FINAL – Kings 0, Avalanche 4 – Byfield, Foegele, Hiller

The LA Kings lost for just the second time in their last 11 games, a 4-0 defeat against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday evening at Ball Arena.

The teams played a high-intensity first period that saw neither side break the deadlock in the opening 20 minutes. In his Kings debut, forward Jeff Malott had the best chance of the period, but was denied by Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood from the low slot. Colorado forward Nathan MacKinnon had the best look for the hosts, with Kings netminder David Rittich making a blocker save to keep it 0-0.

Early in the second period, Colorado got on the board to open the scoring. Defenseman Cale Makar went to work along the offensive blueline, gaining a step into the slot. The elusive defenseman fed forward Logan O’Connor from close range, which he finished for his ninth goal of the season and a 1-0 lead. With the primary assist, Makar collected his 56th assist of the season, the most among all NHL defensemen.

Just 92 seconds later, the Avalanche scored again, this time with forward Martin Necas scoring for the hosts. A shot from defenseman Samuel Girard missed the net to the right of Rittich but the puck took a big kick off the endboards, with Necas collecting and scoring at the back post for his 25th goal of the season, putting Colorado ahead 2-0 just shy of seven minutes into the second period.

Skating on the man advantage, Colorado capped off a three-goal period with a power-play goal to take a 3-0 lead into the second intermission. Makar was once again involved, as he facilitated from the center point, finding Necas in the left-hand circle where he unloaded a one-timer past Rittich and in for his second goal of the game.

Colorado scored another power-play goal early in the third period, opening up a 4-0 lead in the process. MacKinnon started the play by gaining the offensive blueline with possession, allowing the Avalanche to set up in the offensive zone. Two passes later, MacKinnon threaded one through the middle to forward Jonathan Drouin, who fired a one-timer into the back of the net for his 11th goal of the season and the four-goal lead.

Hear from forwards Quinton Byfield and Warren Foegele, as well as Head Coach Jim Hiller, following tonight’s game.

Quinton Byfield

Warren Foegele
On his takeaways from tonight’s game
I give them credit, they’re a good team. I just thought, I think as a group, we all kind of thought that they were skating more than we were. It’s a hard league and they’ve got some really fast guys, so if we’re not moving our feet, that doesn’t really give us the best chance, especially offensively. I thought that was kind of a big piece of the game. Obviously special teams, you can talk about that, they won the special-teams battle, and then, yeah, honestly, if I probably score that goal, then maybe it’s 2-1, not going on the PK, to make it 3-0, so I think that kind of changed the game as well.

On the play late in the second, that turned what could have been 2-1 into 3-0
Yeah exactly, I think because it was a great play by Mooresie to get it to Q and so close to get it in and then I’m just trying to drive the net and it was a good play by their defenseman.

On if he thought the skating issues were 60 minutes or began in the second period
I liked our start. I thought we matched their intensity at the beginning. We didn’t really give them much too and then we kind of stopped moving our feet. You respect those guys, but you don’t give them too much respect and at the end of the day, we’ve got to worry about us and our identity. The reasons why we’ve been winning games is playing hard, tracking, playing as a group. When we’re not moving our feet, we’re playing slower out there and it’s not to our identity.

On heading home to conclude a 6-in-9 with the final three games at home
Yeah, we love playing at home. For some reason, it seems that we’re able to have more complete efforts there. We like playing in front of our fans, they give us energy and we feel comfortable playing at home.

Jim Hiller
On the intensity in the game early and where it went after the start
Yeah, I thought we started alright, but we didn’t have our best stuff, there’s no question. Just, we didn’t connect on much, I just didn’t think we were very good. We didn’t give them a lot, but we just didn’t create much ourselves. Just weren’t sharp.

On the takeaways from the room that the Kings didn’t skate the way they needed to
I mean, sometimes if you’re making passes, it’s easier to skate. We kept seeing, everything was a grind for us because we couldn’t hit the tape. Third period I thought was simpler. They backed off a little bit, but we just kind of skated a little bit and I thought we played probably our best period, even though they didn’t need to score. We just didn’t have our legs, we weren’t good. I mean, you can talk about if Foegs scores there, it makes it different. I just didn’t like our game. I didn’t think we sharp. We battled, but they were better.

On if the lack of sharpness carried over onto the power play
Yeah, that’s usually how it works. Guys don’t feel good, they’re not feeling it because the power play obviously reflects your 5-on-5 game. We just didn’t have one. Our top skill players weren’t making a lot of plays.

On Jeff Malott’s first game with the LA Kings
He was the bright spot in the game for me, I really, really liked his game. Didn’t have a chance to be that physical, which I know is part of his game, but he’s got good hockey sense. Yeah, I really, really liked his game. He was really, really impressive.

On the decision to go with David Rittich in goal tonight
He’s coming off that game against Carolina, we didn’t want to, based on that performance, didn’t want to push him out too long, we knew he was going to get in. We knew this would be a tough game, we thought, you know what, let’s let him try to build on the Carolina game and see if he can come in here and steal us one. It certainly wasn’t on him. If you score zero goals, you’re not going to win.

Notes –
• Defenseman Drew Doughty played in his 1,200th career regular season game tonight in Colorado. Doughty is the 39th blueliner in League history to play as many games and the fifth active defenseman to reach the mark, joining Ryan Suter (1,517 GP), Brent Burns (1,486 GP), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (1,313 GP) and Jack Johnson (1,225 GP).
• Forward Jeff Malott made his LA Kings debut tonight in Colorado, recording three hits and a takeaway in his second career NHL game. The 6-5, 210 pound winger has served as the alternate captain for the Ontario Reign in the American Hockey League (AHL) this season. In 61 games played, he has scored 23 goals and 51 points (23-28=51) with 80 penalty minutes (PIM) and a plus-17 rating.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow, March 28 at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo.