FINAL – Kings 1, Kraken 2 – Byfield, Spence, Hiller

The LA Kings saw their four-game winning streak come to an end during a 2-1 defeat to the Seattle Kraken on Monday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Inside the game’s first two minutes, the Kings opened the scoring as forward Quinton Byfield scored a highlight-reel goal, his 20th of the season. With one hand on his stick, Byfield deflected a shot from defenseman Kyle Burroughs around both a defenseman in front and Seattle netminder Joey Daccord, before he knocked the puck into the net, again with one hand on his stick for an early 1-0 lead.

Seattle responded, however, with two goals in 54 seconds to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

First, forward Matty Beiners capitalized from inside the crease, as he put home a Jamie Oleksiak rebound from close range to knot the score at one. Inside a minute later, the Kraken added a 4-on-4 goal to pull in front. Skating 3-on-2 in transition, forward Jordan Eberle fed defenseman Brandon Montour down the left wing, where the defenseman collected from the top of the left-hand circle and fired underneath the crossbar and in for his 17th goal of the season and a 2-1 lead.

Neither team found the back of the net in the final 40 minutes of play, with Seattle holding on for the one-goal victory on the road. Daccord made 28 saves in total, including 18 in the final two periods, to match the 20 saves made by Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper over the final two periods, including perhaps the save of the season, a sprawling stick save to keep the game 2-1 late in the second period.

Hear from Byfield, defenseman Jordan Spence and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.

Quinton Byfield

Jordan Spence
On if he felt there was a drop in intensity coming off the win over Edmonton on Saturday
Yeah, I mean it kind of looked like that a little bit in the first period. We weren’t really playing our game like we were supposed to. In the past five games, I think we’ve been playing really well and then I felt that we were just trying to chase the whole game and obviously we don’t play like that. If we play our way, maybe the results would have been different.

On stepping up into a larger role with Doughty and Edmundson out of the lineup today
Obviously, Dewey and Eddy out, those guys are a huge part of our team. They log a lot of minutes and they play well defensively, so I tried to do the best I can, focus on defense first, but obviously if you’re down a goal and we’re trying to, I was just trying play some offense. There is some responsibility, but at the same time, I don’t think you have to put that a lot in your mind. Just got to play your game and go from there.

On his season of movement making him equipped to handle a new role
I think I’ve been playing with a lot of d-pairings. I started with Mikey, [then] Mo, Gavy, so I’m kind of used to it, to be completely honest with you, but at the same time, I think it would have been way better if we came out of it with a win here. The things we can do now is we just kind of forget it and then move on and play the next game.

On Darcy Kuemper’s highlight-reel save
I was on the ice there and that was my guy, he kind of slipped towards me and I honestly thought that was a goal. Just with the save that he made today, he’s been like that pretty much the whole season. When you have a guy like him in net, we have a lot of confidence, and he really put us in the game today, especially just with the lack of effort that we had, maybe in the in the whole game, I think he was the one that that was carrying us and maybe had a chance to win. At the same time, I think he just has to keep playing his game like that and we’re really happy with his game.

Jim Hiller
On if he felt there was any sort of a letdown coming off the playoff clinch this weekend
I didn’t feel that way, no, I thought we started with really good energy. We had a minute and 20 seconds, whatever was, we made two really poor plays and they scored on both. They really didn’t have much at all in the first period and then the letdown for me was the second period. We just didn’t push it all, didn’t forecheck. I thought we started the game, we were really skating, to be honest, we’re staying on their D and that sort of thing. I think the players that didn’t play, I think we missed them.

On if he felt the 5-on-3 changed momentum after a strong start
It changed things in that we didn’t score. If you score there, you’re feeling pretty good about yourself, right, and it’s a hole for them to be behind us by a couple So, yeah, that was a big part of the game, for sure.

On his assessment of the power play tonight
We had some shots blocked in the power play as well. So, I don’t know how many they’ve blocked, I don’t think it was 30, but how many on the power play, probably was four or five, for sure. So, we had the puck in the zone, we moved around, we shot it, we just didn’t get it through. I give the goalie credit, he made some pretty good saves.

On Seattle’s willingness to block shots tonight and what the Kings could have done differently
Well, there’s two things. There’s trying to create some different angles, one, and then the second one is, I’m going to tell you this, which would make probably a lot of sense, it’s easier to block a wrist shot than a slap shot. So, we took probably too many wrist shots and not enough slap shots. From our perspective, what else can we do? You can slap the puck and make it hard and when you don’t, its not easy, but people see it’s coming slower, they can knock them down or slide in front. So, that’s an area of emphasis for us, but we didn’t do it very well.

On Quinton Byfield’s highlight reel goal
You know, he’s had plenty of opportunities to tip pucks, in and around the netfront. I think it’s a skill for him that he’ll have to focus on this summer, because there’s probably four or five more goals there if he can actually get sticks on him. So, what I liked about it was he was there and he actually got a stick on it. I know he ended up putting it in with one more deflection, which made it difficult for the goaltender. That’ll be something I think we’ll all watch as his career develops, getting more tips in front of the net. Nice to see it happen tonight.

On the status of defensemen Drew Doughty and Joel Edmundson
Drew is the same as he always is. We’ve got to give him a little time and Eddy’s day to day. So, those really weren’t our decisions, it was based on that, so we’re not sure when they’ll be back.

Notes –
• Forward Quinton Byfield (1-0=1) scored his 20th goal of the season, matching his single-season career-high for goals set last season. With the goal, Byfield becomes the eight different skater selected in the 2020 NHL Draft to record multiple 20-goal seasons.
• Per NHL PR, Byfield became the second Kings player over the past 35 years to record multiple 20-goal seasons at age 22 or younger. Anze Kopitar reached the mark four times prior to turning 23 (2006-07 – 2009-10).
• Byfield has now scored in back-to-back home games against the Seattle Kraken (1-0=1; Nov. 23, 2024.
• Forward Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) recorded his 21st assist of the campaign, marking the 60th point of his career (28-
32=60) and his first career point against the Seattle Kraken.
• Defenseman Kyle Burroughs (0-1=1) picked up his third helper of the season on Byfield’s game-opening goal.

The Kings have a scheduled team day off tomorrow. They will return to the ice on Wednesday, April 9, for practice at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.