FINAL – Kings 1, Stars 3 – Perry, Doughty, Hiller

The LA Kings were unable to stack wins coming out of Edmonton as they fell by a 3-1 final score against the Dallas Stars on Monday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Dallas opened the scoring inside the opening first four minutes, as forward Wyatt Johnston found the back of the net for the third consecutive game against the Kings. After forward Adrian Kempe turned the puck over at the offensive blueline, the Stars went the other way in transition. Forward Sam Steel fed Johnston high in the slot and he beat Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper on the blocker side for his 25th goal of the season and an early lead.

After the second period came and went without a goal, the Kings battled to get on the board midway through the third period with a power-play goal. Defenseman Brandt Clarke kept the sequence alive with a keep at the right point and got the puck to forward Corey Perry at the netfront. Perry showed tremendous composure and fed forward Quinton Byfield at the back post for his 500th career NHL assist and a 1-1 game.

With just 3:46 remaining in regulation, the Stars pulled ahead on a weird goal from distance to take a 2-1 lead. Forward Jason Robertson worked his way around high in the zone and with the puck on his backhand, a floating shot from distance slipped around several sticks in front, past Kuemper and in for his team-leading 27th goal of the season and the late one-goal advantage.

The Stars iced the game late with an empty-net goal from forward Matt Duchene to seal a 3-1 victory for the visitors.

Hear from Perry, defenseman Drew Doughty and Head Coach Jim Hiller after tonight’s defeat.

Corey Perry

Drew Doughty
On the frustration of not getting tonight’s game over the line
Yeah, that was super frustrating. I thought we played really good game, unfortunately just a bad bounce at the end, guy’s shooting from the blue line, basically, it’s kind of a tough bounce. I thought we deserved better but at the same time, you’ve got to get more than one goal.

On balancing a game he felt they played well against not getting wins that are needed
We need to get wins, that’s the bottom line. At times, I think it’s kind of a sore losers mentality to say we played a good game, but we didn’t get the bounces, which is kind of what I just said, actually, but bottom line is we need to get wins. Unfortunately, we didn’t get this one, but we can definitely look at a lot of positive things on what we did tonight.

On if he feels like the season is slipping away with current results
That’s a very bad stretch. The season’s not gone or slipping away, I don’t think. We have time to get this back and get on a roll and I still believe that we will, but we’re not trying to wait around or anything. We’re trying to win every game when we go out there. Maybe a little more desperation, especially around that net, to score some more goals, because if we could score some more goals, we would be winning a lot more games.

On seeing Corey Perry collect his 500th career assist
Very happy for Perrs. Obviously, you know how wonderful the career he’s had and how big a part of our team he is this year. So, it’ kind of cool that Q recognized that and the whole thing happened.

On if he looks at the standings at this stage in the season
Yes. I mean, I do, I don’t know if everyone else does. We don’t really talk too much about it as a group, from our coaches, but we have it updated every day in our practice rink and we see the standings every day. We’re very aware of how important these games are coming up. Tonight was really important too and this one felt like we deserved better.

Jim Hiller
On his assessment of tonight’s game
I thought we played well. We’ve played well for a while. So, we’ll just keep playing well and expect that it’s going to turn. We played well.

On balancing his thoughts on the performance against not getting the win
You need the two points in Game 1 and most often, you need them probably right down to 80 and some nights, you need them right down to 82. It’s a long season. You need to accumulate points and we’ll just keep working our way at doing that.

On if he sees three different Kings teams over the last three games
I don’t see that at all. How many shots did Winnipeg have against us? We played pretty well there, we got a couple bounces off some skates and some sticks, had a bunch of chances Edmonton, before they went on the power play, I don’t know what they had, maybe 15 shots, something like that. Tonight, it’s a pretty good team, they had nine shots after two. I’m not worried about the effort or the structure. I think we keep going like this and we’ll win our games, that’s the way I look at it.

On why he believes it’s been difficult to string wins together this season
I would say it’s a hard league. I would say it’s a really hard league and probably this year, it’s harder than it’s ever been. So, I would say there’s a lot of teams that have felt like, man, it’s hard to string games together. I know Vegas is on a little bit of a roll right now, but it’s a hard league to string games together. We’re trying. We’re trying and we’ve certainly come up short at home over this last little stretch where we’re right there at the end and we’ve found ways not to get one and given them up and that makes it harder. It’s a good league, it’s a challenge every night, there’s some really good teams and we’re battling tooth and nail with them.

On if he sees three different Kings teams over the last three games
There’s some players that – and Corey you can put him on that, you’ve got 500 assists and never mind the goals – they just need less opportunities than other people for whatever reasons. So, to hit that milestone, I can’t say enough about him. I talked about him the other night but just what a player and he finds a way. Some people can just find a way and he’s sure one of them.

Notes –
– Forward Quinton Byfield (1-0=1) fired home his eighth goal of the season tonight, his third power play marker of the campaign. In doing so, the centerman extended his point streak to a third game (2-1=3), dating back to Jan. 9 in Winnipeg. Byfield now has six points (3-3=6) over his last six games, dating back to Jan. 3 versus Minnesota, with his first goal and fifth point (1-4=5) against the Dallas Stars in 11 career games played.
– Forward Corey Perry (0-1=1) recorded his 500th career assist tonight on Byfield’s power play goal, becoming the seventh skater selected in the 2003 NHL Draft to reach the milestone. Perry becomes the first player in NHL history to earn his 500th career assist at age 40 or older, surpassing the previous mark set by Steve Thomas (39 years, 263 days on April 4, 2003), per NHL PR.
– Perry’s 13th assist of the year came on the man-advantage and marked his 299th career power play point (128-171=299). The Peterborough, Ontario, native is now one power play point shy of becoming the sixth skater selected in the 2003 NHL Draft to reach the 300-point plateau on the power play. Perry’s 23 points (10-13=23) this season breaks a tie with Alex Laferriere (12-10=22) for sole possession of the fourth-most amongst Kings skaters this campaign.
– Additionally, Perry skated in his 75th career regular season game against the Dallas Stars this evening, tying Gary Unger, Jarome Iginla (75 GP), and teammate Anze Kopitar (75 GP) for the 24th-most against the club all-time.
– Defenseman Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) notched his 17th assist of the season tonight, the third most helpers by a Kings skater this season behind forwards Quinton Byfield (19 A) and Adrian Kempe (20 A). Clarke (0-1=1 on Jan. 10) has now picked up power play assists in consecutive games for the first time in his career.
– Defenseman Drew Doughty skated in his 59th career game against the Dallas Stars tonight, tying Rod Seiling, Chris Pronger and former Kings blueliner Lubomir Visnovsky for the 41st-most games played against Dallas by a defenseman in league history. Tonight also marked Doughty’s 30th home game played against the Stars, breaking a tie with Luc Robitaille (29GP) for sole possession of the third-most home games played against Dallas in franchise history.
– Goaltender Darcy Kuemper started his 94th game as a member of the Kings tonight, tying Cal Petersen for the 12th-most starts in LA Kings franchise history.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo, in advance of Wednesday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights.