FINAL – Kings 5, Jets 1 – Dubois, Talbot, McLellan

The LA Kings skated to their first victory of the season with a 5-1 scoreline against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday evening at Canada Life Centre.

After a first period that did not feature a goal for either side, the Kings opened the scoring through forward Pierre-Luc Dubois, who netted his first goal as a member of the LA Kings, coming against the team he was acquired from. With LA on the power play, Dubois got to the front of the net and buried a rebound from the top of the crease, breaking the 0-0 tie just past the game’s halfway point. Forwards Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala picked up assists on the play, Kopitar’s third straight game with a point.

Late in the middle stanza, the Kings doubled their advantage through forward Trevor Moore, who made it back-to-back games with a goal. Skating at even strength after a slew of matching penalties were assessed, Moore finished off a well-executed sequence along the boards for his second goal of the season. Forwards Phillip Danault and Arthur Kaliyev picked up the assists, Kaliyev’s first point of the season.

Less than three minutes into the third period, Kaliyev made it a multi-point game with his first goal of the season. Moore worked the puck from below the goal line to Kaliyev in a good area in front, where he one-touched the pass by Winnipeg netminder Connor Hellebuyck for a 3-0 advantage. Moore also had a multi-point game as he picked up the lone assist on the play.

The Kings added two more goals in the third period, as they expanded their lead to five late in the game.

First, Moore made it a three-point night, as he walked into the right-hand circle and snapped a wrist shot high on the blocker side past Hellebuyck for his second goal of the evening. Danault collected his own three-point game with the final Kings goal of the evening, a power-play tally, as he opened his account for the season.

With just over a minute to play in the game, Kings netminder Cam Talbot lost his shutout bid with a late Winnipeg goal, from

Hear from Dubois, Talbot and Head Coach Todd McLellan following the victory.

Pierre-Luc Dubois

PLD talks about his return to Winnipeg 🔉@LAKings I #LAKingsLive pic.twitter.com/mbyhQTFocd

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) October 18, 2023

Cam Talbot
On his first win as an LA King
It was a lot of fun. We knew that they were going to come our hard in their barn and we’d have to weather the storm in the first ten minutes and I thought we did a great job of that. You could tell in the second period, once we started playing our game, we kind of took the game over from there.

On weathering the storm in the early goings, but rebounding as a team
I think in the first period, we were trying to be a little too cute in our zone, making passes that weren’t really there. In the second period, when the puck was on our tape, we put it on the tape of the next guy, gained zones, getting the puck deep and establishing our forecheck, which is a strength of ours. Guys did a heck of a job.

On if an early breakaway save can dial him in for a game, like tonight
Absolutely. I mean, that could turn the game right there and you want to be the guy that makes those saves in those situations and gives your team a chance to settle down in a tough building to play in. I think there’s a lot of saves throughout the game, but that was probably one of the biggest.

On seeing Dubois get his first goal as a King, in this building
I wanted to stop that last one to secure the game-winning goal for him too, unfortunately it didn’t happen, but I’m sure he’ll take the win and the goal. We’re happy for him.

Todd McLellan
On Cam Talbot’s play early to keep the Kings in the game in the first period
He was essential. We weren’t ready, or else we didn’t react properly, to the first five to ten minutes. I thought it started with the power play, getting one before we even had most of our guys on the ice, it put us in a bad mindset. We weren’t ready and Talbs did what we needed him to do, which was to make some real big saves in the first 10 or 12 minutes and get us to settle down a little bit. After that, I thought the team responded well and played a pretty solid game.

On what he liked during the second period and beyond, to turn the game around
I thought we played smart. We didn’t have to take risks to open things up and when we did find an opportunity to go, we took advantage of it. We played a lot more directly in the second and third periods than we did in the first early. There was way too much East-West play going on. I thought we were prepared to play, we call it ugly, instead of cute and sometimes you need to do that. At the end of the night, we scored ugly goals but they still all count.

On Pierre-Luc Dubois tonight, getting the win in his former city
I thought he played a real solid game. Right from the circle on out, he created for others and protected pucks for himself. Strong, powerful, yet calm, there wasn’t a lot of panic in his game. It’s nice to see.

On if he felt tonight was a “switch flicked” for the Kings between the first and second periods
We’ve had good periods, we’ve made some dumb mistakes. Our bad period today was a group period, it was every one of us was a little lethargic, not very sharp, we didn’t execute very well. So, perhaps out of the seven periods, that may have been our worst as a group. We’ve had poor results because of some plays that we’d like to have back, but that was probably our worst period.

On seeing Gabe Vilardi get hurt in tonight’s game
You never want to see anybody hurt, but one of your old teammates, a really good kid, you don’t want to see that at all. Complete accident, but we’re hoping that he can come back and heal up, he’s going to be a big part of this team. He’s a hell of a player, the fans here in Winnipeg are going to enjoy not only him but the other two that came in. They’re real good people I said that this morning, they’re going to be a big part of this community and they’re lucky to have them.

Notes –
– Pierre-Luc Dubois (1-0=1) scored his first goal as a member of the LA Kings and 130th of his career. Dubois is the eighth player in franchise history to score his first goal with the Kings against his most recent former club, joining Kevin Fiala (10/15/22 vs. MIN), Christian Ehrhoff (12/5/15 vs. PIT), Jozef Stümpel (10/2/97 vs. BOS), Jim Wiemer (3/21/89 vs. EDM), Pete Stemkowski (10/30/77 vs. NYR), Ron Anderson (12/11/68 vs. DET) and Doug Robinson (1/19/68 vs. NYR).
– Trevor Moore (2-1=3) recorded two goals and an assist for his fourth career three-point game. Moore is now tied with Long Beach, CA native Matt Nieto (47-62=109, with SJS) for the most points scored by a California-born skater for a California-based team in NHL history.
– Arthur Kaliyev (1-1=2) notched his first two points of the season in his first game of the 2023-24 campaign.
– Phillip Danault (1-2=3) recorded his first multi-point game of the season. Danault’s 308 career points (101-207=308) place him sixth among active Quebec-born skaters in points, followed by teammate Pierre-Luc Dubois (130-173=303), who sits seventh.
– Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) had an assist which marked his 750th career assist, becoming just the second Kings skater in franchise history to record reach such mark (Marcel Dionne, 757). Kopitar is now one of four active skaters to hit the 750-assist mark, behind only Sidney Crosby (953), Evgeni Malkin (762) and Nicklas Backstrom (761).
– Tonight’s game was Kopitar’s 646th career road game, tying Dustin Brown for the most road games played in franchise history.
– Kevin Fiala (0-1=1) recorded his fourth assist of the season in his team’s third game to start the year. Fiala joins Raphael Diaz (0-5=5, with MTL) in 2012-13 as the only Swiss-born skaters in league history to record at least four assists in their team’s first three games of a season.
– Cam Talbot stopped 26 of 27 shots faced to record his first win as a member of the Kings. It is the 219th win of his NHL career.
– The Kings went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill tonight. The team has now killed off 21 consecutive penalties at Canada Life Centre, dating back to Oct. 22, 2019.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota at 1 PM local time, 11 AM Pacific.

website –

Proudly presented by Destination Vancouver.
The Real Pacific Northwest. Go Norther.