FINAL – Kings 5, Flames 3 – Dubois, Laferreire, McLellan

The LA Kings hit the NHL’s holiday break with two more points in the bank, as they skated to a 5-3 victory over the Calgary Flames on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Kings jumped out to an early advantage just 61 seconds into the game, as forward Quinton Byfield buried his ninth goal of the season. Stationed at the center point, Byfield set up for a one-timer that evaded traffic in front and snuck through Calgary netminder Jacob Markstrom to put the hosts ahead.

Less than two minutes later, the Flames equalized through defenseman Rasmus Andersson. As the puck shifted around the offensive zone, Andersson worked his way into the right-hand circle and his shot may have been deflected on the way through, sneaking past Kings netminder Cam Talbot on the glove side to knot the score at one goal apiece.

Later in the opening period, the Kings pulled ahead with a power-play goal, taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. Defenseman Jordan Spence, stationed at the right point, sent a shot into traffic in front, with forward Pierre-Luc Dubois getting a high deflection on the shot, sending it past Markstrom and in for his sixth goal of the season.

Just over four minutes into the second period, Calgary buried a shorthanded goal to tie the game at two. Off a turnover on a neutral-zone drop pass on the Kings’ zone entry, Calgary turned it around the other way into a 2-on-1 rush, with forward Yegor Sharangovich feeding forward Blake Coleman for a tap-in goal at the back post, tying the game at two early in the middle stanza.

With a pair of goals just under three and a half minutes apart, the Kings opened up the game’s first multi-goal advantage, taking a 4-2 lead into the second intermission.

First, forward Alex Laferriere was the well-deserved recipient of a fortunate bounce, as Drew Doughty’s hard, cross-ice pass deflected off his left skate and in for Laferriere’s fifth goal of the season. Just shy of the halfway mark of the second period, forward Trevor Moore put the hosts ahead by a pair, with his team-leading 16th goal of the season. Taking a pass from defenseman Matt Roy, Moore gained the offensive zone with speed, pulled the puck onto his forehand and snapped a shot past Markstrom with a quick release for the goal.

After a series of power plays, Calgary finally converted to pull within one just over seven minutes into the third period. Talbot made the initial pad save on forward Adam Ruzicka from a tough angle, but the rebound kicked into the path of Coleman, who buried his second goal of the evening the bring the visitors within 4-3.

With exactly 60 seconds remaining in regulation, Byfield buried his second goal of the night and tenth goal of the season for the exclamation point on the win, by a final of 5-3.

Hear from Dubois, Laferriere and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s victory.

Pierre-Luc Dubois

PLD fields questions from the media before heading into the Christmas break@LAKings | #GoKingsGo | #KingsLive pic.twitter.com/4gqEzIcSzN

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) December 24, 2023

Alex Laferriere
On heading into a holiday break off a win, as opposed to a loss
I think you kind of sit on that last game that you play and obviously it’s good to get the win and not sulk over the break. I think it was it was a good exciting game tonight.

On if he felt his goal was a result of making his own luck with his play before that moment
Yeah, you could say that. I think I’m just trying to get pucks to the net right now and and try and get my linemates the puck and stuff like that. I think just being direct and obviously that was a pretty lucky bounce, but those happen every once in a while, so I’ll take it for sure.

On the developing chemistry and performance of his line with Dubois and Kaliyev
I think me and PL have been together pretty much the whole year and then obviously our other other linemate has been switching up. I think Arty fits in really well and for me and PL and Arty too, I think we’re just trying to be direct and focus on getting pucks on the net. We all like to score goals, so I think that’s something that our line can especially well, but I think as dynamic of a player PL is, I think just trying to get him the puck too coming through the zone, is something that I’m focusing on too.

On if he feels like his line has generated more chances, overall, than the production may show
Yeah, definitely. I think the points and that stuff will come, but I think as long as we keep creating those those chances, I think we’ve definitely out-chanced our opponent when we’re on the ice the past couple of games, so I think just trying to try to keep that going.

Todd McLellan
On the penalties taken in the third period and how it impacted the third period
We don’t want to play it like that. I don’t know when it was, but from the 7, 8 minute mark of the second period on, I think we took six minors or five minors. It really, for as good as our penalty kill was, and we gave up on, it took a lot of players out of the game and it overtaxed others. There’s zero rhythm, guys are put in shooting lanes far too much and sometimes penalties just happen. Kempe’s high stick, I don’t know how you prevent that, but a couple of the others were avoidable. At least we paid the price to get it done and we’ll move on.

On getting two goals with traffic in front, and if he felt that was an improvement from last game
I thought we were significantly better in that area when we had the opportunity, especially early in the game. Later in the game, we didn’t get many of those opportunities just because we weren’t in a position to attack.

