, but tonight’s the night.

On seeng the Danault line get rewarded with a couple of positive bounces tonight for goals
I think if your intent is to do things right, eventually it goes your way. For the most part, their intent is usually good. They make mistakes like everybody else but they have good game management skills for the most part and tonight they got rewarded for bounces that went their way. Perhaps on the road trip, they maybe took it on the chin a little bit in goals against, for bounces that didn’t go their way. It wasn’t malicious errors or anything like that, it just didn’t work their way, Tonight it did.

On continuously getting timely saves from Pheonix Copley
They matter a lot. I can take you out of tonight’s game and back to Crosby’s shot on the initial power play a couple of nights ago. Could be completely different game, when he came across, made a great save and that allowed us to get going. Tonight, he made some real good ones too, even at the end when it feels like the game is out of reach but it really isn’t the way that team can score. He made some good saves.

On getting two goals tonight from defensemen and the evolution of that group
I know when I first got hired, we talked about the plan and that plan still is in play, it’s evolved over time and we’re nowhere near the end of it, but the transition of the team, bringing certain types of players in, creating a belief system, dealing with structure, improving the talent pool, getting trusting players, I can go on and on with all the little pieces that go into it. Development, player development has been really good I think, and it has nothing to do with me, but since I’ve been here, I’ve seen Walker and Roy and Mikey Anderson improve immensely. There’s three defenseman, Sean Durzi arrived [too] and he’s playing well. The kids that are in the lineup now, Gabe Vilardi, think of where he was two or three years ago and what he can do now. So it’s just time, evolution and work and the players are doing it, there’s a lot of staff that’s taken care of as well.

On using a game like this for teaching moments from the things he didn’t like, after the win
That depends how receptive the classroom will be, maybe they don’t feel the same way I do, maybe they’re driving home and everything’s good right now. Once we get to that classroom and have little satellite meetings, we’ll get a better feel if we’re selling a bill of goods or if they’re believing it. If they’re believing it, then we got a real good chance of improving it. We’ll see tomorrow or we’ll see the the next day and try and fix some things.

Notes –
– Adrian Kempe (1-1-2) scored his second shorthanded goal of the season marking his fifth straight goal over the past two games. Per NHL PR, Kempe became the third skater in Kings history to record five straight goals, joining Luc Robitaille (2/4/92 – 2/6/92) and Tomas Sandstrom (11/22/90 – 11/24/90). The last player to do so for any NHL team was Jack Eichel with Buffalo (11/16/19 – 11/17/19).
– Kempe’s shorthanded goal was the eighth of his career, tying Trevor Moore, Yanic Perreault, Glen Murray and Jari Kurri for eighth-most in franchise history.
– Viktor Arvidsson (1-2-3) registered his fourth three-point game of the season, including his 14th goal of the year early in the third period.
– Phillip Danault (0-3-3) recorded his first three-assist effort as a King and the fifth of his NHL career.
– Arthur Kaliyev tallied his 10th goal of the season to reach double-digit goals for a second consecutive season. The goal marked his eighth power-play goal on the campaign to tie Adrian Kempe for most on the team.
– Defensemen Matt Roy and Sean Walker each scored in the victory, Roy’s team-leading seventh goal amongst defensemen. Their goals came 33 seconds apart, the third-fastest two goals by the Kings this season.
– Pheonix Copley stopped 27-of-29 shots for his 17th victory of the season, establishing a new career high for wins in a season.
– Rob Blake becomes the fastest general manager in franchise history to reach 200 regular season wins (427 games, 200-179-48) and is the fifth Kings GM to reach the mark.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow morning at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.