FINAL – Kings 4, Maple Leafs 1 – Englund, Talbot, Danault, McLellan

The LA Kings extended their point streak to four games as they skated to a complete, 60-minute victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs by a 4-1 final score on Tuesday evening at Scotiabank Arena.

Shortly after a successful penalty kill, the Kings opened the scoring through defenseman Andreas Englund, who scored his first career NHL goal to put the visitors ahead. Englund and forward Pierre-Luc Dubois executed a give-and-go down the right wing to enter the offensive zone, with Englund beating Toronto netminder Joseph Woll with a deflected, backhanded effort for a 1-0 advantage.

Just past the midway point of the opening period, the Kings doubled their advantage through forward Phillip Danault, who buried his second goal of the season. After defenseman Jordan Spence held the zone with poise at the point, he found forward Trevor Moore in the right-hand circle. Moore spun off his defenseman and hit Danault at the back post for the goal and a 2-0 lead at the break.

The Kings made it 3-0 in the second period with their first power-play goal of the evening. First, forward Quinton Byfield won the puck on the forecheck in the corner to establish control in the offensive zone. Byfield then fed Kevin Fiala, who dished the puck to forward Arthur Kaliyev, who fired a wrist shot through traffic for his second goal of the season. With the helper, Fiala extended his scoring streak to eight games.

Toronto got on the board midway through the third period with a power-play goal of its own to pull within 3-1. Forward John Tavares took a pass from forward Mitch Marner and from the left-hand circle, fired a shot that went in high on the blocker side, past Kings netminder Cam Talbot, for his fifth goal of the season.

Shortly after the Toronto goal, the Kings responded once again with a goal, this an insurance marker, to put the game away at 4-1. Byfield once again won the puck back deep in the offensive zone, leading to forward Anze Kopitar feeding forward Adrian Kempe at the back post for his team’s fourth goal of the night and Kempe’s third tally of the season.

Hear from Englund, Talbot, Danault and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s victory.

Andreas Englund

Cam Talbot
On if he felt this was as complete a 60 minutes as the Kings have played this season
Yeah, it’s definitely up there. We started on time, this is a tough building to play in, they come out really hard. They’ve got a ton of talent over there, so that was, like you said, as complete as 60 minutes as we’ve played all year.

On the impact of the penalty kill tonight and early in the season
Obvoiusly we changed a little bit on the PK this year, compared to last year, I wasn’t here, but our penalty kill’s given us some big moments throughout the season so far. Early on in that game, it could have gone either way. Our power play got us a big one and our kill was huge in the first and second period. Sometimes, you’ve got to tip your cap there in the third, pretty good shot and they’re all-world over there to, so sometimes they’re gonna beat you but you make it hard on them and that’s what we’ve been doing.

On the special nature of getting a win tonight in front of friends and family
Always. Yeah, it’s nice to come into town, have dinner with family the night before and then obviously get to play in front of them again tonight. Like I said, never take those things for granted, you never know how long they’re gonna last and I’m just lucky that I’m still able to do what I do.

Phillip Danault
On if he felt tonight’s was the most compete game played by the Kings this season
Yeah, it was pretty solid. I thought we just played like last game against Vegas, to be honest, we carried that into today and it was a pretty solid 60 like you said.

On the team’s defensive play tonight to shut down Toronto
We take a lot of pride defensively and that brings us a lot of chances in the o-zone and some power play as well. I mean, we just have four lines that care a lot defensively, Talbs was awesome again, giving us a big chance to win every game and the defense is playing well as well.

On Quinton Byfield’s play tonight and his impact on their power-play unit
Yeah, I’m not surprised, Q has been playing really, really good, he’s stepping up as a young guy for us and we need that. He’s playing hard and he’s putting up points in big wins, he’s playing well. He’s been playing like that since the beginning.

Todd McLellan
On the complete, 60-minutes effort tonight
Well, our last two, I thought our game against Vegas was a pretty darn good game by two teams. Tonight was a real solid night, but the penalty kill early in the first set the tone, who knows how it would have went from there, but they did a really good job. Scoring first and then keeping the foot on the gas pedal was important, so a full team effort, I’m proud of them.

