FINAL – Kings 2, Golden Knights 5 – Kopitar, Gavrikov, McLellan

The LA Kings dropped their second straight divisional contest, a 5-2 decision against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday evening at T-Mobile Arena.

Forward Anze Kopitar and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov scored goals on the evening, with both coming on special teams. Goaltender Pheonix Copley stopped all 22 shots he faced after entering in relief early in the second period.

Vegas opened the scoring with two goals in a span of 62 seconds to take an early 2-0 advantage. Less than 30 seconds after a Kings goal was disallowed for offsides at the other end, forward Phil Kessel got the scoring started with a wraparound effort past Kings netminder Joonas Korpisalo for his 14th goal of the season. Forward Ivan Barhashev made it 2-0, as he one-timed home a pass through the slot from Chandler Stephensen for his team’s second goal in just over a minute.

The Golden Knights struck twice more in the opening period, as they took a 4-0 lead into the first intermission.

First, Stephensen made it a multi-point night as he drove the net, deked to the backhand on a partial breakaway and slotted home for the goal, as the net was coming off. Upon review of the play, the goal was confirmed for a 3-0 advantage. Vegas made it 4-0 just past the halfway mark in the opening period, as forward Jack Eichel hit forward Nicolas Roy for a tap-in at the back post, on the man advantage, for the 4-0 lead.

Just over a minute into the second period, the Golden Knights made it 5-0. After a Kings turnover in the defensive zone, forward Jonathan Marchessault protected the puck onto his forehand in the slot and fired high on the glove side and in for his 27th goal of the season. After Marchessault’s goal, the Kings opted for a goaltending change, with Copley entering the game.

The Kings pulled back a pair of goals on special teams to cut their deficit to 5-2 heading into the second intermission.

The power play struck first, as Kopitar buried a goal on a rebound from just outside the crease, his 27th goal of the season and his team’s first goal of the evening. Gavrikov then brought the Kings a goal closer with the team shorthanded, as he beat two Golden Knights in a footrace, moved in down the left wing and deked to the backhand for his second goal as a King, his fifth goal on the season as a whole, for a 5-2 scoreline.

Neither team scored in the third period, though Vegas had one overturned after a successful coaches challenge by the Kings.

Hear from Kopitar, Gavrikov and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Anze Kopitar

Kopitar sounds off on the tough loss in Vegas 🔊#GoKingsGo | @LAKings pic.twitter.com/XcZPciMFhR

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) April 7, 2023

Vladislav Gavrikov
On what was lacking in his mind from the start of the game
Pretty much everything, I would say, we’ve got to be better at, we’ve got to be ready at the start of the game. We gave up too many today, we know we can play better, we’ve shown that and we had some looks. We’ve got to put that behind us and keep it going.

On where he would pinpoint the team’s defensive struggles tonight
Like I said before, everything has got to be better. Every kind of detail, we’ve got to improve that, especially before playoffs. We got to be sharp.

On if there is any momentum to be gained from two goals on special teams tonightI
[Special teams] are always important, they’re especially going to be important in the playoffs. So, it’s something that hopefully we can take advantage of with teams.

On any type of physical or emotional letdown coming in after a grinding schedule
You have to handle yourself and be able to play games like that, especially when you’re down some goals, that’s a good habit to have. We would prefer of course, to score and play better as I said before, we needed the details. We had some looks, we just have to keep going.

Todd McLellan
On the start tonight, after the details the team played with over the last five games
We weren’t ready to play. I think that was pretty evident. The other day, we gave credit to the team as a whole, I said it was a team win, everybody contributed, tonight was a team loss. There were very few players who were engaged early on and you can’t play like that at this time of the year. We haven’t had one of those periods in a long, long time, so it’s a little humbling when it does happen. That won’t be good enough for the rest of the season and playoffs, but I think we know that.

On if the team’s “gas tanks”, referenced after the Edmonton game, factored in at all tonight
No, because I think you should get tired as the game goes on. You can be physically or mentally tired, all teams are in that situation, but when you’re involved in the game, all their damage was done in the first seven minutes, so you shouldn’t be worn out at that point. We just weren’t ready to play.

On if he felt the overturned goal played any role in th opening period
No, no. They were heavier and harder on loose pucks on the first two and after that they got some confidence and they went after us. It took us 10, 15 minutes to get our feet back and it was 4-0 at that point. You’re not coming back from that, against that team, too often.

On if he or the staff saw the start tonight coming
No, I didn’t. The staff as a whole, we were talking about it, we didn’t see it coming. We thought we would be ready to go and very excited about playing this game, the opportunity that was in front of us. They happen, it’s unfortunate it happened tonight. We’ve got to get home and we’ll fix some things and then we’ll get ready to play.

On if there’s an opportunity to build on two special teams goals heading into the weekend
In moments or situations of the game, there were some good things, there was some execution in certain situations. You certainly look for positives, our team hasn’t been a disaster. Tonight is disappointing because we weren’t engaged and we’ll look for positives and those could be two of them. What we’ll also look at, and I said it to the players between periods, we have rules that we follow. 1805 days we spent putting those rules in place and if we don’t follow them, we have no chance and we tried to play without them for 20 minutes. I think that will be our focus way more than the success on a penalty kill or on a power play.

On what he was looking for when shaking up lines over the final 40 minutes
We were shaking some things up and try and jolt a few players. I have a saying, we’re trying to find two players, we’re not trying to find 12 right now, let’s find two and then we’ll find two more. When you’re shuffling lines around or you start different guys, maybe hold somebody back for a shift. You’re just trying to find the two players that are going to be more on it. As the game wore on, I thought we found more players, but it was far too late.

Notes –
– Anze Kopitar (1-0-1) scored his 27th goal of the season with his power-play tally in the second period.
– Vladislav Gavrikov notched his first career shorthanded goal for his second tally as an LA King, his fifth in total on the season.
– Drew Doughty and Adrian Kempe each collected assists. Kempe’s assist marked his 60th point of the season (36-24-60), becoming the first Swedish-born skater and third Swedish national to reach such mark in Kings history: Juha Widing (3x, 70 PTS in 1972-73; 65 PTS in 1970-71; 60 PTS in 1974-75) and Tomas Sandstrom (89 PTS in 1990-91).
– Goaltender Pheonix Copley made 22 saves on 22 shots faced after he entered the game in relief.

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