FINAL – Kings 2, Canucks 3 (SO) – Edler, Spence, McLellan

The LA Kings extended their point streak to nine games, and their home point streak to ten, but fell just short of collecting two points in a 3-2 shootout defeat against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Canucks jumped out to an early lead just past the halfway mark of the opening period. Forward Brock Boeser gained the offensive zone off the rush and beat Kings netminder Joonas Korpisalo from the top of the right-hand circle with a wrist shot for the game-opening goal. Forward J.T. Miller and defenseman Quinn Hughes tallied the assists on the play.

The Kings equalized later in the first, however, to take the game into the first intermission tied at one. After forward Gabriel Vilardi gained the offensive zone off the rush, in a 1-on-2 situation, he delayed and dropped the puck to defenseman Alex Edler, who unloaded a wrist shot past Canucks netminder Thatcher Demko for his second goal of the season, the game-tying marker.

Late in the second period, the hosts pulled ahead for the first time on the evening through forward Carl Grundstrom, who scored for the second consecutive game. Off a feed from forward Rasmus Kupari, the pass short-armed Grundstrom a bit, deflecting off his skate and into the net for his ninth tally of the season.

Midway through the third period, the Canucks tied the game at two, forcing the contest into overtime. Skating on their only power play of the evening, forward Elias Pettersson walked to the top of the right-hand circle and snapped a shot through a Boeser screen in front, knotting the score at two.

After neither team scored in overtime, forwards Miller and Andrei Kuzmenko scored in the shootout, giving Vancouver a 3-2 victory.

Hear from Edler, defenseman Jordan Spence and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s victory over Vancouver.

Alex Edler

Edler shares his thoughts during postgame🔊@LAKings | #LAKingsLive pic.twitter.com/tJAHhkUBOY

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) March 19, 2023

Jordan Spence
On the team’s defensive performance tonight
Yeah, I think we did pretty well, for 60 minutes I thought we were pretty solid, honestly. It was unfortunate that they scored on the power play, but besides that, I thought we did well on the defensive side. Obviously, we had a lot of chances and we’re got to bury those.

On the play of his pairing with Alex Edler
I thought we had a pretty solid game. It was pretty cool seeing Eddie score that goal and for us, we just want to be a reliable d-pair. Today, I thought I thought we did pretty well. Obviously there are some things that we can do better, but overall I thought we were pretty solid.

On the things he’s focused on, while out of the lineup, to stay game ready
You never know when you’re going to be in the lineup, so for me, I just want to be ready, get my foot speed going. Practice like you play, that’s a quote that goes a long way back to when I was a little kid. For me, I just want to work hard and when I get the chance I want to perform well on the ice.

On jumping onto the power play, without a ton of familiarity with that group
Chemistry is really important, especially on the power play, but I think the unit that I was on, they were there with open arms and I was pretty comfortable with them, just because last year I played with them and got to experience a little bit on the second unit. Today, I thought we had some chances, we couldn’t bury them, but hopefully, next game we can.

Todd McLellan
On if tonight was simply a hot goaltender, or if there were things the Kings didn’t do to win
I think first we have to tip our hat to him, he played a hell of a game. That’s the type of game that they needed, I think, as the night wore on. We had a ton of chances, the goaltender made a lot of saves and I don’t want to say we didn’t bear down, because we put a lot of effort in to try and score, it just didn’t go our way. They’re a lethal team on the power play, we gave them one chance and it was in our net, which is disappointing because I think we can handle that situation a little bit better. In any case, we lost the special teams situation, same thing as I said the other day against Nashville – power play, penalty kill, penalty shot and overtime.

On if he felt the team offered the same level of defensive performance as on the rest of the point streak
Absolutely. They’ve got some pretty dynamic players and I don’t know what we kept them to, six or seven shots after a couple of periods, and only 10 in the third. Defensively, we did the things we wanted to do. I think we’d like to have the first goal back, just the way we played it in the neutral zone, I think it hit Edler and changed direction a little bit. On the second one, liek I said, we lost the special teams battle, I wasn’t impressed with our power play again.

