FINAL – Kings 3, Canadiens 2 – Gavrikov, Vilardi, Walker, McLellan

The LA Kings kicked off a stretch with 10 of 11 games at home with a victory, as they skated to a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Forward Gabe Vilardi led the Kings with a goal and an assist, as he reached the 20-goal mark, while forwards Alex Iafallo and Anze Kopitar also scored in the win. Goaltender Pheonix Copley made 19 saves to earn his 19th victory of the season, while defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov made his Kings debut, with 16:13 in time-on-ice.

The Canadiens opened the scoring on the evening with the lone goal of the first period, a power-play goal from forward Josh Anderson. A couple of weird bounces off of Kings sticks sent the puck to the net mouth, where Anderson whacked home an attempted clear, with the puck going through Copley’s legs and into the back of the net for the game’s first goal.

The Kings responded through Iafallo, however, to knot the score at one heading into the second intermission. Off a faceoff win, Vilardi dragged the puck around his defenseman and fed Iafallo in the low slot, where he buried his shot top shelf for his ninth goal of the season. Vilardi had the lone assist on the play, his 15th of the 2022-23 campaign.

LA then scored twice in a span of 63 seconds in the third period to open up a 3-1 advantage.

First, Vilardi put the Kings ahead more than seven minutes into the third period, with his 20th goal of the season. Off a scramble just outside the crease, Vilardi was first to a rebound and scored from a dirty area to put the hosts ahead for the first time on the evening. Kopitar doubled the lead just over a minute later, as he buried a feed from Quinton Byfield in the slot for his fifth goal over the last two games and a two-goal advantage.

Montreal pulled a goal back just 69 seconds after Kopitar’s goal, however, to make it a 3-2 game. Attacking the offensive zone off the rush, newly acquired forward Denis Gurianov uncorked a slap shot from the left-hand circle that went in on the glove side for his third goal of the season, the final goal of the evening.

Hear from Gavrikov, Vilardi, defenseman Sean Walker and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s win.

Vladislav Gavrikov

Gabe Vilardi
On reaching 20 goals and how he achieved the mark
Just getting to the right areas and shooting the puck when I get the chances. I’m playing with good players and that helps too.

On the play of his line tonight
I think we just buried chances. We can do more still but we’re doing the right things, we’re forechecking, we’re playing well in the d-zone which is the most important and offense will come. We’ve just got to keep doing the right things, like I said forchecking, creating little chances out there down there and just keep going.

On if he’s feeling close to 100 percent back off the injury
Yeah, I’m getting better I think. There are still a lot of things I want to keep working on, watching video and stuff, but it is hard coming back from injury, especially when right now it’s such a tight playoff race. Every point matters, every game feels like a playoff game, so it’s just being in good spots and taking advantage of my opportunities.

Sean Walker
On debuting with a partner he hasn’t practiced with and if that can be difficult
It could be, but he’s a great player, he adapted very well. He talks very well, communication was good on both sides and I thought he did a great job. It was pretty seamless, I thought.

On Gavrikov and his play as his partner
I think he’s a great player, he makes a lot of good plays, he makes it easy on me. I turned a puck over there in the second and he just shuts down the play. It’s little things like that. He’s going to win a lot of battles down low, he’s a big guy, he makes it easy for everybody out there.

On the importance of starting off a homestand with a win like this
It’s huge. You want to build that confidence at home and going forward, we’re home basically home for all of March so that’s going to be key for us. There’s a lot of games we’re going to have to win down the stretch here.

Todd McLellan
On the importance of starting off this home stretch with a win
I think it was really important for us. Tough, tough game for us to play right now. There wasn’t a lot of energy in our team – and I know the trade and Quickie, that type of stuff – but I also think the road trip lingered. The fatigue from that and throw in the emotion part, it was a tough game for us to play and they made it hard. It wasn’t pretty, but I was happy that our guys stuck with it and found a way to win. We got some good performances throughout the night, not consistently but throughout the night and enough to win. I’m happy for the group and we’ve got to get some rest and get ready to go again.

On if he felt the group got a bit of a jolt after tying the game in the second period
It started probably two shifts before that, I think Kopi’s line went out and had a number of chances and we started to play a little bit smarter, not as cute and started to be a little more direct to the net and get it back. I thought that led to the faceoff chance before we scored and then the faceoff chance that we did score on. After that, it was good to the end of the period and the third was even I guess. I’m glad it’s over, I’m glad that we get a day to get ready.

On Vladislav Gavrikov’s first game with the Kings
It’s interesting, he’s an energetic, outgoing guy so I think he fit our group right away, right off the bat. He’s not sitting back and he’s not shy, so he had that going for him. He had some stuff thrown at him today that he picked up in one day, which is really good and then he applied it on the ice,. I thought he had a really good night for us, all things considered, his travel, his emotional level, his family relocating, his new teammates, new coaches. Pretty darn good night for him.

On Gabe Vilardi hitting 20 goals and if he saw a total like that coming
He’s had the skill level to do it. He his confident, confidence has varied, it’s gone up and down since he’s been here, he’s fought the injuries. We thought if we could get a healthy year out of him, we believed he could score. I don’t know if I would put the number 20, just based on his body of work, but projection a long time ago would have him doing what he’s doing now.

On what he said to Pheonix Copley, after adding Joonas Korpisalo
Hey, you know what, you’ve done a real good job and you’re going to continue to do a real good job. It takes a full team to win and right now he’s got 19, 20 wins now, it’s hard to argue with that. We haven’t come in and said, hey, Korposalo is our number-one guy. What we’ve said is Korpisalo is a part of our team and Copley is part of our team, they’re both important and they’re both going to play. I think I was asked that question this morning, is it 10 games apiece? I don’t know if it is or not, I just know that they’re both important.

On if he is specifically requesting anything from Rob Blake at tomorrow’s trade deadline
No. Rob and his staff, pro scouts, it’s unreal the amount of work that they’ve done and the time they’ve spent on researching. If there’s something that they feel needs to be done, I’m sure they’ll confide in us a little bit, but we have our team and if it does get better tomorrow, great. If it doesn’t, we have what we need.

Notes –
– Gabriel Vilardi (1-1-2) recorded ninth multi-point game of the season, marking his first two career points against the Canadiens.
– Vilardi’s goal marked his 20th of the season to eclipse the 20-goal plateau for the first time in his career.
– Anze Kopitar tallied his 25th goal of the campaign and fifth in his last two games (4-0-4 on Feb. 28 at WPG). Kopitar reached the 25-goal mark for the eighth time in his NHL career and the first since 2017-18.
– Alex Iafallo scored his ninth goal of the season, moving him seven points away of his 200th career NHL point (80-113-193).
– With an assist on Vilardi’s goal, defenseman Matt Roy tallied his 20th point of the season (9-11-20) to reach the 20-point mark for the second consecutive season.
– Vladislav Gavrikov made his debut for the Kings, recording two hits, one blocked shot and 16:13 in time-on-ice. Gavrikov is the first player in franchise history to wear the number 84.
– Pheonix Copley stopped 19-of-21 shots for his 19th victory of the season.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center. Additionally, the NHL’s Trade Deadline is scheduled for noon tomorrow.