FINAL – Kings 2, Panthers 3 (OT) – Danault, Kopitar, McLellan

The LA Kings extended a game into overtime for the fourth time in six outings, but came up on the losing side of a 3-2 defeat on Thursday evening, their seventh consecutive loss in total.

The Kings jumped out to an early advantage with the only goal from the opening period. Off a high cycle in the offensive zone, forward Kevin Fiala made a shifty move in the right-hand circle, getting a backhanded shot on net, with the rebound kicking to forward Trevor Moore, who put home his team-leading 18th goal of the season, giving the Kings a one-goal advantage through 20 minutes of play.

Florida pushed back midway through the middle stanza to knot the score at one. Just after the Kings completed a successful penalty kill, Florida gained the offensive zone off the rush, as forward Eetu Luostarinen gained the offensive blueline with possession down the left wing. Luostarinen’s pass eluded everything but forward Sam Bennett’s skate, bouncing in for the game-tying goal.

After forward Pierre-Luc Dubois drew a holding penalty with less than a minute to play, the Kings scored a power-play goal to take a 2-1 lead into the second intermission. Forward Adrian Kempe teed up defenseman Drew Doughty at the center point, with the Kings’ alternate captain firing a one-timer through traffic for his ninth goal of the season.

With just over two minutes to play in regulation, the Panthers pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker and tied the game at two. Skating 6-on-5, forward Carter Verhaeghe fired from the right-hand circle, with forward Matthew Tkachuk getting a deflection on the shot to beat Kings netminder Cam Talbot and force the game into overtime.

After the Kings were whistled for a cross-checking penalty in overtime, assessed to forward Adrian Kempe, Florida won the game with a power-play goal less than one second from the final buzzer. Forward Sam Reinhart walked out from behind the goal line, into the low slot and roofed a backhanded shot for the game-winning goal with 0.7 seconds showing on the clock.

Hear from forwards Phillip Danault and Anze Kopitar, as well as Head Coach Todd McLellan, following tonight’s game.

Phillip Danault
On his evaluation of tonight’s game
It’s hard to say, it could have gone either way. We played hard, I thought we played good with the lead too, so that’s probably the positive tonight. We played a good 60 minutes, you can’t say we didn’t play hard.

On the frustration of seven straight losses compared to the level of play being something to build on
Yeah, I mean we’re all pissed off that we obviously we couldn’t have a better result the last couple of games, but I think it’s a good sign, it’s a fine line and we’re right there. So, we’re just going to find a way to capitalize on our chances and keep pushing, we have no other options.

On if there’s anything he feels is lacking in 3-on-3 play right now
I mean, they got a good call, they got the power play, so I mean, it was hard there to score for us. Yeah, maybe more confidence, I’m can’t say specifically.

On the play of his line with Kevin Fiala and Trevor Moore
We’ve been steady the last couple of games. Obviously, we want to have the lead and keep playing and learn from our mistakes from last couple of games and we did that. But, at the end of the day, they are a good team too as well. So, it’s frustrating.

Danault added that he’s feeling “banged up” after leaving the game late in the first period, before returning to finish the night.

Anze Kopitar
On where he feels the team is at right now off another narrow loss
Right now, it feels like we’ve got to play a perfect game. Good or pretty good is not good enough right now, so it’ll take a team effort to get out of it. We’re getting better, we’re not as sloppy, we’re playing faster, we’re playing more physical, winning more battles, but we’ve got to find another gear to get out of this.

On if this one feels like a point lost, not a point earned
Definitely feels like a loss. Getting scored on late and obviously very late in OT. Hopefully, down the road, this point is going to be big for us, but right now, it feels like a loss.

On where he feels the confidence of the group is at right now
When you’re on a seven-game skid, the confidence is definitely not sky-high, but the thing is, it’s coming within this room to come out of the slump and get it moving in the right direction.

*stick taps to Dennis Bernstein for the assist on Kopitar’s interview

Todd McLellan
On his assessment of what felt like an intense and tenacious game
That’s a pretty good summation. It was a hard-fought game. It had a high-end of intensity, a lot of physicality, a lot of battles, not a lot of empty ice, kind of the type of game you’d expect from these two teams. Unfortunately, we’re on the back end of it, but I thought we played a hell of a game and there’s a lot of good things to take from tonight. If we’re going to take anything away from the game, we’d probably take the penalty away in the second, which we didn’t have to take, and I don’t know what the call in the overtime, but those are probably the two that we’d like to remove and find a way to get the third, which we didn’t tonight.

