FINAL – Kings 3, Sabres 1 – Kuemper, Kopitar, Hiller

It wasn’t pretty but you don’t get points for pretty, just wins.

And so it was on Opening Night for the LA Kings that a goaltender who has come back to Los Angeles for a second time hoping to reboot his career, Darcy Kuemper, played the hero all night long keeping the Kings in a game they had no business being in, until a familiar hero, the captain Anze Kopitar, scored three times in the third period to give the Kings an improbable 3-1 win to start the season.

Whew. It was that kind of night.

The Kings were down 1-0 heading into the third period thanks to a shorthanded goal by Buffalo’s Alex Tuch late in the second period.

But things started to turn just 13 seconds into the third when seconds after the end of a Buffalo power play Alex Laferriere delivered a sweet backhand pass to Kopitar who buried a shot from the circle to tie the game.

The proceedings seemed destined for overtime when the Kings were awarded a power play late in the third and then found themselves with 28 seconds of 5-on-3 time after a second ill-timed Buffalo penalty. Kopitar wasted little time ripping another one from the circle to give the Kings their first lead with 1:38 left.

He sealed the deal with an empty net goal for the 3-1 final.

Kopitar is currently the most productive active player on opening nights in the NHL.

Kuemper Loves LA – And LA Loves Kuemper
The story is well-told how Kuemper came to LA a few years back, won back his confidence thanks to Kings goalie coach Bill Ranford and went on to win a Stanley Cup. Now he’s back after an offseason trade with Washington and he proved early and often that he is loving his new environs once again.

He was, simply, sensational in Game 1 Thursday.

With the Kings unable to generate offense of any kind – they were outshot 27-11 through two periods – Kuemper made a string of highlight reel saves off a Buffalo team with a lot of high end talent.

He ended up stopping 32 of 33 shots on the night.

Here are Kuemper’s thoughts on the night.

“I mean personally I’ve been feeling good about my game. Every time I got in there for preseason I really like playing behind this group. They’re super predictable and make the reads pretty easy. You’ve just got to trust the boys. You know the firepower that we have in this room guys like obviously Kopi just putting the team on his back in the third. You know it’s going to come eventually. We had that belief in this room in the intermission and we went out and got the win.”

Kuemper On The Captain
“He is the guy that we all look up to he’s played in so many big games and that’s just leadership. Things maybe aren’t going the way we want them to and then he just goes out there and gets one right away gets us back in it and then to get the game-winner and then to seal it with the hat-trick that’s pretty special.”

The Coach Looked Like Someone Who’d Seen A Lot And Didn’t Like What He’d Seen

Head coach Jim Hiller looked like a man who’d been put through the ringer when he met with the media following the game.

“Drained. Yeah. One of those nights where you’re glad you have a goaltender. That’s one of those goalie wins but a win nonetheless.”

Hiller On Kuemper
“He kept us in it early. He kept us in it the middle and he kept us in it late,” Hiller said. “That means it gave us a chance to stay in the game and hang around and it’s exactly what we did.”

Hiller On Kopitar’s Heroics
“We needed somebody besides the goalie, right? So the goalie was sure doing his job we needed to find somebody else who could also step up. It was Kopi. It often is. It has been for a long time. he’s not going to be able to do that every night nor is Darcy going to be able to do that every night so we’re going to need more from some other guys.”

Hiller On What’s Next
“We had played so well in the preseason and we were playing so tight. So this caught us off guard a little. Give Buffalo full marks. First of all they played an outstanding game. So give them full marks. They made it extremely hard on us and we’ll get better. The positive thing for us is we didn’t have a good game and so we can play a lot better. Nobody remembers this when we get into April we’re fighting for those last few points to try and secure a playoff spot so we’ll just take it and move on for tonight.

And Now Some Words From The Captain

“No. I think we gave up Darcy way too much action and world-class stops. Yeah he definitely kept us in the game the first 40 minutes and we were able to pull one out for him.”

“Even though our game was not nearly as sharp as we wanted it to be we were down one goal going into the third period on the road and they played a couple of games already, this is our first so-called ‘real’ game so I mean you’re just trying to find something, really. And it’s one shot that can change the momentum of the game and luckily we found it in the third.”

The Good
Apart from the aforementioned heroics from Kuemper and Kopitar some interesting things.

The team’s best line from start to finish was the fourth line featuring rookie Andre Lee who took the traditional warmup lap on his own before the game. He, Alex Turcott and Trevor Lewis had a nice night.

Hiller said he was kicking himself for not playing them more.

Joel Edmundson, a big off-season addition to the blue line, was a rock all night. He drew a secondary assist on Kopitar’s first goal but it was his work in-zone especially with the Kings in penalty trouble much of the night was impressive.