FINAL – Kings 2, Canucks 4 – Edmundson, Foegele, Hiller

The LA Kings saw their four-game point streak come to an end, as they dropped a 4-2 decision to the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Inside the first two minutes of the game, forward Quinton Byfield opened the scoring for the Kings with his second goal in as many periods. Byfield used his speed to gain a step down the left wing, working his way to the front of the net. He deked to the backhand, across the top of the crease and beat Vancouver netminder Kevin Lankinen with a shot for his second goal of the season and a 1-0 lead.

Midway through the second period, Kings forward Tanner Jeannot was assessed a match penalty for a hit to the head on Vancouver forward Brock Boeser, giving the Canucks an extended, five-minute power-play sequence.

Vancouver scored just once on the man advantage, taking the game into the first intermission tied at one goal apiece. Forward Conor Garland redirected the puck towards the net, with Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper accidently swiping it with his stick on the way through, into the net, for Garland’s fourth goal of the season.

Early in the second period, Vancouver took its first lead of the evening. Forward Jake DeBrusk was the goalscorer, using a nice move to go around Kuemper, below the goal line before he pulled it back and scored at the near post for a 2-1 lead. Defensemen Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek collected the assists on the play for the visitors.

Inside three minutes played in the third period, Hughes made it a multi-point game, as he buried his third goal of the season. Working the blueline at the left point, Hughes used his quick feet and stickhandling ability to work his way into a bit of space and sent a seeing-eye shot through traffic, which found its way through bodies and in, as the Canucks took a 3-1 lead.

With just over six minutes remaining in regulation, the Kings pulled a goal back through defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, who buried his first of the season. At the left point, Gavrikov fired a shot that evaded a screen in front from forward Trevor Lewis and snuck inside the post, bringing the score to 3-2. Forwards Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore tallied the assists on the play, extending both of their assist streaks to three games.

The Canucks picked the empty net with 1:14 left on the clock, as JT Miller collected the game’s final goal, bringing us to the score of 4-2.

Hear from defenseman Joel Edmundson, forward Warren Foegele and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.

Joel Edmundson

Warren Foegele
On his takeaways from tonight’s game
That was two hard teams that fought pretty hard there. It was a good hockey game and, you know, we just came up short there, but I thought it was a pretty competitive game. Unfortunately, they won the special teams, and that can kind of be a difference winning hockey games.

On the physicality in tonight’s game
It was probably much closer to a playoff game than most of the other games we’ve had this year, but these are two good teams, competing hard for the division. I’m sure we will see them a lot more, further down the road. So it’s a competitive game and give them credit, but I thought we had a pretty good game as well.

On going down to 11 forwards early and how the group managed that
Yeah, obviously it’s not ideal. I think it just gives guys more of an opportunity to take on more ice time and I thought, honestly, the whole group played pretty well. They had their push and we were pushing too. I think on the power play, there’s chances I think we’d like to bear down on and maybe it’s a different game, right? But, like I said, it was a competitive game.

On seeing Quinton Byfield score again, after getting his first on Tuesday
They always say the first one is always the hardest, and for him, you could definitely tell he was gripping the stick pretty tight, so it’s really nice to see him get one last game. Today, you know, a little bit more relaxed and he finished on his chance. That’s the Q we know, works really hard, has high-end skill and logs a lot of minutes for this team. He’s an important piece for us.

Jim Hiller
On Vancouver “beating the Kings at their own game”
I thought they were a little bit quicker to pucks and a little bit stronger once they got there. It’s an even game, but I thought they were a little bit quicker and a little stronger once they arrived. It’s not something we want to take pride in, we’re trying to be that team, so give them full marks for that.

On managing a team that ran with 11 forwards and 5 defensemen for a big part of tonight’s game
You’d never like to be down, but we played a lot with seven last year, down to five defensemen, we saw Juice back there and Phil went back there a little bit, 4-on-4, so we just have to do it. I don’t think it’s that hard, really [for the coach]. There are times when, for me they’re not that big of a deal, for DJ, sometimes he goes cuts down to five defensemen anyways. So, you’d like to be fresh when you’re doing that, I don’t think we were completely fresh, or as fresh as we would have liked to be tonight, so that makes it a little harder.

On establishing flow in a game with players out and a ton of special teams time
In the first period, for sure. They had seven minutes of power play, we had four, I believe, so that’s pretty much whole special teams. You’ve got a group of guys that play a lot and a group of guys that don’t get on the ice at all. So really, no flow for the first but then we started fresh in the second.

On the test tonight of a physical game
I thought the Nashville game was pretty physical, so I would say this is maybe the second most physical game. Yeah, I mean, we came out on the short end of it, so it wasn’t good enough. I think losing Tanner early was a big part of that, we could have used him in a heavy game like this for the full 60, so that probably hurt us maybe more than we know.

On if he has any concern Jeannot could be suspended after his match penalty
No, I’m not. [Reporter – How does a penalty like that get addressed, when punishment was already assessed with the ejection?] That’s one, there’s timing, it’s close, there’s not much you can do. That’s a split-second reaction, that’s not being lazy and hooking somebody or carrying your stick higher than it should be.

On the team’s play in the third period, chasing the game in search of an equalizer
We’re down, so we’re pressing a little bit and they defended well, give them credit, they didn’t take a lot of risk in the third, so there wasn’t a lot of room there. We made some plays that were probably not high percentage. I thought we probably could have thrown a few more just right at the net, at the pads, and try to just get something. It wasn’t going for us, as far as connecting a nice passing play, so that was probably disappointing as far as that goes, that we didn’t just get a little bit more direct there.

Hiller added after the game that he did not have any further update on defenseman Mikey Anderson, who left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury.

Notes –
• Forward Quinton Byfield (1-0=1) scored his second goal of the season, his third point (2-1=3) in his last two games.
• Since the start of the 2023-24 campaign, only Cole Perfetti (+22) and Seth Jarvis (+25) have a higher plus/ minus among skaters selected in the 2020 NHL Draft than Byfield (+19).
• Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (1-0=1) scored his first goal of the season and extends his point streak to a third consecutive game, marking the sixth time in his career that the blueliner has established a run of such length (Last: 2-1=3, 3 GP; April 6 – April 10, 2023).
• Forward Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) picked up his 14th point of the year with his sixth assist this season. The first period helper marked Laferriere’s first career assist against the Canucks.
• With the assist, Laferriere becomes the seventh Kings skater to reach the six-assist mark. The Kings now join the Buffalo Sabres (7), Florida Panthers (8), and Winnipeg Jets (10) as the only four teams this season to have at least seven players with as many helpers on the campaign.
• Center Phillip Danault (0-1=1) notched his seventh assist of the season, extending his assist streak to a fourth game (1-4=5).
• Forward Trevor Moore (0-1=1) picked up his seventh assist of the season, extending his home point streak against the Canucks to a fourth game (2-2=4), dating back to April 10, 2023.
• Forward Warren Foegele (0-1=1) notched his second assist of the season and first assist at Crypto.com Arena as a member of the Kings.

The Kings will hold an optional practice tomorrow at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.