FINAL – Kings 3, Sabres 5 – Doughty, Kopitar, McLellan

The LA Kings lost for the 12th time in 14 games, as they dropped a 5-3 decision against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday evening to close out a four-game homestand.

Less than three minutes into the game, Kings captain Anze Kopitar started the scoring in what felt like poetic fashion, with the game-opening goal shortly after being honored during his pre-game ceremony. Defenseman Matt Roy and forward Adrian Kempe connected on a zone entry at the offensive blueline, with Kempe threading a pass to Kopitar driving the net and the Slovenian burying his 15th goal of the season for an early 1-0 advantage.

Buffalo equalized just over two minutes later, as forward J.J. Peterka evened the score at one. Peterka started the sequence of the rush, as he found forward Dylan Cozens for a shot in the slot, and he stayed with the play to put home the rebound in the right-hand circle, tying the game at one.

The Kings added two more goals before the midway mark of the first period, taking a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.

First, Kempe made it a multi-point night, with his 16th goal of the season. Defenseman Drew Doughty kept the puck alive at the point, spinning around a Buffalo forward, before he fed Kempe on the left. Kempe walked into the middle, dragged the puck onto his forehand and snapped a shot past Buffalo netminder Devin Levi for a 2-1 lead. Just shy of 10 minutes into the game, forward Pierre-Luc Dubois made it 3-1 with a power-play goal, a clean wrist shot from the left-hand circle, which gave the Kings a two-goal lead at the first intermission.

Buffalo scored twice in a span of just over two minutes early in the second period, as they tied the game at three.

Peterka got the first goal, as the Sabres capitalized on a turnover by the Kings at the offensive blueline. Forward Jack Quinn fed Peterka on a breakaway, which he converted, to pull the visitors within 3-2. Just over two minutes later, forward Jack Quinn tied the game at three with a shot off the crossbar and in, from the high slot, his fifth tally of the season.

In a span of just over three minutes midway through the third period, Buffalo turned a 3-3 game into a 5-3 game with a pair of quick goals. Forward Alex Tuch capitalized off another turnover in the defensive zone, finishing up high from in close for the first lead of the night for the visitors. Forward Dylan Cozens made it 5-3 just shy of the 10-minute mark of the third, as he beat Kings netminder Cam Talbot with a wrist shot from the high slot.

Hear from Kopitar, defenseman Drew Doughty and Head Coach Todd McLellan after tonight’s game.

Drew Doughty

Drew speaks with media after tonight's loss🎤@LAKings I #LAKingsLive pic.twitter.com/eI6xQ84MMs

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) January 25, 2024

Anze Kopitar
On what he is seeing from the team right now that’s led to this run of losses
What I’m seeing is we’re not playing as a team right now. We’re worried about scoring goals too much and not buying into the stuff that made us successful first 30, 35 games of the year and it’s frustrating. So, we’re going to have to correct it and we’re going to have to correct it in a hurry.

On seeing things spiral over the past month of games
Yeah, it’s I mean, it’s a slippery slope. It’s one, two games, three and then the confidence is not there anymore and it’s four or five and here we are right now, talking about all of this. Like I said we’ve got to correct it in a hurry.

On if he feels tonight’s loss is rock bottom
Let’s hope so. Obviously not very good. There’s a few OT losses but those are pity points, but they still count, so we’ll take those, but yeah, we’ve got to correct stuff and get back on the right track in a hurry before it’s too late.

On Doughty backing the coaching staff and placing the onus on the players
It comes down to this room. They give us a plan, they give us the structure, they give us the motivation or the kick in the butt, it is what it is, but it’s about the guys that have to bring it out on the ice and make things happen.

Todd McLellan
On the players taking the blame and his takeaways from tonight
I think they’re being noble, the two of them shouldn’t take the blame, that’s on the guy wearing the suit behind the bench and that’s on the 20 others that put the equipment on, it’s not just 11 and 8 because they wear letters. That [performace] is unacceptable. We’re up 3-1, we’re maybe not playing our best, but the stupidity that went into that loss is beyond explainable. I could come up here and tell you that hey, in the past we’ve been close, maybe we didn’t get some luck around the net, but I haven’t, until now, been able to come in and say ‘boy we played really dumb.’ And that’s what we did.

On his thoughts on his own job security after this stretch of games
Well, that’s a very fair question. If I was sitting in your seat, you were standing here, I’d ask you that. I’m responsible for this. When you look at the team that played the first 25, 30 games, if you will, it doesn’t look like the team that’s playing right now and I’m responsible for it. Our staff is doing what we can, or what we believe we can, to get them to turn it around. We’re trying different things at different times, but I’m going to keep pushing away, I’m going to try and push buttons, poke people, praise people, look at how we do things. Our numbers, our underlying numbers, say we’re more the first half team than the second half team, but the win column doesn’t say that and that’s all that matters. So, it’s a very fair question.

On remarks from Kopitar and Doughty about players chasing offense over the team game
I would call that stupid hockey and I think I explained that right off the bat. We’ve struggled to score goals, I think that’s evident, and all of a sudden you get three in the first couple minutes and then everybody thinks they’re coming out of their individual scoring slumps, and guess what? Suck on that at the end of the night and that’s how it went. We weren’t playing that way when we were winning, so have we become selfish, have we become self-driven, have we gone into our own individual shells and self preservation? I’m not sure, but it shouldn’t be that way.

