FINAL – Kings 1, Predators 4 – Gavrikov, Fiala, Hiller

The LA Kings saw their four-game winning streak come to an end, following a 4-1 defeat against the Nashville Predators on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Nashville opened the scoring midway through the first period, as forward Yakov Trenin buried the game’s first goal. Forward Colton Sissons threaded a pass into the slot, with Trenin skating onto the puck, deking to his backhand and slotting narrowly past the outstretched glove of Kings goaltender David Rittich for his ninth goal of the season.

With a 5-on-3 advantage in the final minutes of the opening period, the Kings tied the game at one through forward Kevin Fiala. Skating on a two-man advantage, Fiala took a feed from forward Anze Kopitar in the middle of the ice, took a stride into the slot and snapped his shot past Nashville netminder Juuse Saros for his 15th goal of the season and a 1-1 scoreline after 20 minutes.

After controlling the puck down the stretch in the second period, the Predators found the go-ahead goal with just over five minutes remaining in the middle stanza. Stationed on the goal line, forward Luke Evangelista fired a puck off the side of the net, which deflected into the crease, where forward Mark Jankowski poked it home for his second goal of the season and a 2-1 lead through 40 minutes of play.

The Predators hit the empty net twice in the final three minutes of regulation – with Sissons and defenseman Jeremy Lauzon scoring the goals – to seal a 4-1 victory.

Hear from Fiala, defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s defeat.

Vladislav Gavrikov

Kevin Fiala
On the team’s passing tonight and a lack of connectivity throughout the team
Yeah, I think overall, passing-wise just wasn’t our style today, from the beginning to the end, I think. Not much energy from us, like we used to have, so not a good night for us.

On if there’s anything he can point to for the lack of energy he mentioned
It’s a tough question. I mean, we know what position we’re at, we know we have to win, we know they’re right behind us and chasing us. We knew all of that, so I don’t know. I don’t know why we played like we did.

On playing against a team that is stylistically physical like Nashville
Overall, just play a little smarter. They’re not a bad team. I don’t know how you guys saw it, but there wasn’t much room out there, they close on us quick, they had good gaps and good tracks, it wasn’t much time out there. I think we just didn’t do the right things against that type of team. I think we just have to adjust a little better.

On what he’d like to see the Kings do better in those situations going forward
I think just we didn’t skate that much, we didn’t skate onto pucks, we didn’t play fast. I think it was too much slowing down the game and in the o-zone, I think we didn’t go side to side and low to high, we didn’t go to the net, I think the goalie saw way too many pucks. I think we didn’t shoot too many pucks, we tried to pass it when it wasn’t there. So, I think in situations like this, like tonight, I think we need to be a little more straightforward and then it will open up.

Jim Hiller
On what he was most disappointed in during tonight’s game
I would say the turnovers. I think we turned it over, you saw it a few times in really tough spots. Neither team had a lot of chances, their best chances came off our turnovers.

On the difficulties in establishing their style when the passing wasn’t there
Yeah, well, that’s difficult, but give them credit, they made it difficult. They really checked us and that wasn’t a surprise, strong team, so they did a really nice job. So, your execution has to be even a little bit better when you’re playing a team that checks you that well and ours wasn’t. That made it doubly hard for us to get through that.

On where he felt the energy levels were tonight
Yeah, it seemed down from where we typically are, that’s for sure. I don’t know, we played a lot of hockey, I expected more in that regard, but again, I’ll give them credit. That make it a hard game, they’re a big, strong team you’ve really got to push to get through.

On a game that was tight-checking from the start and what made the difference
We’d like to think we checked pretty well too and beyond the turnovers, we didn’t give them much. It’s just one of those hockey games that has two good teams, checking, going hard at it. Whoever can execute a little better is going to get more chances. The game-winning goal I guess you could call it wasn’t great execution by them either, it was just a throw the puck at the net and winning a battle at the net. So, it was that type of game. There wasn’t a lot of odd-man rushes that we gave up or anything like that, but we just didn’t generate enough.

On in-game adjustments tonight that saw Kaliyev and Turcotte get more icetime
I think it’s game by game and it’s within the game. Because, we just talked about it, we didn’t have a lot going on. Turc’s got quick legs, we thought maybe we can just give him a little extra bump up, sometimes you get a little bit. He played and then actually Arthur took over from him a little bit, Arthur had some chances. So, you’re not creating much, you’re just looking for maybe a spark from one of the players.

On pulling the goaltender on the earlier side in the game, chasing the tying goal
That was maybe a little bit earlier than I might do it, but they had just ice the puck a couple times, so we thought, you know, you can wait another 30 seconds or 40, but they’ve got tired people on the ice, let’s try and take advantage of that. That was probably the logic in that.

Hiller added that there was no update on defenseman Mikey Anderson, who was not able to finish tonight’s game. The Kings will “find out tomorrow” more on Anderson and we’ll look for an update following Saturday’s morning skate.

Notes –
– Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) scored his 15th goal of the campaign for the 400th career NHL point (162-238=400). Fiala becomes the fourth Swiss-born player in league history to record 400 points. Fiala’s goal marked the first 5-on-3 power-play goal for the Kings of the 2023-24 campaign and extends his point streak against Nashville to a third game (2-1=3).
– The goal was Fiala’s sixth power-play goal (PPG) of the season, the second-most PPGs on the team behind Anze Kopitar (7).
– Anže Kopitar (0-1=1) tallied his 29th assist of the season. The assist was the 777th of his career, breaking a tie with Jean Ratelle (776) for sole possession of the 40th-most assists in NHL history. Kopitar’s assist also marked the 298th power-play assist of his career, tying Gilbert Perreault for the 40th-most in league history.
– Kopitar’s helper also marked his 165th power-play assist on home ice, breaking a tie with Wayne Gretzky (164) for the most in franchise history. Kopitar skated in his 1,347th career regular season game tonight, passing Mats Sundin (1,346) for sole possession of 57th all-time and moving within one game of tying Marcel Dionne (1,348) for 56th all-time.
– Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) picked up his 30th assist of the season, tying Kevin Fiala for the most assists on the team. It is the first 30-assist season of his career. With the helper, Kempe becomes just the fourth Swedish skater in Kings franchise history to notch 30 assists in a single season, joining Viktor Arvidsson (1x), Tomas Sandstrom (1x) and Juha Widing (4x). Kempe joins Viktor Arvidsson (3x) as the only Swedish skaters selected in the 2014 NHL Draft to record a 30-assist season.

The Kings have a scheduled team off day tomorrow and will return to the ice on Saturday for morning skate at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo.

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