FINAL – Kings 3, Red Wings 4 (SO) – Kempe, Laferriere, McLellan

The LA Kings dropped their fourth consecutive game overall, though they picked up a point from a 4-3 shootout defeat against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

On their first shift of the night as a line, the combination of Pierre-Luc Dubois, Alex Laferriere and Adrian Kempe combined on the game’s first goal. Dubois gained the offensive zone with possession, drew a pair of defensemen towards him and threaded a pass though to Laferriere in a 2-on-1 situation. Laferriere fed a hard pass towards the back post, with Kempe cashing in for his 13th goal of the season and an early 1-0 advantage.

Less than three minutes later, defenseman Matt Roy doubled his team’s advantage with a goal against his hometown club. After he was knocked to his knees, forward Quinton Byfield still managed to hit linemate Anze Kopitar with a stretch pass entering the offensive zone. Kopitar’s attempt towards the net was kicked out by Detroit goaltender Alex Lyon, but Roy crashed the net and buried his first goal of the season for a 2-0 advantage heading into the second intermission.

Just shy of the game’s halfway point, Detroit got on the board through forward Robby Fabbri, cutting its deficit to a single goal. Red Wings blueliner Olli Maatta put a centering feed into the low slot, with Fabbri winning a stick battle and directing a shot towards the net, which slipped inside the near post for his tenth goal of the season and a 2-1 scoreline.

With fewer than three minutes to play in the middle stanza, Detroit equalized via defenseman Jeff Petry. Shortly after the Kings killed their first penalty of the night, the Red Wings tied the game at two as Petry’s shot from the right point eluded traffic and beat Kings netminder David Rittich on the blocker side. Petry’s goal was his second of the season, sending the game into the second intermission knotted at two.

Just over five minutes into the third period, Fabbri put the Red Wings ahead with his second goal of the evening. Again, the goal came just after the Kings killed off a Detroit power play, with Fabbri burying a rebound after a Rittich blocker save, to put the visitors on top 3-2.

With just over four minutes remaining in regulation, the Kings tied the game to force overtime, with the trio of Laferriere, Dubois and Kempe combining once again. Dubois found Kempe in the slot, where the Swede squeezed his shot thorugh the six hole for his second goal of the evening and a 3-3 scoreline. Dubois and Laferriere each tallied assists on the play, their second points of the evening respectively.

After an overtime that featured self-inflicted chances against at both ends, the Kings fell in the shootout, with goals from Lucas Raymond and Patrick Kane the difference in that portion of the night.

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

Adrian Kempe

Adrian Kempe chats about tonights game and how they can get better moving forward 👏@LAKings l #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/OnAEvy5QlO

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) January 5, 2024

Alex Laferriere
On if tonight feels like a point earned or a point lost
I think a little bit of both. We came out to a good start and got the start we wanted and then kind of let off the gas there in the second and then kind of chased the game. I think you can look at both positives and negatives and kind of learn from that. I think we got off to a good start and we just didn’t keep our foot on the gas.

On his thoughts of adding Adrian Kempe onto his line
I think me and PL have kind of created a good relationship on the ice and off the ice from the start of the year. Obviously the lines switched up a bit and Juice was put on our line and he’s kind of a guy that’s easy to play with. He’s always in the right spot and you kind of know where he is, even if you can’t see him. He’s kind of an easy player to play with and I think that showed tonight.

On if he feels like this trip is coming at a good time, after 4 losses
If you want to look at it that way. I think for us, we just approach every game like a game, no matter whether we’re home or away. We’ve just been luckier in the away games, so hopefully that luck continues.

On a dominant performance from Pierre-Luc Dubois
Yeah, you could say that. I think all year, he’s kind of showed those spurits and he’s a pretty dominant player. I think today, it was just a little more noticeable because the puck kind of went in the net. He’s been doing that all year and and I’ve just been lucky enough to play with him.