On the balance between frustration and embracing the level of play tonight
There’s going to be an element of frustration, I’d be concerned if there wasn’t, but frustration is a pretty dangerous emotion if you don’t channel it the right way and I think our group has done a pretty good job of it. We spent the morning looking at some of the video from Tampa, the things that we did well and that we liked, obviously there were some things to clean up. We’ve got another boatload of stuff that we can show the players again today. So, when you get on a streak that’s not going your way, sometimes you’re really upset at the effort and the overall intensity of the club as a whole and we don’t have that concern right now, it’s there. Just the odd moment, the odd play both offensively and defensively that we’ve got to find a way to make it go our way.

On if he feels that the Kings need to play a “perfect game” right now to get a win
Yeah, we’re at that point where the line of winning and losing is so fine. At the beginning of the year it came easily, now it’s it’s really tough, but everybody, cliches that coaches use and reporters and players that the adversity will help you later on, well, it’s never any fun when you’re in it and that’s where the frustration comes from, but I like the fact that we are sticking with each other and we’re really digging in, trying to pull ourselves out. If it was going the other way, I’d be concerned.

On the level of play and determination from Phillip Danault tonight
For the type of contact he had and then he had the period break to kind of get his wits about him and h came back and played a strong game. We need all of those guys, those character guys, to be producing right now. You don’t even have to be on the ice to be helping, you can be on the bench and patting a guy and helping them out and Phil’s real good in that area.

On what he’s seeing in 3-on-3 situations right now
We’re not coring on our opportunities. We had some chances here tonight, right off the bat I think Kempe had a couple pretty good shots on goal and then the penalty puts us in a bad spot, now we’re playing for a shootout we’re 0.7 seconds away. So, I don’t know if it matters that it was lost in overtime or it didn’t give us a chance at the shootout, but I don’t see anything 3-on-3. We’ve had a couple overtime nights where a bad change or a bad pass created a turnover but we’re not scoring goals easily right now, whether it’s 5-on-5, 4-on-4, 3-on-3 or the shootout. So, those have to come eventually.

Notes –
– Drew Doughty (1-0=1) scored his 75th career power-play goal (PPG), surpassing Bobby Orr (74 w/ BOS) for the ninth-most by a defenseman with a single franchise in league history. With his goal, Doughty is just the second blueliner in Kings history to record 75 PPGs (Rob Blake, 92).
– Trevor Moore (1-0=1) recorded his 18th goal of the season, establishing a new single-season career high in goals (17G, 2021-22). Moore’s 12 goals scored on the road are tied for fourth-most in the league, and second most among Western Conference skaters, behind only Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (13) and Vancouver’s Brock Boeser (13) and Elias Pettersson (13). Moore has picked up six points (3-3=6) in his last six games against Florida, dating back to Feb. 20, 2020.
– Phillip Danault (0-1=1) tallied his 15th assist of the season, extending his assist and point streak against the Panthers to four games (0-4=4). The assist was Danault’s 75th as a member of the Kings, notched in his 199th game with the team. Danault is the first Kings skater since Mike Richards (75A in 181 GP) in 2013-14 to record 75 assists within their first 200 games as a member of the Kings.
– Kevin Fiala (0-1=1) picked up his team-leading 25th helper of the season. It is the second straight season Fiala has reached the 25-assist mark in 38 games or less (25A, 2022-23), becoming the fifth different Kings skater in the last 20 years to reach the 25-assist mark in their first 38 games to begin a season, joining Anze Kopitar (3x), Alex Frolov (1x), Pavol Demitra (1x) and Lubomir Visnovsky (1x).
– Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) and Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) each registered helpers. Kopitar’s assists was the 131st career road power-play assist, one shy of tying Marcel Dionne (132) for the most in franchise history.

The Kings have a scheduled team day off in Detroit tomorrow. They will return to the ice on Saturday for morning skate at 11:30 AM Eastern, 8:30 AM Pacific from Little Caesars Arena.

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