FINAL – Kings 1, Avalanche 5 – Danault, Anderson, McLellan

The LA Kings began a three-game roadtrip with a 5-1 defeat against the Colorado Avalanche on Friday evening at Ball Arena, their 13th loss in their last 15 games played.

Just shy of eight minutes into the game, forward Logan O’Connor opened the scoring for the hosts, as he buried his 12th goal of the season. Defenseman Samuel Girard’s pass through the neutral zone deflected into the path of O’Connor, who worked his way just above of the left-hand circle and put a wrist shot high on the glove side, past Kings netminder Cam Talbot, for a 1-0 advantage.

O’Connor doubled his team’s lead later in the opening frame, as the Avalanche forced a turnover deep in the Kings zone and capitalized. Forward Ross Colton forced a turnover below the goal line, with forward Miles Wood feeding O’Connor in front, where he buried his second goal of the period for a 2-0 lead.

With just 90 seconds remaining in the opening period, forward Nathan MacKinnon scored his team’s third goal of the period, giving Colorado a 3-0 advantage through 20 minutes. MacKinnon danced his way through the offensive zone, moving into the right-hand circle and snapping a shot inside the far post for his 31st goal of the season.

After 20 minutes, the Kings made a goaltending change, with goaltender David Rittich coming into the net for the final two periods.

Midway through the second period, the Kings cashed in with a power-play goal from forward Kevin Fiala, pulling to within 3-1. With a broken Colorado stick giving the Kings some extra room, Fiala buried a one-timer, on a low-to-high pass from forward Alex Laferriere, to get the visitors on the board. Defenseman Drew Doughty also collected an assist on the play.

The Kings pulled through a four-minute penalty kill, with another strong showing from their PK unit, but conceded 60 seconds after as Colorado restored its three-goal advantage at the second intermission. Entering the zone 3-on-2, after a collision in the neutral zone, forward Andrew Cogliano fed defenseman Josh Manson, who scored high on the short side from the right-hand circle, putting the Avalanche up 4-1.

Less than a minute into the third period, Colorado concluded the scoring on the evening with their first power-play goal of the game. After an early penalty against, defenseman Cale Makar’s shot from the point took a high deflection, bounced down to the ice and went between Rittich’s legs, for Makar’s 12th goal of the season.

Hear from forward Phillip Danault, defenseman Mikey Anderson and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Phillip Danault

Mikey Anderson
On his takeaways from tonight’s game
I mean, I thought overall, the whole game was maybe a little more structured from us than we were in the last one versus Buffalo, but the same thing. A few breakdowns, they execute. Obviously they’ve got some good players, high skilled and plays that didn’t really go our way, they found a way to capitalize on. Hard to come back after you give up three pretty early.

On mistakes and poor game management leading to the goals against
Maybe a little bit of both, I’m not sure exactly what led to every goal, I haven’t watched them all, but yeah, I think everything’s kind of moment to moment. Over the stretch, it’s been some systematic, some individual but as a group, we know we have it, we’ve just got to stop talking about it and do it.

On what he, as a team leader, feels is missing overall right now
I think just the little details that we had going at the start of the year have gotten a little more lax. All the way through, starting maybe with the backend, we talk about breakouts and then it kind of leads its way up to everything else. Obviously, we know we have a good group in here, we have the right pieces, but at the same time we’ve got to start taking ownership of it as a group and then turning this around.

Todd McLellan
On his assessment of tonight’s game
Wrong end of it. I thought we started well and then gave a couple of goals up from distance and that set us back, but we had our opportunities to score as well, to pull ourselves back in the game and we didn’t do that. So, again, both ends of the ice.

On the goals against in the first period, and not capitalizing after stretches of positive play
The goals that were scored, you know, they were shots from a distance that were screened, it’s not just on the goaltender. There’s not a lot of system or tactic in that, it’s a 1-on-1 situation and those happen. I think the third one went off Englund’s foot and came right back to them. When you get down to a team like this, it’s hard to come back, but I thought our guys stuck with it for most of the night. The last five minutes wasn’t wasn’t a good five minutes for us by any means, but I thought we stuck with it.

On the Kings shifts coming off goals either way, that aren’t generating the needed momentum
You want to reestablish what you had going and again, I talked about the first 10 or 12 minutes of the game wasn’t bad, we played well. We were a little hesitant, I thought, in our breakouts. We knew what to do, but we weren’t executing very quickly and it made us look a little bit slower breaking out. As far as rebounding after a goal, we expect that both for and against even when we do score goal, we’ve got to respond with a good effort.

On if he felt like the fourth goal was the backbreaker
We call it a dirty puck or a loose puck in the neutral zone, all three forwards reached for it and all of a sudden it’s a 4-on-2 going the other way. That one hurt.

On the process of defending Colorado
In my opinion, they have a line that plays a lot and they’re very good and they play a little different than the other three lines. So, it’s a different game depending on who you’re on the ice against. They’re very quick and very confident, they escape well, their backend is so active that you have to keep an eye on them too, to try and prevent.

Notes –
– Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) scored his 12th goal and 42nd point (12-30=42) of the season, tying Adrian Kempe (16-26=42) for the team lead in scoring. Fiala has notched five points (2-3=5) over his last five games.
– Drew Doughty (0-1=1) recorded his 15th assist of the season. He has now recorded a point in back-to-back games against the Avalanche (1-0=1, Dec. 3, 2023). With the assist, Doughty has recorded 15 or more assists in a season for the 16th time in his career, the most such seasons by a defenseman in Kings history, and the third-most such seasons among active defensemen, behind only Brent Burns (17x) and Ryan Suter (18x). Doughty becomes the 26th defenseman in NHL history to record 15 assists in a season 16 or more times.
– Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) picked up his eighth assist of the season. Laferriere has now recorded assists in back-to-back games (0-1=1; Jan 24, 2024 vs. BUF) for the first assist streak of his career, and the third two-game point streak of his career. Laferriere becomes the fifth Kings skater in the last 20 years to record three or more two-game point streaks in their debut season, joining Austin Wagner (3x, 2018-19), Wayne Simmonds (4x, 2008-09), Drew Doughty (5x, 2008-09) and Anze Kopitar (12x, 2006-07).

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 1 PM local time, 11 AM Pacific, from St. Louis.

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