On his assessment of the power play in tonight’s game
PL’s goal is a real good power-play goal in my mind, because there was a hunt mentality, there was a strip, there was a directness, there was some attack to the net, with the deflection there was a screen nearby. That’s often how it happens. You don’t just it set up and move pucks around. After that, I was disappointed in the power play. To give up that shorthanded goal the way we did, they really didn’t have to earn it, we gifted it to them. So, our power play has to sharpen up in my mind if we want to have future success.

On how he feels Dubois has handled himself when going through a scoring drought
He’s been pretty even keel since he’s been here. It’s not too high, it’s not too low, which is a sign of a veteran-type player. The team has had a good chunk of success while that was going on, so he handled himself well, but he’s had numerous chances. Tonight, he had scored on the deflection, but some of the shots he had, the breakaway, the rebound, the re-attack to Laf could have been multiple points just in that scenario. He had a quick a couple of quick wrister from the slot area that just missed by an inch or two. He, in my mind, looks dangerous right now offensively and that’s a good sign.

On an impressive empty-net goal from Quinton Byfield
Well, he did what he does now, he skates. We saw him win the race, but it was also off an icing, so some of those players were tired. I’m not sure, initially, that he thought he should be in that race and then when he decided, he won the race. It’s an asset of his, he uses it all over the rink. He also used his reach and length there and got body position. So, those three elements on an empty-net goal, basically those are character traits of his right now.

On heading into the holiday break coming off a win versus a loss
This is going to sound strange, but win or lose, I want them to go and enjoy their families. They deserve that, they’ve earned the right. They’re human beings, they’ve got little ones that are going to know that Santa arrived, families in town and that is really important an we promote that, we want that. It’s a little easier to do with a win, but if we were standing here [after a loss], I’d still tell you the same thing. I want them to go enjoy their families. It’s important.

On what he’s learned about his team from Game 1 through Game 30 tonight
We were talking in the coaches room that tonight was a good win for us. It was a tough, hard game, it didn’t go necessarily the way we wanted it to the whole night, but we won that. I felt, early in the year, we were winning some games where we didn’t have a lot of adversity in them, it wasn’t a lot of situations where you’re you’re biting your nails and that type of stuff. So, I think these some of these games are good for us to play, it reminds us how hard it is to win.

Additionally, McLellan noted that Cam Talbot was evaluated during the second period for a “mid back” issue, but was able to continue to playing.

Notes –
– Pierre-Luc Dubois (1-0=1) scored his sixth goal of the season, extending his point streak against the Flames to four games (2-2=4).
– Alex Laferriere (1-0=1) tallied his fifth goal of the season and his fourth at Crypto.com Arena. His four goals at home are tied for the fourth-most among rookies this season.
– Trevor Moore (1-0=1) scored his team-leading 16th goal of the season, moving him one goal shy of tying his career high (17G in 2021-22). In the last 20 years, only two other Kings skaters have scored at least 16 goals the first 30 games to start a season, joining Jeff Carter (18G in 2012-13), and Alex Frolov (17G in 2006-07).
– Quinton Byfield (2-0=2) recorded his ninth and 10th goals of the season, for his third two-goal performance of the campaign.
– Drew Doughty (0-2=2) registered a pair of assists for his 28th and 29th career points (5-24=29) against the Calgary Flames. In doing so, Doughty tied Dallas’ Ryan Suter (5-24=29) for the second-most points amongst active defenseman against Calgary.
– With the assist, Doughty tied Mark Hardy (6-23=29) for the third-most points against the Flames by a blueliner in team history.
– Anze Kopitar (0-2=2) picked up his 17th and 18th assists of the season for his team-leading 31st point (13-18=31), becoming the first Kings skater of the campaign to hit the 30-point mark. It is Kopitar’s 56th career point (20-36=56) against Calgary, breaking a tie with Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (10-45=55) for the third-most points against the Flames among active skaters.
– With his two helpers, it marks the sixth time in Kopitar’s career he has tallied at least 30 points in the team’s first 30 games to start the season. He joins Marcel Dionne (11), Luc Robitaille (9), Dave Taylor (8), Wayne Gretzky (8), and Bernie Nicholls (7) as the only players in franchise history to achieve such a feat six or more times.
– Jordan Spence (0-1=1) tallied his 11th assist of the season. It was his fifth primary assist of the campaign, tying Mikey Anderson for the team lead amongst defensemen.
– Phillip Danault (0-1=1) netted his 13th helper for his 20th point of the season (7-13=20), becoming the sixth different Kings skater to hit the 20-point mark.
– Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) collected his 19th assist of the season, marking his ninth point (6-3=9) in his last seven games against Calgary, dating back to March 31, 2022.
– Mikey Anderson (0-1=1) notched his ninth assist of the season for his 50th career point (10-40=50). With the assist, Anderson becomes the eighth defenseman from the 2017 NHL Draft class to record 50 points.
– Matt Roy (0-1=1) tallied his eighth assist of the season and the 70th of his career. Roy’s 70 career assists tie fellow defensemen Vladislav Gavrikov for eighth-most among blueliners from the 2015 NHL Draft.

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