FINAL – Kings 3, Penguins 4 (OT) – Kempe, McLellan

The LA Kings extended their point streak to eight games with a 4-3 overtime defeat against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Pittsburgh opened the scoring just over seven minutes into the game through forward Sidney Crosby, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead. Off a rebound that hit the side of the Kings net, Crosby drove towards the goal with speed, collected the puck next to the cage and used a wraparound move on the backhand to bury his seventh goal of the season, past Kings netminder Pheonix Copley, to put the Penguins ahead.

The Kings pushed back later in the middle stanza, however, taking the score tied at one goal apiece into the first intermission. Shortly after the Kings successfully killed the first Pittsburgh power play of the game, forward Anze Kopitar won a race into the corner in the offensive zone and fed forward Carl Grundstrom, who drove the net and buried his fifth goal of the season to tie the game at one.

Midway through the second period, Kings forward Adrian Kempe extended his point streak to eight games with a goal off the rush to put the hosts ahead for the first time. Kempe drove down the left wing with power, into the attacking zone, and beat Pittsburgh netminder Magnus Hellberg clean with a wrist shot for his sixth goal of the season a 2-1 advantage.

With less than two minutes remaining in the second period, Pittsburgh tied the game at two with a shorthanded goal. Forward Lars Eller entered the offensive zone down the right wing, cut into the slot and beat Copley from the middle of the ice to knot the score at 2-2, heading into the second intermission.

In the opening minute of the third period, Pittsburgh re-took the advantage through forward Jake Guentzel. Entering the offensive zone, Crosby pulled up at the offensive blueline, on the right wing, and fed Guentzel at the back post for the goal. Crosby made it a multi-point night with the assist, while Guentzel tallied his fifth goal of the season.

Once again, the Kings surged back, as forward Kevin Fiala knotted the score at three with a collected finish. After the Kings appeared to have an offensive play broken up off the rush, Fiala trailed the play, collected the puck off the breakup and slotted it home calmly on his backhand to tie the game at three. Fiala’s goal was his second of the season, with forward Pierre-Luc Dubois and defenseman Jordan Spence tallyin the assists on the play.

The Kings nearly received a lifeline in overtime, as an apparent Pittsburgh goal was called back by an offsides ruling, but the Penguins picked up the win seconds later through forward Bryan Rust. Rust scored his team’s second wraparound goal of the evening, giving the visitors the 4-3 victory.

Hear from Kempe and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Adrian Kempe

Kempe with media post game 🎤@LAKings I #LAKingsLive pic.twitter.com/uDsVG4DK32

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) November 10, 2023

Todd McLellan
On the Kings sharpness tonight and his thoughts on tonight’s game
A night where I didn’t think we were real sharp and I don’t know if that’s back-to-back or just a little lethargic, whatever it might be. They’re the number-one faceoff team in the league and we must have iced the puck six, seven times. Usually we break out clean and that kept us on the ice a long time. After the second period, we had 10 guys with almost over a minute shifts. It wasn’t because we were in our end a lot, it was because we iced the puck a lot. Just not sharp enough to get two points tonight.

On if the Kings have shown an ability to get results without the desired level of sharpness
I’d like to think so. I’d like to think that on nights where you’re a little bit sloppy…you’re not going to be at your best for 82 games, there’s going to be your best game and your worst game in 82, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose them. I don’t know where this one will fit in, but you have to find ways to scratch and claw points out of those nights and at least we got one tonight. I’m sure everybody, if they were honest with you tonight, probably said we weren’t sharp enough to complete some things, both with and without the puck defensively.

On what he liked from tonight’s game
I liked that we were resilient. I thought our penalty kill did a really good job again, it’s done that for a while. I liked Lizzo’s line, I thought they gave us a large amount of energy and real good minutes again. There’s some individuals that had good nights, Kempe, I don’t know what he had, eight, nine shots on goal again. Your leading scorer, if he’s generating that much, that’s a real good sign. I have to think about the game a little bit to really get into specifics but there were some good things.

On having too many turnovers tonight and where he felt they came from the most
Neutral zone turnovers but it’s a good question because turnovers – we think that we have it and we’re skating and then we flip a pass on, it doesn’t work, they come back the other way, that’s an obvious turnover. But, turnovers, Lizzo’s line got scored on, we ice the puck, they got Crosby’s line out and not that Lizzo can’t play against them, but Crosby’s pretty good in the faceoff circle, we lose and never get out of our end. To me, that’s a turnover. I bet you that happened six, seven times in the first two periods alone. So, we weren’t nearly as sharp as we needed to be and that’s a turnover in my mind.

On his current confidence in goaltender Pheonix Copley
We’ve seen him do it over and over again. He’s played what [10] periods for us this year and we’re going to lose confidence in him? Not a chance. He’s a good goaltender, our guys believe in him and it’s hard when you haven’t played for a while. We played back-to-back he got the [crappy] end of the of the schedule, but that’s the way it goes. Would he like to have one back? Yeah, but we’d also like to have the shorthanded goal back and that’s on the team.

On getting consistent production from the big guns, led by Kempe and Kopitar
Well, there’s a pecking order on your team too and it sorts itself out. The coach can’t sit there and just put everybody in the right seat, they sort themselves out as the year goes on and that’s happening, but there’s always competition within. Kopi and Juice and those guys are sorting it out, they’re producing and scoring, but I still think it’s the team as a whole that’s going to give us a chance at any success. It won’t be any one individual or two, it will be the team as a whole.

Notes –
– Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his sixth goal of the season, establishing a new career-long point streak at eight games (5-7=12). Kempe’s goal marked his team-leading 15th point (6-9=15) of the season.
– The tally is Kempe’s 82nd goal since the start of the 2021-22 season, the most goals among any Swedish-born players in the league during that span (2021-23). Kempe has now scored five goals in his last two games against the Penguins, dating back to Feb. 11, 2023.
– Carl Grundstrom (1-0=1) tallied his fifth goal of the season and first shorthanded goal of his career.
– Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) registered his second goal of the season. Fiala now has four points (1-3=4) in his last four games against Pittsburgh, dating back to March 31, 2022.
– Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) picked up an assist to extend his point streak into a fifth game (3-3=6). With the assist, Kopitar surpasses Luc Robitaille (557-597=1,154) for sole-possession of the second-most points in franchise history (400-755=1,155). It was also Kopitar’s 755th career assist, placing him two assists shy of tying Marcel Dionne (757) for the most assists in franchise history.
– Quinton Byfield (0-1=1) collected his 10th assist of the season, extending his assist streak to a career-long five games (0-8=8). It is the second time in Byfield’s career has recorded an assist streak of at least five games (Feb. 28 – March 9, 2023). Byfield is the second Kings skater to record 10 assists this season (Kevin Fiala, 12).
– Mikey Anderson (0-1=1), Pierre-Luc Dubois (0-1=1), Matt Roy (0-1=1) and Jordan Spence (0-1=1) all tallied assists.

The Kings have a scheduled team off day tomorrow, following the back-to-back games. The team will return to the ice on Saturday for morning skate at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo at 10:30 AM.