On the team gaining momentum and energy off the penalty kill tonight
Yeah, we had some energy, we felt good about ourselves getting that job done and then to respond with a line after and get momentum back in our favor is important. That’s usually how it has to go if you’re winning games and we were able to do that. Unfortunately, we gave up the one of the third, but it was late enough in the game and again, we responded after that positively with our foot on the gas pedal and went and found the fourth.

On Quinton Byfield’s play tonight and if he felt it was one of his best performances
You know what’s interesting, we’ve been saying “is that Q’s best game” almost every game this year, so that’s a real good sign for him and for us. Again, a couple of assists and all that, but the tenacity that he’s playing with, is, for me at least, quite obvious. The way he hunts pucks down, creates turnovers, he’s going from A to B really quick. The confidence he’s playing with allows him to move from job to job without a pause now and there used to be pauses. He’s feeling better with the puck, it’s going to go in eventually for him, but right now we’ll take what we’re getting.

On seeing Andreas Englund get rewarded with his first goal in the NHL
I couldn’t be happier for him. He does some of the dirty work for our team that doesn’t go unnoticed, at least in our locker room and in the coach’s office. He’s a great personality for our group and to see him get his first goal, that gave us a little boost to score first and to have Big E do it, it was a motivating moment for our group.

On the connected play of the group across the entire lineup tonight
We weren’t a distant team. A lot of teams like to stretch it out, we’re connected and when we are, we play our game. I didn’t feel like it went like this, from line to line, there wasn’t the waves, it just kept going. We broke down, we had mistakes and that’s what you have goaltending for, but the continuum of doing it right the same way, over and over again, was from all four lines and six defenseman.

Notes –
– Andreas Englund (1-0=1) scored his first career NHL goal. In doing so, Englund became the 14th different Kings skater to score their first NHL goal under head coach Todd McLellan, and the first to do so since Alex Laferriere (Oct. 21, 2023 vs. BOS).
– Phillip Danault (1-0=1) scored his second goal of the season. Danault’s six points (2-4=6) in the first nine games of the season mark the second time in his career he has accomplished such a feat (4-3=7, Oct. 3 – 20, 2020; with MTL).
– Arthur Kaliyev (1-0=1) scored his second goal and first power-play goal of the season. It is the 15th power-play goal of his career, surpassing Anaheim’s Trevor Zegras (14) for the second-most power-play goals among 2019 NHL draftees, trailing only New Jersey’s Jack Hughes (23).
– Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his third goal of the season, extending his active point streak to four games (2-3=5). It is the eighth time in Kempe’s career he has recorded a point streak of at least four games.
– Kevin Fiala (0-1=1) recorded his team-leading 11th assist of the season to extend his assist streak to a career-high eight games (1-11=12). It is also the fourth time in Fiala’s career that he has recorded a point streak of at least eight games and the first time since his 10-game point streak in the 2021-22 campaign (10-13=23, April 8 – April 24, 2022; with MIN). Fiala’s 11 assists this season are tied for second in the league and sits two behind New Jersey’s Jack Hughes (13) for the league lead.
– Fiala is the first King’s skater since Craig Conroy to record an assist streak of at least eight games (2-11=13, Dec. 28, 2005 – Jan. 12, 2006).
– Quinton Byfield (0-2=2) recorded his second multi-point game of the season and the sixth of his career. It was also Byfield’s first two career points against the Maple Leafs.
– Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) recorded his fifth assist of the season, the 753rd of his career, moving four assists shy of tying Marcel Dionne (757) for the most assists in Kings franchise history.
– Pierre-Luc Dubois (0-1=1), Trevor Moore (0-1=1) and Jordan Spence (0-1=1) each recorded their third assists of the season. Spence has now recorded three assists in his last four games, the first time in Spence’s career that he has recorded at least three assists in a four-game span.
– With four goals Tuesday, the Kings have now recorded 39 goals so far in 2023-24, which is now the second most among all teams behind only the Red Wings (40).
– The Kings won their fourth road game of the year, improving their road record to 4-0-0. It is the first time in franchise history the team has won their first four road games of a season.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 1 PM local time, 10 AM Eastern, at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, in advance of Thursday’s showdown against the Senators.

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