FINAL – Kings 2, Golden Knights 3 – Kopitar, McLellan

The LA Kings came up just short in Las Vegas, as they fell by a 3-2 final against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday evening at T-Mobile Arena.

The Golden Knights scored the first period’s lone goal, as forward Jack Eichel netted his 16th goal of the season. Stationed in the left-hand circle, Eichel took a step towards the net and placed his shot in the top left corner, past Kings netminder Cam Talbot, for the 1-0 advantage. Forwards Ivan Barbashev and Mark Stone collected the assists on the play, Stone’s team-leading 25th of the season.

Vegas extended its lead to two goals early in the second period, as former Kings forward Michael Amadio made it 2-0. Off a 2-on-2 rush, forward Pavel Dorofeyev made a pass to split the defensemen, with Amadio collecting, skating onto his forehand and slotting home for his sixth goal of the season.

The Kings pushed back throughout the second period and got a deserved goal from forward Anze Kopitar, cutting their deficit to one with just under seven minutes left in the middle stanza. Forward Adrian Kempe got a shot off from the left-hand circle, which was deflected by a Vegas player, before Kopitar got a second re-direct on the puck driving the net, burying his 14th goal of the season in the process.

Less than two minutes later, Vegas answered to restore its two-goal advantage. Shortly after the Kings survived an attack off the rush from forward Jonathan Marchessault, the hosts reset and gained the offensive zone with possession. Forward Paul Cotter drove behind the LA net and sent a pass into the slot to forward William Karlsson, who crashed the net and scored his 15th goal of the season.

With just inside two minutes remaining in regulation, forward Trevor Moore brought the visitors back to within a goal, with his team-leading 17th goal of the season. From a nearly impossible angle, to the right of Vegas netminder Logan Thompson, Moore snuck his shot under the crossbar and in, pulling the Kings to 3-2. Despite a late push offensively, the Kings were not able to find the equalized in the eventual defeat.

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

Anze Kopitar

Kopi checks in with the media 🔊@LAKings | #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/zlIMVEStWS

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) December 29, 2023

Todd McLellan
On his assessment of tonight’s game and his thoughts on the team’s connectivity
I thought as the game wore on, we got more connected. Naturally, when they had the lead, they’re going to defend a little bit more, we spent more time in their zone. They did an outstanding job of blocking shots and clearing the net, which they’re very good at. I think the disappointing part for me is the type of goals we gave up. You can be connected offensively, but also defensively, and couple of them were gifts and when a team commits like that to defend and block and front and do the things they did around the net, you can’t give them gifts. You’re not going to get more than two a night. I really thought the second goal killed us. There was nothing going on in that rush or on that play and all of a sudden, Amads has got a breakaway, so that hurt us.

On Vegas finishing with more than 30 shot blocks tonight and where he attributes that to
They commit, they won a Cup by doing that. They play their d-zone coverage a certain way, where their big defenseman are near the net and they sell out. It obviously is a championship brand. They didn’t win by getting away from that and they still have it in their game. So, it was good for us again to play in a game like that. For me, the disappointment wasn’t getting three, it was giving up three.

On the team’s first periods over the last 48 hours
No, they haven’t been our best, but I think the game presents itself a little bit different in the third period. The first period, we were feeling each other out. I don’t want the shots were, 8-8, there weren’t a lot of chances. Yeah, we gave up a goal, sometimes that’s the way it goes, it’s a boxing match or a chess match and all of a sudden, they’ve got the lead. You naturally sit back just a little bit more than maybe you want to and we started to shoot a lot. We had zone time, but obviously we didn’t score.

On the three goals against and if he’d classify them as team breakdowns or individual mistakes
Just a couple individual mistakes. I don’t think they were team mistakes or system mistakes, they were reads and situations where they took advantage of them. When we had those opportunities, and there weren’t many of them, we didn’t quite get it done.

On any takeaways from tonight that he liked
We were resilient, we didn’t go away. Disappointing in the type of goals we gave up because we don’t normally do that, but for the most part, we had zone time, we didn’t create enough or get enough through and you have to get the other team credit, sometimes. Sometimes they just do a job that’s done well enough that it makes it hard for the opposition.

Notes –
– Anze Kopitar (1-1=2) scored his 14th goal of the season, his second in as many games against the Golden Knights (1G, Nov. 8, 2023). Kopitar has now scored six points (3-3=6) in his last five games against the Golden Knights, dating back to Jan. 7, 2023.
– With the two-point effort, Kopitar has now registered 22 even-strength points (10-12=22) against Vegas, the most against Vegas in league history.
– Kopitar’s goal marked the 199th road goal of his career, surpassing Dave Taylor (198) for the third-most road goals in Kings history. Kopitar’s multi-point outing was the 134th of his career on the road, tying Luc Robitaille (134) for the second-most in team history. Only Adrian Kempe (9) has more multi-point performances this season than Kopitar’s eight.
– Trevor Moore (1-0=1) netted his team-leading 17th goal of the campaign, tying his single-season career high in goals (17G in 81 GP, 2021-22).
– Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) tallied his 20th assist of the season to become the second Kings skater to reach the 20-assist mark (Kevin Fiala, 23A). It is Kempe’s fourth season recording at least 20 assists, the most such seasons by any Swedish-born player in franchise history. Since Kempe’s debut in 2016-17, only Anze Kopitar (7x) and Drew Doughty (7x) have more 20-assist seasons with the Kings.
– Kempe’s 15 career assists against the Golden Knights are tied for the second-most against Vegas in franchise history. Only Anze Kopitar (21) has recorded more assists against Vegas.
– Vladislav Gavrikov (0-1=1) picked up his seventh assist of the year for his 10th point of the 2023-24 campaign (3-7=10). It is Gavrikov’s fifth-straight 10-point season. Gavrikov joins Ivan Provorov (5x) and Mikhail Sergachev (5x) as the only Russian-born defensemen to record five 10-point seasons since Gavrikov’s debut in 2019-20.
– Carl Grundstrom (0-1-1) notched his fourth helper of the season and his second in as many games.

The Kings have a scheduled off day tomorrow, following the back-to-back. The team will return to the ice on Saturday, December 30 for morning skate, in advance of that evening’s game versus the Edmonton Oilers.

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