FINAL – Kings 1, Kraken 2 – Lizotte, McLellan

The LA Kings dropped a narrow, 2-1 affair against the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

After a first period that saw neither side breakthrough with a goal, Seattle got on the board just over five minutes into the second period through forward Brandon Tanev. Off a facecoff win in the offensive zone, Tanev won a battle in front and though his first shot was saved by Kings netminder Cam Talbot, Tanev drove the net for the rebound, slotted it past Talbot on the glove side, for his third goal of the season.

The Kraken doubled their advantage during the third period through forward Jordan Eberle, as they opened up a multi-goal advantage. Forward Matty Beniers threaded a pass through the neutral zone to Eberle, who gained the offensive zone in stride, skated in on a breakaway and snapped his shot home for his fourth goal of the season, with Beniers and defenseman Will Borgen tallying the assists on the play.

With exactly 12 minutes left in regulation, the Kings drew back to within a goal with a shorthanded goal from forward Blake Lizotte. Off a turnover deep in the Seattle defensive zone, off an exchange behind the net, the puck deflected to a well-positioned Lizotte, who slotted home from the low slot for his fifth goal of the season and a 2-1 scoreline. The Kings were unable to pull closer, falling by the 2-1 final.

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

Blake Lizotte

Blake Lizotte speaks with the media🎤@LAKings I#LAKingsLive pic.twitter.com/TCk6FbxQX5

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) December 21, 2023

Todd McLellan
On the shot volume in tonight’s game, compared to the Grade-A chances
The volume was there, I didn’t think we did a real good job at the net. We had a presence, but we opened up a lot, we didn’t get through eyes, we exposed eyes, I think there’s a big difference there. We didn’t really want to get dirty or get down and dig in around the net. If it was going to be easy, we were going to take it, but they’re big and strong there, so they didn’t give up much there.

On if he feels that things like that are expected on the second half of a back-to-back
No, because if you do do those things, then you get rewarded and the work becomes easier. I thought the exact opposite happened tonight. We worked pretty hard in the first period but we didn’t do those things, we didn’t get the reward and then we tried to open it up. We got a little bit lazy, ran out of gas a bit and as a result, came out on the losing end.

On if there’s concern about the offense drying up as of late
No, we are still creating a lot of chances. If I was going to sum up tonight and we’re going to talk about offense, I go right to the power play. Flat out to the power play, we had seven minutes and we get two shots on the goal. Our entries early in the game were poor, we finally fixed that, and when we got into the zone, we’re shooting pucks into people. I thought we moved like turtles on it, we were thinking rather than playing. Those are all obvious things. So, the offensive part of it, that’s the disappointing thing for me. It’s a little bit of the play around the net, but that can be repaired.

On forward Blake Lizotte collecting his 100th career NHL point in tonight’s game
Well, the group was happy for two things. One, that we got ourselves back into that game, but two, I’m not sure that we all realized that Lizzo was at 100 when it was announced. Pretty motivating young man for a lot of individuals in our locker room but also in the hockey world. I was lucky enough to see him play before he got to the NHL and how he worked his way up and continued to battle. Nice reward for him, individually.

On trying to make in-game adjustments on the power play, on the fly
We’ll try and help them, but it’s what they feel. Today, we get opportunities to watch between periods, try and make adjustments and on the bench even and it didn’t matter. We were slow. We’d move it to a player ,he would stop, handle the puck, look around, analyze everything, move it to the next guy. The penalty killers had to move, but they never really got out of position and I just thought we had poor pace with our puck movement.

Notes –
– Blake Lizotte (1-0=1) tallied his fifth goal and second shorthanded tally of the season for his 100th career point (35-65=100) of his career. Lizotte’s goal marked his 11th career shorthanded point. Since entering the league in 2018-19, only Adrian Kempe (12) and Trevor Moore (11) have record as many shorthanded points with the Kings.
– With the goal, Lizotte becomes the sixth undrafted American-born skater in Kings history to record 100 points for the team, joining Bryan Erickson (46-68=114), Bob Kudelski (72-54=126), Trevor Moore (55-74-129), Mike Donnelly (87-83=170), and Alex Iafallo (85-119=204).
– The Kings recorded 44 shots on goal today, a season high, in tonight’s defeat against Seattle.

The Kings have a scheduled team off day tomorrow, following the back-to-back over the last 48 hours, and will return to action for practice on Friday at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.

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