October 18 Rapid Reaction (feat. Dan Greenspan): Islanders 7, Kings 2

Rapid Reaction, feat. Dan Greenspan of NHL.com

Post-game Quotes

John Stevens, on what he saw from the team as the third period elapsed:
I thought we did have the momentum,. It was really disappointing. Totally went to sleep, gave up a really easy shorthanded goal there and just stopped playing. I’m disappointed, to be honest with you. Obviously there are turning points in the hockey game. Climb back in, you’ve still got lots of time on the clock. A little bit of a delay there, so guys are really rested and ready to go. I can’t explain it, to be honest with you. We just stopped playing after that. The problem is your goalies have got to keep playing. Both those guys try to give you a chance to win every night, and they can’t stop playing. You know what? It’s disappointing. Especially with Kopi and Brownie out, we needed lots of guys to take charge tonight, because with guys like that not there, you expect other people to take advantage of an opportunity. We’re better than that. Just disappointing.

Stevens, on New York’s shorthanded goal that re-established a two-goal lead:
The puck got put around a wall. We had people in the area – your power play, you can have all the design you want, but you need the puck to do anything. We had an opportunity to come up with a puck there, we didn’t. We gave up an odd-man rush, a 2-on-0 in our net. It’s inexcusable, to be honest with you. That’s a puck that whether you carry it in or rim it in, you still need the puck and you still should be able to get into a set-up mode. It didn’t happen. Didn’t even come close to happening.

Stevens, on Adrian Kempe’s penalties:
It’s just detail, it’s work and detail. You’re playing against top guys, you’ve got to dig in. You take penalties in the offensive zone and they usually come back to bite you. The team that played last night, you give them an opportunity to go on the power play when the puck’s that far from your net puts you in a tough spot.

Stevens, on where to go to “right the ship”:
Well, we’ve got to hit the reset button here. You want to score goals, you want to get your special teams going, but you don’t want to be in a situation where you’ve got to score eight to win. I mean, let’s be realistic here. Like I said, we’re better than that. Don’t have an answer for you right now. We’re better than that.

Stevens, on when he learned about Kopitar’s illness:
Today. This morning. [Reporter: You expect him back soon] Yeah.

Alec Martinez, on the loss:
First of all, it’s embarrassing. I thought we had a good start the hockey game and we were playing a team that played last night. We’ve got to play sixty minutes of hockey and if you let up then what happened today happens.

Martinez, on how to prevent a loss like tonight’s from happening again:
I don’t know, I think we’ve got some soul-searching to do. I think what happened at the end is unacceptable and it’s not one guy in particular, it’s all of us. It’s on all of us. We’ve got to figure some things out.

Martinez, on how the game elapsed:
Like I said, I felt we had a good start to the hockey game. We certainly did some good things in the first half of the game, but what happened at the end there, like I said before, is unacceptable. It just can’t happen.

Martinez, on what fell apart in the third period:
I mean, you saw it. We [—-] the bed. That’s what happened.

Tanner Pearson, on his performance and how the game elapsed:
Tonight I was minus-four. I know that’s not going to cut it, so we need to bounce back here on Saturday.

Pearson, on the third period:
Obviously it’s not how we play, especially in this building. We’ve been a very, very sound defensive team for how many years now. We’re not showing that so far this year.

Pearson, on whether the loss was a “watershed moment”:
No, I think you’ve got to look at it. There’s a lot of stuff to look at and clean up, and once we do that, we’ll go from there.

Sheldon Rempal, on his family attending the game:
…my dad, my brother, and two of my friends actually flew in for the day today to watch the game. It’s pretty cool that I had that support from those guys. Just talking to my family on Wednesday, I just had to tell them to clear the schedule because I’m most likely going to play on Thursday night. They did a good job calling in to … their work and were able to make it down, so it was awesome.

Rempal, on skating on a line with Carter and Kovalchuk:
No one actually told me. Actually I had one shift with A-D and Pears at the start of the game and then I was … to play with Carter and Kovalchuk. Those two guys I’ve looked up to my whole life. They probably don’t know that, but I’ve followed their careers very closely and it’s just pretty surreal to play on a line with those guys. They definitely made it easy for me to have some good looks.

Rempal, on generating chemistry with his linemates:
Yeah, absolutely. It was such an honor to play with those guys tonight and to have some good looks. They’re such easy players to play with. They’re skilled and they have some good shots. It was so much fun to play with those two guys, and they did a really good job. It was so much fun to play with those two guys. They did a really good job communicating with me on the bench and stuff like that, and just making the game easier for me. Unbelievable playing with those two, actually.

Rempal, on looking ahead:
It’s kind of tough to come into a room like this, but everyone is so nice and welcoming. It makes it a lot more easy to come into this environment. With those two guys, hopefully, we’ll see what happens. I don’t know what the future holds, but if I can keep playing with those guys I think I’ll be in a good spot. Those guys are obviously really, really, good, talented hockey players and I think we’ll have good looks every night if I’m playing with those guys. So I’m just trying to keep my head down and work as hard as I can to stay.

Post-game Notes

–With the loss, Los Angeles fell to 48-45-15 all-time against the New York Islanders, a record that includes a home mark of 28-18-8. New York won on the road in regulation in the series for the first time since February 15, 2003, a 3-2 win in which goal scorers were Mathieu Schneider and Ziggy Palffy for the Kings and Arron Asham (2) and Jason Blake for the Islanders. The loss ended Los Angeles’ eight-game home points streak in the series (7-0-1). These teams will conclude their season series at Nassau Coliseum on February 2.

–With the loss, the Kings fell to 2-3-0 against the Eastern Conference, 0-1-0 against the Metropolitan Division, 1-3 in games decided by three goals or more, 1-2-0 when tied after the first period, 0-4-0 when trailing after the second period and 0-3-0 when outshooting their opponent.

–The last time the Islanders scored seven goals on the road in the series was a 7-4 win at the Great Western Forum on November 11, 1989. Goal scorers for Los Angeles were John Tonelli (2), Dave Taylor and Wayne Gretzky, while Pat LaFontaine (2), Bryan Trottier, Mikko Makela, Tom Fitzgerald, Randy Wood and Brent Sutter scored for New York. The last time the Kings allowed seven goals at home was a 7-2 loss to St. Louis at Staples Center on March 10, 2018.

–Sheldon Rempal became the fifth King all time to wear #41, joining Raitis Ivanans, Jason Allison, Brent Grieve and Brady Semchuk. In 13:06, Rempal took two shots and missed two shots. He was not on the ice for any goals by either team.

–Dion Phaneuf was a minus-four for the first time since a 6-4 loss versus Minnesota while with the Ottawa Senators on December 19, 2017.

–Tanner Pearson was a minus-four for the first time in his career.

–Los Angeles attempted 63 shots (35 on goal, 14 blocked, 14 missed). New York attempted 52 shots (32 on goal, 10 blocked, 10 missed). Tyler Toffoli and Jordan Eberle led all skaters with five shots on goal.

-The Kings won 35-of-64 faceoffs (55%). Adrian Kempe won 4-of-8, Michael Amadio won 4-of-10, Ilya Kovalchuk won 1-of-2, Trevor Lewis won 0-of-1, Jaret Anderson-Dolan won 0-of-2, Nate Thompson won 6-of-15, Tyler Toffoli won 4-of-4 and Jeff Carter won 16-of-22.

The Kings are scheduled to practice at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, October 19 at Toyota Sports Center.

Post-game Highlights

-Lead photo via Adam Pantozzi/NHLI