On what else he and the staff can do to turn things around
Well, there’s only so many things, there’s only so many pokes and prods that one can pull out of his hat and we pulled a lot of them out already. So, at some point, it has to hit home and if it doesn’t hit home, we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing and that’s insanity. So, it’s not what we want to be. It’s not who we are. But, right now, it’s who we’ve become and that’s concerning.

On if he feels he needs to lean more into the veterans or the younger players right now
Well, I think it’s a combination of both. Each night……for so long, I thought Danault’s line was really playing well and carrying us, it was kind of put on the shelf, we don’t have to take care of those three, they’re getting it done. Kopi’s line got it going tonight, they looked the way they should look, but then we lost Danault’s line, they’re minus four and they should have been minus three, but Grunny turned it over and got off, they sucked on that minus for no reason, but every night it’s a different group. It’s a D pinching at the wrong time, it might be a save, so we’re all over the map. But, who do we lean on? The group as a whole. I see positive signs from some of the youth right now. I think Quinton Byfield is a consistent, steady, honest player, night after night after night. Put him on the ice and count on him. I think Laf is evolving and developing but there’s some in between guys that really have to get going. There are some younger ones and then some of the older ones as well. So, we’re all in it together. I don’t think we can single out an age range.

On drawing from past experiences to help find a solution
We rely on our experience. Some of us have been through this before. I was in Detroit and we won a Stanley Cup in a ‘08 and we went 1-8-2 in 11 games, if you can believe that. I told a couple players that the other day. But, what we had going there, is we found a way to pull ourselves out. We still haven’t done that here. I’m not saying if we do we’re a Stanley Cup team, right now we’re not, we’re not even close, but we have to find ways to pull ourselves out. The analogy that I didn’t use, we got to find some other things to pull out of the hat here to convince players to play a certain way. That’s on us.

On if he’d agree that every game right now feels like a must win
I would say yes. I think I get that comment. For me, the disappointing part is why isn’t every game on must-win game, you know, like we just went through 16, 17 games like we don’t get to give ourselves permission, just because we had a nice little cushion way and we can get bad for two weeks, it doesn’t work that way the league is too good. They are correct in saying that, that we’ve got to dig in. We can’t whatever away more points, we just can’t.

On if the Kings have had closed-door meetings to hash things out over this stretch
We’ve had some of those, yeah. Whether it’s individual, whether it’s a line, whether it’s the group, but we’ve also had those when we were winning. We had a lot of those we were winning, we had a lot of those when we’re losing, so it’s nothing unusual. It could be a different demeanor, a different approach, a different tone, but we have them regularly.

Notes –
– Anze Kopitar (1-0=1) scored his 15th goal of the season. It is the 15th time in Kopitar’s career he has scored 15 or more goals in a season, breaking a tie with Dave Taylor (14x) and Luc Robitaille (14x) for the most such seasons in Kings history. With the goal, Kopitar registered his 40th point of the campaign (15-25=40). Kopitar becomes the 25th skater in league history to record a 40-point season 18 or more times, and is the third active skater to do so, joining Sidney Crosby (18x) and Alex Ovechkin (18x).
– The goal was the 408th of Kopitar’s career, moving him into the top-100 of all-time league goal scoring.
Adrian Kempe (1-1=2) picked up his 16th goal and 26th assist of the campaign, breaking a tie with Anze Kopitar for the second-most assists on the team this season. Kempe has now recorded six points (2-4=6) over his last five games against the Sabres, dating back to Oct. 31, 2021. With his two points tonight, Kempe has recorded 12 multi-point efforts on the season, the most among Kings skaters this year.
– Pierre-Luc Dubois (1-0=1) scored his 10th goal of the season for his 20th point (10-10=20) of the campaign. Dubois becomes the eighth King’s skater to reach the 20-point milestone this season. (10-10=20). Dubois has now recorded five points (3-2=5) over his last five games against Buffalo, dating back to Dec. 14, 2021.
– Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) picked up his first assist of the season. Clarke becomes the eighth Kings defenseman age 20 or younger to record an assist against the Sabres, the first to do so since Tobias Bjornfot (0-2=2; Oct. 31, 2021). This is also Clarke’s first power-play point recorded at home in his career.
– Drew Doughty (0-1=1) collected his 14th assist of the season for his 12th career assist against the Sabres. Doughty’s assist breaks a tie with Gilles Marotte (11A) for the third-most assists all-time amongst Kings defensemen versus Buffalo.
– Quinton Byfield (0-1=1) notched his 20th assist of the season, establishing a new single-season career high in the category (19A, 2022-23). Byfield is the only Kings skater in the last decade age 21 or younger to record at least two seasons of 19 or more assists and the first to do so since Drew Doughty (3x, 2008-2011). – With his assist, Byfield extends his point streak to three games (2-2=4), marking the third time this season he has recorded a point streak of at least three games.
– Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) tallied his seventh assist of the season for his first career power-play point recorded at home.
– Matt Roy (0-1=1) recorded his 12th assist of the season, giving him points in back-to-back games against the Sabres (1-0=1, Feb. 13, 2023). The assist marked the 95th point of the blue-liner’s career (21-74=95), putting him five points shy of becoming the fifth American-born defenseman in franchise history to record 100 career points.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 10:30 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center, before flying to Colorado later that day.