FINAL – Kings 2, Avalanche 4 – Booth, Dumoulin, Smith

The LA Kings came up just short in Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith’s first game in the role behind the bench, as they fell by a 4-2 final score on Monday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Colorado opened the scoring inside the game’s first five minutes, as it capitalized on a Kings turnover at the offensive blue line to bury a goal in transition. Forward Gabriel Landeskog dished the puck to forward Martin Necas with speed, creating a 2-on-1 rush into the offensive zone. Necas fed forward Nathan MacKinnon, who buried his shot first time, putting the Avalanche ahead early.

The Avalanche made it 2-0 just past the halfway mark of the first period, with the same line connecting for the visitors. After the Kings got sucked in deep in their own zone, Colorado worked the puck from low-to-high, to defenseman Brent Burns at the left point. Burns fed Landeskog in his wheelhouse and he one-timed the puck through a screen in front, past goaltender Anton Forsberg and in for the two-goal advantage.

The Kings capitalized on their first power play of the game to pull a goal back, sending the game into the first intermission down just 2-1. Forward Anze Kopitar won the faceoff in the offensive zone, back to defenseman Brandt Clarke at the point. With forward Corey Perry providing a high screen, Clarke’s shot from the point evaded everyone on the way through, including Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, bringing the hosts within a goal.

Midway through the second period, defenseman Angus Booth made his NHL debut even more memorable as he tied the game with his first career NHL goal. Forward Adrian Kempe and defenseman Brian Dumoulin exchanged the puck at the right point, which created some space for Dumoulin to operate. Dumoulin hit Booth with a pinpoint pass, as he drove the net, which he redirected in to tie the game at two.

With just under five minutes remaining, Colorado broke through with a goal off a sustained shift in the offensive zone, pulling ahead 3-2 late in the game. The Kings had a chance to clear but could not, resulting in an extended possession for the Avalanche. MacKinnon took advantage, as he used his speed down the right wing to create space, before he fed defenseman Devon Toews headed towards the goal for the game-winning goal.

Colorado added an empty-net goal with 0.5 seconds left, securing a 4-2 win.

Hear from Booth, Dumoulin and Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith after tonight’s game.

Angus Booth

Brian Dumoulin
On the team’s effort in tonight’s game
I thought we played really hard, the effort was there. We were finishing checks and we weren’t short on effort, that’s for sure. I mean, it was a fun game, fun atmosphere to play in. Tight checking, obviously you want to come out with a least point in that one, so it’s a tough break, putting that much effort in and not getting a point out of it.

On seeing three young players impress in their NHL debuts
Obviously it’s exciting for them. You want to play well for them and you want to leave a good imprint for them. You knew that they were going to skate, they were going to work and they played hard. I mean, it’s so exciting playing in your first game. You can have a lot of nerves playing against Colorado, obviously the best team in the league right now, but I thought they all played really, really well and they all left an imprint in that game.

On if it is too late in the season for moral victories in a game like this
We’ve got to take pride and we’ve got to have that effort. We proved to ourselves that that’s the standard, especially against a top team, and anything short of that is not going to be good enough. We’ve got to take stuff from the game, and every game, and we’ve got to learn in certain areas and continue to get better. That next game is even more important now.

On Anton Forsberg’s performance tonight to give the team a chance
He battled for us, I mean, he kept us in that game. He made some huge, timely saves for us, some really big saves. He’s been playing so good for us that obviously we wanted to take the ice for him. He definitely stepped up tonight and played well.

On his read on Angus Booth’s goal and his surprise in seeing him down there
It was a good read by him, finding open ice, especially with we had a couple guys high already, so it was good for him to slide down and find that back post. I thought he played really well tonight. He was poised with the puck, didn’t just throw it away, I was impressed by him.

D.J. Smith
On if it is too late in the season for moral victories
For sure, but at the end of the day, the team that left against Calgary, with Q and Mooresie and those guys, we had, we thought, a little bit more scoring maybe and then we find out some guys are out at the last minute and these guys come in. What we wanted to establish is a sense of work ethic, a sense of physicality, a sense of we’re not going to sit back, we’re going to come get you. I think we did all those things tonight. So, you need the points for sure, but at this point, you can’t fault the effort and we’re going to need that every game.

On his takeaways from tonight’s game and the effort the Kings put in
The goal is obviously to win. I mean, that’s the best team in the league and they’re 100 percent healthy and they’re coming in here, playing as good as they’ve played all year. Our job was, we weren’t going to just sit back and let them take it to us. Now, it didn’t look good early. We made some mistakes, we gave up too many odd man rushes, but what you saw from that group is a real effort to forecheck, a real effort to get pucks back, to hunt, to hit people and you’re going to see that the rest of the way.