On the team sticking to the process, despite not getting the offensive breakthrough
We weren’t whining on the bench because we were cheating for offense or anything, we got our offensive chances by doing it right. There are some things we can work on in the offensive zone a little bit but it wasn’t “pinch and no cover because we’re cheating”. The chances we got were well-executed chances and we were pretty solid in our end. Usually when a coach is saying that, he’s leaving quite pleased and the team has won but sometimes these things happen.

On the challenge of a game like this for Korpisalo to play in
I think it can be tough and that’s just the play part of it, there’s the whistles and the TV timeouts and you can be sitting there for quite a while. You’re watching the other end too and that goaltender is in it consistently, minute after minute, so it can be a tough thing, but that’s part of the makeup of a goaltender is to be able to stick with it in those situations. I thought Korpi was good and made some good saves when he had to.

On if the power play is missing Sean Durzi and Kevin Fiala right now
Well, there’s no doubt about it, they’re important pieces and they’re creative, they’re effective, they’re dynamic, both of them in their own way. Each of them belongs to a unit, so all of a sudden both units are affected and others are trying to fill in and they’re doing a good job. Right now it’s looking for something when we should just be playing it and we’ll fix it.

On Jordan Spence’s performance tonight, checking back into the lineup
It’s hard and it’s going to be hard for him because he’s going to be in and out right now, but when he gets a chance, he’s got to go. He made some really good plays. I think there was a series of one or two plays that he probably would like to handle the puck a little bit better, he turned one over in the third period that became very dangerous but I think the puck was rolling on him and made it difficult for him. He was fine.

On the team’s play in overtime
We didn’t do anything with it, but we had it right off the bat and we couldn’t establish any type of possession game with space, you need space once you get possession. I think we got it in and Kempe came up the boards, we almost ran into each other and turned it over, then that ate up a couple of minutes. I don’t know, there was probably only maybe three shots in all of overtime too, so it wasn’t one of those barnburners that go back and forth, it was ugly to say the least.

Notes –
– The Kings extended their home point streak to 10 games (8-0-2), dating back to Feb. 11 (6-0 W vs. PIT). It is the sixth home point streak of at least 10 games in franchise history. Overall, the Kings have earned points in 19 of their last 22 games (15-3-4), including nine straight (7-0-2).
– Since the NHL began tracking elapsed period time (2018-19), tonight’s first period marked the league’s fastest period with an elapsed time of 23:51 minutes, surpassing the previous mark of 24:36 – BOS at NYR on Feb 15, 2022 (P1). The previous fastest period involving the Kings over that span was 24:48 on March 29, 2021 (P3, LAK at VGK).
– The Kings gave up just 17 shots on goal, the lowest shot total they have allowed in a game this season.
– Alexander Edler scored his second goal of the season and his 438th career point (104-334-438), moving one point shy of tying Oliver Ekman-Larsson (135-304-439) for the seventh-most points by a Swedish-born defenseman in NHL history. Edler’s goal was the first of his career against his former team.
– Carl Grundstrom recorded his ninth goal of the season, tying his career-high from the 2021-22 season. He now has three points (2-1-3) over his last two games. Grundstrom’s goal also marked his 15th point of the season (9-6-15), matching his single-season best set during the 2021-22 campaign.
– Gabriel Vilardi tallied his 18th assist of the season, reaching the 40-point mark (22-18-40) for the first time in his career.
– Arthur Kaliyev and Rasmus Kupari both collected helpers. With his assist, Kupari tied his single-season career-high in points (5-8-13), previously set in the 2021-22 season. Kaliyev’s helper marked his 13th of the year to equal his career best set in 2021-22.
– The Kings extended their home point streak to 10 games (8-0-2), dating back to Feb. 11 (6-0 W vs. PIT). It is the sixth home point streak of at least 10 games in franchise history. Overall, the Kings have earned points in 19 of their last 22 games (15-3-4), including nine straight (7-0-2).

UPDATE – The Kings will not practice this afternoon. The team will return to the ice tomorrow for morning skate at 10:30 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.