November 10 Rapid Reaction (feat. Kristen Anderson): Flames 1, Kings 0

Rapid Reaction, feat. Kristen Anderson of Postmedia

Post-game Quotes

Willie Desjardins, on the team’s compete level in the loss:
The start of the game, I thought [Calgary] started pretty hard. I thought we played pretty good 10 minutes into the first. Not a great second – not as good in the second, anyways. I don’t think anybody gave up, though. I thought the guys played hard throughout the game. You know, it all comes down to if we catch one on the power play, then we’re back in it. That’s an area that we’re going to have to look at adjusting, making some adjustments on it. We haven’t touched it yet, but now’s the time to probably move it around a little bit.

Desjardins, on Los Angeles’ scoring challenges:
I think it’s always been a solid defensive team. I think that’s the way they’ve always won, so I think some of their top guys think a little bit more defensively. I look at guys on the other side – Gaudreau, Monahan – they’re always thinking offense. Our guys probably think a little bit more defensively. Saying that, I think we have to create some systems that are going to get guys more involved, and we’ve got to force ourselves to get up ice and play more aggressive and play more offensive. [Reporter: Are you willing to sacrifice a little bit defensively?] We have to. We’re not creating enough right now. It’s funny, you score two on the power play and you’ve had a good night. Not bad, anyways. You don’t, and well, we’ve got to find other ways to do it. Right now, we do. We want to be more of an aggressive team. I think all our guys know that we’ve had our opportunities, and we haven’t capitalized on ‘em. I guess that’s part of the good thing, that we’re doing other things well, but we have to find ways to create more offense.

Anze Kopitar, on why the team is having such a hard time generating offense:
I don’t have the answer. I think if we did we’d probably correct it. So keep plugging away and we had some chances again and didn’t capitalize and you know it’s just, you’ve got to keep on working, that’s all there is to it.

Kopitar, on keeping Calgary to one goal:
We’re not giving up much, but you can’t win with scoring one or two. You’ve got to get to the three mark to have obviously a lot better chance.

Kopitar, on Campbell’s performance and the team not being able to do more for him:
Jack’s given us a chance every night. I mean that’s what you want from your goalie and it’s disappointing we can’t back it up.

Tyler Toffoli, on Campbell making some great saves:
Soupy played great again. We definitely had our chances to score, but obviously just couldn’t capitalize tonight.

Toffoli, on what wasn’t clicking tonight in terms of puck possession:
We had our opportunities. They’re a good hockey team and they had their chances and obviously scored on the one, but obviously we’re going to come back and try and get better when we come back to the rink.

Alex Iafallo, on not being able to produce offensively:
It’s tough, you know, after a loss like that I feel like we’ve just got to work harder. We’re just not working hard enough. We’ve got to play as a team too. Obviously we haven’t been creating a lot of offense and we’re getting some shots, but not shots we want. So we need to get that passion back, that hunger to get to the soft areas and keep making plays. We kind of got away from making those cycle plays to where we got momentum every shift, rolling into every shift. That goes a long way and that rolls into periods and then games. We’ve just got to, we’ve got to pick it up here.

Iafallo, on if he sees a lack of assertion when making plays in the zone:
Yeah, even myself. I feel like there’s a lot of hesitation, even in the D-zone. We can’t have hesitation. We’ve just got to trust each other that we’re going to make that play and be able to make that play. We know we can make those plays, we just have got to be mentally prepared every shift and gain momentum. Every shift and every period.

Iafallo, on if the hesitation is coming from wanting to do the right thing and the pressure the team feels right now:
I know we feel a lot of pressure obviously this season, but at the end of the day we’ve just got to relax and keep it simple and making sure that we’re just working hard every shift and battling for each other. We’ve got to come back on Monday and make sure we’re battling.

Iafallo, on if it feels like two steps forward, one step back:
Yeah, definitely. We talked about it a lot. Saw positive stuff after that last win so we’ve got to stay positive, but at the same time we’ve got to learn from our mistakes and be hungry and prepared every shift.

Iafallo, on if there is much difference between the offense strategies of Stevens and Desjardins:
Pretty much same systems. But at the end of the day, it’s up to us. We’ve got to be hungry for the puck and get to those soft areas and cycles that we were doing last year. Get back to that and working for each other–that’s the main aspect.

Post-game Notes

–With the loss, Los Angeles fell to 97-113-30 all-time against the Calgary franchise, a record that includes a home mark of 59-47-13. These teams have three games remaining: November 30 and March 25 at Scotiabank Saddledome, and April 1 at Staples Center.

–With the loss, the Kings fell to 1-5-1 against the Western Conference, 1-1-1 against the Pacific Division, 1-2-1 in one-goal games, 1-8-1 when their opponent scores first, 1-7-1 when trailing after the first period, 0-10-0 when trailing after the second period and 3-5-1 when outshot by their opponent.

–The Kings were shut out for the first time this season. Since Jake Muzzin’s goal 4:42 into Thursday’s game, Devan Dubnyk and David Rittich have combined to hold them scoreless over a consecutive 115:18. The shutout was the first of Rittich’s career. The last time Los Angeles was shut out was the 3-0 loss to New Jersey at Staples Center on March 17.

–By stopping 35 of 36 shots in 59:01 of action, Jack Campbell is now 2-3-0 with a 2.02 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage in November (237:41 / 111 shots / 103 saves).

–The Kings attempted 56 shots (21 on goal, 15 blocked, 20 missed). The Flames attempted 61 shots (36 on goal, 13 blocked, 12 missed). Travis Hamonic and Michael Frolik led all skaters with five shots on goal, while Kyle Clifford and Dustin Brown tied with a team-high three shots.

–Los Angeles won 31-of-55 faceoffs (56%). Adrian Kempe won 2-of-3, Michael Amadio won 4-of-6, Anze Kopitar won 12-of-20, Alex Iafallo won 0-of-3, Trevor Lewis won 1-of-1, Nate Thompson won 1-of-5 and Jeff Carter won 11-of-17.

Post-game Highlights

Sunday, November 11 is an off-day for the team. The Kings’ next practice is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. at Toyota Sports Center on Monday, November 12.

–Lead photo via Juan Ocampo/NHLI