PRESEASON FINAL – Kings 2, Panthers 4 – Clarke, Danault, Hiller

The LA Kings took their first regulation loss of the preseason, following a 4-2 de feat against hte Florida Panthers

The Kings opened the scoring through forward Phillip Danault, who scored the game’s first goal in front of his hometown fans. Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov got a shot through from the point, with Danault getting a deflection on it from the slot, sending it past Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky for the goal and an early 1-0 lead.

The Panthers came back with a pair of power-play goals, however, taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. First, Aleksander Barkov was the recipient of a nice passing play, finishing with an even nicer deke to the backhand, tying the game at one. Florida capitalized again later in the period through forward Anton Lundell, who batted a puck out of mid-air after Aaron Ekblad’s shot caromed off the endboards towards the front of the net.

After nearly 20 minutes without a goal, the Panthers made it a 3-1 game late in the second period. Inside a minute to play, forward Jonah Gadjovich got a deflection on a shot from the point, deflecting it past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper for a two-goal advantage heading into the second intermission.

Midway through the third period, the Kings pulled back to within a goal, converting just after a power play had expired. Forward Quinton Byfield made a silky-smooth deke in open ice, working his way to the net past two defenders, before he re-gained possession of the puck and dropped it to forward Trevor Moore in a dangerous area, with number 12 converting for the goal.

Florida added an empty-net goal late in the third period, pushing the score to 4-2.

Hear from Danault, defenseman Brandt Clarke and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.

Brandt Clarke

Phillip Danault
On the feeling of getting that goal while playing in Quebec City
Pretty special. I mean, I knew Quebec always likes me, but there should be lots of love there, and I really appreciate it. They know what we did the last couple days too, so they cheered for us and a very good crowd. Yeah, it was awesome. Much love for them.

On what made this trip so special for him
Giving back to their community was awesome. Going to the hospital was just great, speak French as well a little bit, show around the boys, show my contacts. This city is pretty, especially in the fall and just see the trees and the beautiful city of old [Quebec], lots of stories, history in here. Just happy to be here, great crowd and it was awesome.

On how the trip compared to his own expectations coming in
It seemed like it was so far away, and just like that, we’re here, we just wrap it up. So it went and flied by, just like the season’s going to start next game. So, it went really fast and it’s awesome. Very happy to be here.

On playing these 2 games together, as a group, heading into the regular season
New system, new PK, new power play and everything, very important to have the full team the last two games. Especially in front of the crowd here, show up a little bit and playing hard. I don’t know why it shouldn’t be that way the whole season. One game at a time, though. long season.

On his feeling about the team compared to past years
I actually feel better about our game. I mean, it’s early obviously, but I like what I see from Q. The energy he brings, it’s very up to date, dynamic, he seems like he wants to step up at center as well, which is a position we needed to be better at. Yeah, he brings that different line dynamic for us and it’s huge. I mean, we look at other teams and they have, like a Jack Hughes, they have skill like that, and we have that player, so we can make some good things. We’re just going to go day-to-day and one shift at a time.

Jim Hiller
On what it was like to see Phillip Danault get that goal playing in Quebec City
Yeah, if you had to say, “who would you like to get one over these last couple games” it would be Phil Danault. He’s given a lot back to the community. I know even this week, he spent a lot of time in front of the media, he’s been out with the other guys, so I think the fans were waiting to give him the applause that he was due. So it was nice to see him get the goal.

On any areas of the team’s game he’d like to clean up going into opening night on Thursday
Haven’t really got there yet, we have to go through it, but as you mentioned, I think 5-on-5 we were really strong. The power play had a couple of good chances, I thought we executed way better tonight than versus Boston. They scored a highlight-reel goal on their power play, which was a great goal, three plays to make, there’s not much you can do on that one and then one off the end wall. I think you could say special teams we want to be a little bit better, but 5-on-5, we were really good. I think we feel like we got accomplished what we needed to get accomplished in training camp. I think that’s probably pretty clear to anybody who watched.

On the depth of the team and how it helps improve the 5-on-5 play
Yeah, and I thought Turc’s line had a really good night tonight with Lewie and Leesie. I thought they played very well, I thought they were in the offensive zone. Normally you’re thinking three lines and [now] fourth line is checking, I talked all about that this morning and then they went out and played that kind of a game today, which was really a strong offensive game too. I just thought we were pretty good all the way around. It’s October 5th, a long ways to go, but we like where we’re at coming out of it.

On coming to Quebec City and the team’s experience being here for a few days
I hope the fans appreciated us. I got that sense. I know we really appreciated the fans. We really appreciated getting out into the community and meeting some of the different people, whether it was street hockey or in the hospital, Costco, I’ve seen these guys every time I looked on the TV, I saw some of our guys in LA Kings jerseys. So, I think our guys really appreciated getting [to be] part of the community, even though it was a short time, and we sure got the support from the fans while we were on the ice.

The Kings have a scheduled day off tomorrow and will return to the ice for practice on Monday, October 7.