FINAL – Kings 5, Blue Jackets 1 – Dubois, Byfield, Hiller

The LA Kings made it four consecutive wins, as they began a three-game homestand with a 5-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Kings scored the lone goal of the first period and man, what a goal it was. Forward Quinton Byfield made it happen all on his own, as he took the puck from his own zone, gained the offensive blueline with speed, danced around a defensemen and deked to his backhand, finishing the play for the game’s first goal, his 18th of the season in total.

Quinton. Freakin'. Byfield. pic.twitter.com/o8ax6mx42v

— LA Kings (@LAKings) February 21, 2024

Less than two minutes into the second period, the Kings scored again, this time on the power play, to open up a 2-0 advantage. Defenseman Brandt Clarke made a heads-up pass through the neutral zone, firing hard off the endboards with two players entering the zone with pace. The puck caromed to forward Pierre-Luc Dubois, who one-timed it past Columbus goaltender Elvis Merzlikins, high on the glove side, for the two-goal advantage.

The Blue Jackets got on the board just a couple of minute after Dubois’ goal, cutting their deficit to 2-1. Defenseman Adam Boqvist activated in the offensive zone and threw a puck from a sharp angle, off the back of Kings netminder Cam Talbot’s skate and over the goal line for his first goal of the season.

Just past the midway mark of the second period, Dubois added another goal to restore the two-goal advantage for the Kings. Off a dominant, extended shift in the offensive zone, Byfield found an uncovered Dubois in front of the net, with the big centerman burying his shot through the fivehole and in for his second goal of the evening and 13th of the season. Byfield also picked up his second point of the game, with forward Alex Turcotte netting the secondary assist.

Late in the third period, the Kings added a pair of insurance goals to bring us to the final score of 5-1.

First, with a power play inside five minutes to play in regulation, forward Kevin Fiala buried a shot from the right-hand circle, as he wristed a shot through traffic to extend his team’s lead to 4-1. Defenseman Drew Doughty finally got his goal in the game’s final minute, after he had a goal disallowed earlier in the game, bringing the final score to 5-1 in favor of the Kings.

Hear from Dubois, Byfield and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s win over Columbus.

Pierre-Luc Dubois

Quinton Byfield
On his building chemistry with forward Pierre-Luc Dubois
He’s a great player, that’s why we brought him. He’s been good for us, really good for us lately and it’s easy to play with him. He holds onto pucks, he’s playing both ends of the ice really well, he’s skating good, he’s doing all the right things very well and making it easy on me. We just kind of look for each other out there and it’s kind of connected right now.

On his building chemistry with forward Pierre-Luc Dubois
I just kind of picked up the puck off the faceoff and saw I had a lot of speed. I saw their D come across on me, trying to kind of serve me there and I knew had him beat. I just knew it was a 1-on-1, I thought I was going to take Werenski on the outside and then he tried cutting me off there, so I just tried to get into the middle. I saw the puck kind of was just sitting there and then I just tried to do whatever to get it to the net. It ended up working out.

On if he feels he would have made that play last season
This time last year I might’ve dumped it in. I feel good with the puck right now. Everywhere I am, I’m wanting the puck, trying to get open, so the confidence is definitely there, just knowing that I can make plays. I’m confident in my shot as well, just knowing if I shoot it, I’ve got a good chance of scoring. The confidence is there right now.

On closing out a two-goal lead in the third period as a team
We came out and I think we were still on the penalty kill, I think we killed two or three penalties in that period, our PK has been unbelievable all year, so major props to them. Talbs, coming back in the net and making a ton of saves tonight, I think the third period was key for that. Then, obviously the power play connecting, Kev with a great shot there and then Dewey late. Everyone was kind of, you know, playing really well tonight and everyone was involved.

On playing with 11 forwards after Arvidsson’s injury early in the game
It’s so tough, it sucks to see. Arvy just got back from a major injury, so it really does suck to see, because he’s a great guy, he was awesome for our team. He kind of came back and sparked our team again, he was playing unbelievable, so that’s going to be a big loss for us, we don’t know how long it is, so that sucks. 11 forwards is a lot more ice, other guys have got to step up and I think we did a good job of that.

Jim Hiller
On how he felt the team responded to playing with 11 forwards throughout the game
Well, they did a good job, we won the game, right? Anytime we win the game, you’ve got to be careful, you did a pretty good job. What was difficult was, we just came off a really tough stretch on the road, so that’s not a night that you want to be down to 11 that quickly. So, we tried to spread it around a little bit, I thought everybody dug in. Lots of minutes out of Q, Lewie lots of minutes. Some guys up front really carried a little extra tonight.