On distributing the minutes tonight, despite playing so many young players
We have one chance, with where we are at in this season right now and it’s for our team to get in the playoffs as a team. If we want to play at the pace that I expect them to play at, to forecheck and to hit, everyone’s going to have to take a little bit shorter shifts, everyone’s going to have to play harder while they’re on the ice. We’re going to need all four lines. One night, one guy might be in one night, one guy might be out, but I wouldn’t count us out

On Anton Forsberg’s performance tonight to keep the Kings in the game
Forsy was outstanding and that’s what you need. At the end of the day, people that don’t watch this game tonight don’t know who was in the lineup, who wasn’t in the lineup, they just look at the score. If we would have found a way to win that game, people wouldn’t have known how good Forsy was. Those are some of the league’s best scorers and he stood right in there. He’s been really good for us.

On Angus Booth scoring tonight, as one of three players making their NHL debuts
Especially when you don’t think you’re going to play and it just kind of comes out of nowhere. For those three kids to come in and play their first NHL game, you never know how you’re going to play or what have you. Then, to score, I said to him you have to shoot more pucks, he almost looked shocked that he was in alone there in the first period, and it was like he stopped in time and said to himself, oh my god, I’m in the slot in the NHL and that’s just part of it, of cutting your teeth in this league. But, you know what? Obviously, the guys down in Ontario have done a good job. These three guys come up and they look like NHL players.

Notes –
– Defenseman Brandt Clarke (1-0=1) scored his eighth goal of the season, his second of the year on the power play. In doing so, Clarke (8-22=30) reaches the 30-point threshold for the second consecutive campaign.
– Defenseman Angus Booth (1-0=1) scored his first career goal in his NHL debut tonight, becoming the 24th player in team history to find the back of the net in his first career game. Booth is also the fourth Kings defenseman to score in their NHL debut, following Sean Durzi (Nov 24, 2021), John English (March 30, 1988) and Jean Potvin (Dec. 26, 1970).
– Captain Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) picked up his 18th assist of the season on Clarke’s goal, extending his home point streak against the Avalanche to a sixth game (1-7=8), dating back to April 8, 2023. This is Kopitar’s second such streak against the Avalanche in his career (4-7=11 in 8 GP from Nov 22. 2008 – Feb. 23, 2013); the Slovenian is one of five different skaters in franchise history to achieve such a streak, and is now the first skater in franchise history with multiple six-game home point streaks against the Avalanche.
– Kopitar’s assist came on the man-advantage, marking the 162nd power play primary assist (PPA1) of his career, breakinga tie with Marcel Dionne for sole possession of the second-most PPA1 in franchise history, trailing only Wayne Gretzky (163 PPA1). The veteran center now has 453 (127-326=453) power play points (PPP) and sits eight points back from tying Marcel Dionne (172-289=461) for the most power play points in Kings history and also sits six points back of surpassing Dionne (550-757=1,307) for the most points by a Kings player with his 1,302nd career point this evening (446-856=1,302).
– The captain skated in his 1,499th career game tonight, tying Mike Modano for the 25th most in League history. Tonight also marked Kopitar’s 70th career regular season game against the Colorado Avalanche, becoming the 35th different skater in League history to face the Denver-based franchise in as many contests. He is joined by current Avalanche defenseman Brent Burns (76 GP) as the only two active skaters to do so.
– Defenseman Brian Dumoulin (0-1=1) recorded his 13th point (1-12=13) of the season with the primary assist on Booth’s first NHL goal.
– Forward Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) recorded his 28th assist of the season tonight, securing the fifth 50-point (22-28=50) season of his career. Kempe becomes the 13th different skater in LA Kings franchise history to reach the 50-point mark five or more times.
– Forwards Jared Wright and Kenny Connors joined Angus Booth in making their first appearance in the National Hockey League this evening, marking the 11th occasion in Kings history in which three players made their debut for the team in the same game. Connors (104th overall) and Booth (116th overall) were both selected by the Kings in the Fourth Round of the 2022 NHL Draft. Tonight, the two became the first pair of teammates selected in the same round of the same Draft to make their debut together since 2015 First Round selections Ivan Provorov (7th overall) and Travis Konecny (24th overall) each made their inaugural appearance for the Philadelphia Flyers on Oct. 14, 2016, against the LA Kings.
– Jared Wright (169th overall) was selected in the Sixth Round of that same Draft in 2022, making the trio of Kings rookies the first set of three selections from the same Draft to debut in the same game since Oct. 9, 2003, when the Predators iced a lineup featuring 2001 NHL draftees Dan Hamhuis, Jordin Tootoo, and Marek Zidlicky against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
The last time the Kings had three players from the same Draft class debut in the same game was on Oct. 11, 1980, against Detroit, featuring Larry Murphy, Greg Terrion, and Jim Fox.
– Forward Jeff Malott recorded six hits in tonight’s game, tying a career high that he has set four times prior.
– Goaltender Anton Forsberg made 36 saves tonight, tying his season high set on Oct. 18, 2025 against the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Kings have a scheduled day off tomorrow and will return to the ice for practice on Wednesday, March 4 at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo.