FINAL – Kings 1, Blackhawks 5 – Doughty, Foegele, Hiller

The LA Kings fell for the fourth straight game, as they dropped a 5-1 decision on Monday evening in Chicago, falling to 0-3 on a three-game trip.

Despite 11 of the game’s first 13 shots being taken by the Kings, it was Chicago that opened the scoring against the grain, with former Kings defenseman Alec Martinez getting the Blackhawks on the board. With traffic in front of Los Angeles goaltender Darcy Kuemper, Martinez got his shot through from the point, evading both those in front and Kuemper’s right pad, as it went in for Martinez’s fifth goal of the season.

The Kings tied the game less than 60 seconds later, however, as captain Anze Kopitar got himself back on the scoresheet. Kopitar’s wingers, Adrian Kempe and Alex Turcotte, both made nice passes in transition to spring Koptiar alone in front of the net. With a quick release, the captain beat new Chicago goaltender Spencer Knight on the glove side to tie the game at a goal apiece with his 14th goal of the season.

Less than a minute into the second period, Chicago pulled ahead for the second time in the game. Forward Teuvo Teravainen was left alone in front and Kuemper challenged to make the save but forward Ilya Mikheyev collected the rebound in the left-hand circle and put it into the back of the net for his 12th goal of the season and a 2-1 lead for the hosts.

Chicago doubled its advantage late in the second period, taking a two-goal lead into the second intermission. After the Blackhawks won a faceoff in the offensive zone, defenseman Ethan Del Maestro worked his way down the left wall and sent a centering feed towards the crease, which deflected off the skate of Kings defenseman Jacob Moverare and in for Del Maestro’s second goal of the season and a 3-1 advantage.

Chicago made it 4-1 inside the first two minutes of the third period, as forward Andreas Athanasiou became the second player in the game to score against his former club. The Kings won a defensive-zone faceoff but turned the puck over behind their own net, with Colton Dach feeding Athanasiou in front for the goal, his first of the season, to put the hosts ahead 4-1.

The Blackhawks added an empty-net goal from forward Ryan Donato, his 22nd goal of the season, bringing us to the final score of 5-1.

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

Drew Doughty

Warren Foegele
On his takeaways from tonight’s loss to Chicago
You know, I think today we had a much better start than maybe our two previous games but there’s no moral victories in this game. We didn’t get the job done and as a group, we have to dig in and be better. These are crucial points coming up and everyone is pushing for this time of the year. It’s a big game coming up.

On what changed between the first and second periods
Probably just our urgency. I think one word is, I think we’re a much better team when we’re connected. Everyone knows what we’re doing and by doing that, that’s listening to what our coaches tell us to do, everyone staying on the same page and getting pucks in behind them, use our energy, backtrack, things like that. You’ve got to play 60 minute effort and unfortunately tonight we didn’t.

On credit given to Spencer Knight for the outcome of the game
100 percent. I don’t know how many Grade-A’s he stopped but he stopped a lot, especially in the first there, it could have been a 2-0 lead for us. Then even at the end there, we were pressing pretty hard and he’s a hell of a goalie. Probably super emotional getting traded a couple days ago, so you’ve got to give him credit when he’s good.

On what the Kings need to fall back on to snap out of this slump
It starts with our identity as a group, is playing defense first and not cheating for offense and things like that. We check the best of them in the league and when we’re not checking, we’re seeing scores like that. We can be better and we know that. Tonight too, that had a couple lucky bounces as well, so when it’s not going your way, you don’t really get good luck. You’ve got to keep pressing and digging in as a group. First game back

On the emotions needed against St. Louis on Wednesday, after losing there this weekend
We love playing at home, we’ve got the best fans in the league, we love playing at home. We owe that club a better effort than we did last time, they kind of beat us at our own game. I think everyone’s excited to get home and get rid of that.

Jim Hiller
On his assessment of tonight’s game
The second period, that was pretty obvious. The first and the third were clearly in our favor and the second was in their favor, chance-wise and shots. Give them credit, not just the goalie, they played a good second period.

On the game getting away from the Kings in the second period after a good start
I don’t know. It’s a great question. It’s a great question you’d like to know, right, because falling behind, the urgency was there in the third, so I don’t know. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it. We had urgency in the first, we had urgency in the third and we just played in second.

On the need to get more emotion and urgency from the team for 60 minutes
I think we came out and started, we played a pretty good hockey game. On most nights you’d be leading in the first if not by one, maybe two, maybe three, so no problem. Maybe we got frustrated because we had a difficult time scoring, I don’t know if that was it, but just the second right? The second was not there. We’ve got to play pretty close to 60. If you don’t play 60 against any team in the league, 40 minutes is probably not going to get it done.

On the need to get more emotion and urgency from the team for 60 minutes
I think we’re far enough along that everybody understands how we have to play, the urgency you have to come with. It’s a long season. We do go up and down, there’s no question, we’re disappointed. It’s a really poor road trip, we got zero points in three games. We’ll have to go home and be ready for what is a good St Louis team who smacked us pretty good.

On if he expects an emotional response against St. Louis on Wednesday after losing there
We owe ourselves one, I’m not too worried about owing them one. I’m worried about us playing our game and playing it for 60 minutes and then we’ll see what the outcome is. Hockey is pretty random, you saw that tonight. The effort shouldn’t be random, the effort should be there from zero to 60. That’s what I’m looking for.

Notes –
• Captain Anze Kopitar (1-0=1) converted a set-up from both of his wingmen to tie tonight ‘s contest at a goal apiece in the first period. The goal stands as the Slovenian centerman’s 83rd career game-tying goal, surpassing Marcel Dionne (82) for the second most in Kings history behind only Luc Robitaille (96), per NHL PR.
• Kopitar’s 14th goal of the 2024-25 season ties Butch Goring (15-27=42) for third most points against Chicago in Kings history behind Dave Taylor (20-23=43) and Marcel Dionne (21-37=58).
• Kopitar skated in his 1,432nd career regular season NHL game tonight, tying Mike Gartner for 33rd most in League history.
• Forward Alex Turcotte (0-1=1) generated his 14th assist of the year with his helper on Kopitar’s goal and now has points (0-2=2) in back-to-back games against Chicago this season.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) contributed his 24th assist of the campaign and now has reached the 50-point mark (26-24=50) for the fourth consecutive season.
• Kempe is the fifth European-born skater to register at least four such seasons in franchise history, consecutively or otherwise. He joins Anze Kopitar (17 from 2006-07 – 2023-24), Alex Frolov (5 from 2005-06 – 2009-10), Juha Widing (5 from 1970-71 – 1974-75) and Zigmund Palffy (4 from 1999-00 – 2002-03).

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.