On Quinton Byfield’s highlight-reel goal in the first period
That was a beautiful goal, wasn’t it, that really was. With Q, he can really skate, so despite us not having legs as a team, we knew that Q is going to give us energy and skate, he always does that, he’s just got an incredible motor. We knew what we’re going to get. We didn’t know he was going to go through two guys and bury it on his backhand, but happy for him, you know what I mean? Here’s a guy that took a little bit of flack early in his career and he’s just starting to get his legs going. He’s got a tremendously bright future with the Kings and we’re all glad to be watching him grow in front of our eyes.

On the start tonight and coming out slow off the travel
We started slow, we really did, we could see we were sluggish, we felt uh-oh, we’re a step behind here. Give them credit, they came they came to play, but I thought after that, I didn’t say anything, but after that, we started getting our game going a little bit and at least settled things down and kept them out of our end for awhile.

On continued improvements in Pierre-Luc Dubois’ game
I think he’s playing the game with more intensity, and that’s all over the ice, defensively as well, and that goes hand in hand. So he’s stepped up his game, there’s no question. He’s getting rewarded with some points, I like to see that. I think just generally, overall, he’s just increased his intensity level.

On Brandt Clarke’s pass leading to Dubois’ first goal
That’s not an easy pass, you’ve got to have a perfect angle and the timing has to be right. That’s where you see that elite level, offensive talent that he has. He delivered it absolutely perfectly. So, those are the plays we need him to make when he has the chance, we don’t need him to force stuff that’s not there.

On getting another strong performance in net from Cam Talbot
We needed that. We made some mistakes that are hard to believe, from the coaches perspective. Sometimes when you play as much as we have, you travel, you get some mental errors. We had those and Talbs was just fantastic. He was fantastic.

On the icetime distribution between Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault tonight
I thought they’d be about even tonight, but Phil got a little bit more on the penalty kill, I think. Normally we have six penalty killers, JAD’s been penalty killing and doing a good job for us, we’re down to five, rolling through Lewie and then Kempe gets a penalty and Lewis gets a penalty. Phil, as it turned out, was up first in that rotation, so I think he got a little bit out there, but there’s nothing there by design.

*Hiller also said that he did not have an update on the status of Viktor Arvidsson. He said there will be a “closer look” tomorrow and they should know more then.

Notes –
– Quinton Byfield (1-1=2) scored his 18th goal of the season as part of his 10th multi-point game of the campaign, extending his home point streak to a fifth game (5-4=9). He is the third Kings skater this season to record 10-or-more multi-point games, joining Kevin Fiala (11) and Adrian Kempe (13). Of skaters 21 years old or younger, only St. Louis’ Jake Neighbours (19) has scored more goals this season than Byfield. Byfield’s 10 multi-point games are tied with Wyatt Johnston for the second-most multi-point games this season from a player 21 years old or younger, behind only Lucas Raymond (13).
– Pierre-Luc Dubois (2-0=2) recorded his 12th and 13th goals of the season, marking his second multi-goal game of the campaign. With his pair of goals, Dubois has now tallied six points (3-3=6) over his last six games.
– Drew Doughty (1-1=2) registered his 12th goal and 19th assist of the season to eclipse the 30-point mark in a season for the 14th time in his career. Only Kris Letang and Ryan Suter have as many such seasons among active skaters.
– Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) netted his 14th goal of the season to extend his point streak against Columbus to seven games (3-8=11), dating back to Jan. 10, 2019. Since his debut with the Kings (2022-23), Fiala’s 43 power-play points (12-31=43) lead all Kings skaters.
– Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) picked up his fourth helper of the season for his fourth point in his last four games (1-3=4).
– Alex Turcotte (0-1=1) registered his second assist of the season for his first career point on home ice.
Trevor Moore (0-1=1) added his 16th assist of the season.
– Cam Talbot (0-1=1) stopped 33-of-34 shots faced for his 16th win of the season. Talbot recorded his second assist of the season and the sixth of his career. Among goaltenders this season, only Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom (4) has more assists than Talbot. Talbot’s two-assist season is the 21st multi-assist season by a goaltender in Kings history, and the first since Jonathan Quick (0-2=2) in 2018-19.
– Per NHL PR, the LA Kings won a game by at least three goals for the 17th time this season, which is the third-most among all clubs behind only Colorado (20) and Edmonton (18).

The Kings are not scheduled to practice tomorrow, but select players may take the ice at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center. The full team is expected to return to the ice on Thursday, February 22 at 10:30 AM for morning skate, in advance of that evening’s game versus Nashville.

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