Todd McLellan
On if there are frustration levels after the team’s fourth consecutive loss
I’m sure it’s frustrating for everybody, it is for the staff, but when things aren’t going well, sometimes it takes a little longer to get out of it. I thought tonight was a step in the right direction, in comparison to what we had versus Toronto on Tuesday. Real good start, second period they skated a little bit, we had to chase them for a while. I thought our third was – other than giving up the goal – we didn’t give up much, so we were really aggressive there and we found a way to get back into it. The shootout is not treating us real well, right now we’re not getting any saves and we’re not scoring goals, so the combination of those two things are a disaster in the shootout.

On if he sees any common threads this season in second periods
I don’t see any common threads. There’s nights where we come out and we play well and I look at the goals and the goals were goals that we obviously gave them up but they had more dangerous chances and didn’t score on them. The bounce around the net with the first goal, the puck’s bouncing everywhere. The second one was a line change, we got caught deep in our end and good screen on their behalf, they shot it in, but we got scored on in situations that weren’t maybe as dangerous as some others earlier in the period. It’s something we’ve still got to iron out.

On the play of the 78/80/9 line in tonight’s game
I thought PL had a hell of a game tonight, you can really see him start to come on in the last 5,6,7 games he’s got his confidence, he feels good, we feel good about playing him. Juice was a byproduct of some of the nice plays that he made tonight and then Laf, all he does is work, he just works and creates. They as three were our best line.

On Arthur Kaliyev’s response to being healthy scratched on Tuesday
Responded well, responded really well and it started way before he put the equipment on tonight. In practice the other day, he played and he worked hard, he worked hard in the pregame skate the day that he didn’t play and then he came in and responded well, so it’s a real positive sign for us.

On the impact of not having the right-shot forward on the power play right now
We have three lefties the play the other spots and a righty on the top and we’ve always had that. So, does the righty down below kill us? It would be nice to have that, but you don’t always get what you want. You’ve got to be able to make things happen with others and we went through a real good spell with our power play and we didn’t have a righty then, it ebbs and flows. I thought tonight, our power play didn’t give up any momentum, it gained a little bit. It didn’t do that against Toronto, especially early in the game. So, would we like to have a righty, maybe, but we have one right now and maybe he’ll get an opportunity bu beggars can’t be choosers. We’ll just make do with what we have.

Notes –
– Adrian Kempe (2-0=2) scored his 13th and 14th goals of the season for his team-leading fourth multi-goal game of the campaign. With his goals, Kempe extends his point streak against Detroit to five games (5-2=7). Kempe’s 14 goals are tied with teammate Anze Kopitar for second-most on the team, behind only Trevor Moore (17).
– Matt Roy (1-0=1) scored his first goal of the season for his 20th career NHL goal, breaking a tie with Robert Lang (19) for the fifth-most goals scored among King’s skaters selected in the seventh round. It was his 10th point (1-9=10) of the campaign and his first career goal against the Red Wings. With this goal, Roy joins Alec Martinez (4G) as one of only two Michigan-born Kings defensemen to score a goal against Detroit.
– Alex Laferriere (0-2=2) picked up his fourth and fifth assists for his 10th point of the season (5-5=10) as part of his first career multi-point game.
– Pierre-Luc Dubois (0-2=2) recorded his eighth and ninth assists of the season and eighth at Crypto.com Arena. His eight assists at home are tied for the second-most among Kings skaters this season, behind only Kevin Fiala (9) and Anze Kopitar (9).
– Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) notched his 21st assist of the season, tied for the second-most on the team behind only Kevin Fiala (23). With the assist, Kopitar has now recorded 18 points (9-9=18) in his last 11 games against Detroit, dating back to Nov. 28, 2017.
– The assist marked Kopitar’s 35th point (14-21=35) of the season in the Kings 35th game of the campaign. With the assist, Kopitar becomes just the 10th player in NHL history to score at least 14 goals and 35 points in the first 35 games of his 18th season.
– Quinton Byfield (0-1=1) tallied his 17th assist of the season and his first career point against the Red Wings. Byfield’s 17 assists and 27 points both rank third most among skaters selected in the 2020 NHL Draft this season, behind only Lucas Raymond (11-20=31) and Tim Stutzle (7-27=34).

The Kings are scheduled to travel to Washington tomorrow and will not hold a practice. The team is scheduled to return to the ice on Saturday, January 6 at 10 AM Pacific, 1 PM local time.

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