PRESEASON FINAL – Kings 4, Bruins 1 – Byfield, Kempe, Fiala, Hiller

The LA Kings improved to 4-0-1 in the preseason with a 4-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday evening at Videotron Centre in Quebec City.

The first period came and went without a goal. In total, the Kings outshot the Bruins by an 11-2 margin, with their best chances coming in the final five minutes. After a pretty extended feeling-out process, Los Angeles ramped up the intensity towards the end of the frame, with their best chance coming off an Adrian Kempe setup to Anze Kopitar through the slot, which was kept out by former Kings netminder Joonas Korpisalo.

After more than 30 minutes without a goal, the teams combined for three goals in exactly 30 seconds, as the Kings opened up a 2-1 lead.

First, the tandem of Kevin Fiala and Quinton Byfield connected off the rush to open the scoring. Fiala carried the puck down the left wing with speed, creating a 2-on-1 rush. From the left side, he fed a pass through the slot to Byfield, who hammered the one-timer past Korpisalo for the game’s first goal.

Just 24 seconds later, the Kings doubled their advantage, as Byfield scored his second of the game. Fiala fed Joel Edmundson at the left point and although his shot was blocked down in front, Byfield won a battle in front of the net to bury the rebound from close range for his second goal of the game, with Fiala collecting his second assist of the net on the play.

Essentially off the ensuing faceoff, the Bruins got on the scoreboard to make it a 2-1 game going into the second intermission. Boston efficiently moved the puck through the neutral zone, with forward Patrick Brown splitting the Kings defensemen off the rush. Brown shot from the slot and beat Kings netminder David Rittich clean with a wrist shot, as the Kings saw their lead trimmed to 2-1.

Early in the third period, the Kings got a shorthanded goal to pull back ahead by two. In an inverse of their roles in Ontario over the weekend, this time it was Anze Kopitar leading the rush, before he fed linemate Adrian Kempe through the slot for a one-timer in transition, buried by Kempe for the 3-1 advantage with his second goal of the exhibition season.

Byfield completed the hat trick midway through the third period, as the Kings opened up a 4-1 lead. Forward Trevor Moore, stationed in the corner, feathered a puck towards the net, with Byfield driving through the slot, getting a stick on the pass and working it past Korpisalo for his third goal of the game.

Hear from Byfield, Kempe, Fiala and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.

Quinton Byfield

Kevin Fiala
On seeing Quinton Byfield control tonight’s game offensively
Yeah, it was a good game and you could tell we were connected, Foegs too, we had a good game. It’s a lot of fun to see [Quinton] dominate, like you said, he’s using his big body now and his skill. So, I love to see him making plays and just being brave.

On finding a home on a line with Byfield and Foegele
I love to play with both of those guys. It’s not my decision, but I feel like everybody wants to play with the same line for the whole season. It’s fine to move around for the team’s sake, sometimes something doesn’t work, but as you can see now, it’s working out, so I don’t think there’s going to be any changes.

On tonight’s game being the first time everyone has played together this preseason
It’s awesome to play with the [full] team, see how good we are, they are, they also had their team kind of. You never know how we stand before the season, so it’s awesome to see good team. Good team win today and we just have to move on.

Adrian Kempe
On Anze Kopitar returning the favor from Saturday on that shorthanded 2-on-1
Yeah, it was good. Usually it’s Kopi finding me, but last game it was the other way. PK has been good, aggressive, we had a couple of chances tonight, not just us, but a couple other guys too. Odd-man rushes, which is fun when you’re on the other side of it. It was a good pass [from Kopitar], I just tried to find the open net.

On the overall aggression of the penalty kill
System wise, it’s pretty similar to last year, it’s just kind of being more aggressive. I think it’s a little easier to adapt to that part than it was maybe last year, adapting to a complete;y new PK forecheck and everything. So, I think it comes pretty natural, and I can only speak for myself, but being more aggressive in the d-zone, being on the other side of it, you hate when other teams just rush at you because you don’t have a lot of time. There’s going to be times when we do make mistakes, but as long as we can stay aggressive and do it all together, I think it will work well.

On wearing the “A” in the absence of Drew Doughty
I think I said this last year, obviously means a lot to me, wearing a letter. Whether I [have] it or not, I try to play the same way, be loud out there on the ice, talk to all the guys and try to help as much as possible. Like I said before, it’s nice to see that the coaches, players trust me in that area, so that’s a nice thing and it feels good.

Jim Hiller
On Quinton Byfield’s performance tonight
He played well. He has played well, though. I guess you could say he finished [tonight]. The second goal was just in front of the net, third goal was driving through, first goal was really nice, great play by Kevin. He’s played like, I think for me, he’s played like that since the beginning of camp. Maybe he didn’t score three goals, I guess that’s going to be part of the storyline, but he’s just playing. He’s just playing and I don’t think he did anything tonight that was extraordinary, just playing his game.

On the evolution of the penalty kill throughout the preseason
We’re still working at it, because we gave up a little bit too. They missed some chances in tight, where we maybe missed assignments, so we’re still working on it, but you can definitely see we are on our toes more, and we’re pushing. When you do that, you might give up some chances and some quality chances, but also you are going to create. If you’re, on your toes, you are going to get some chances on the penalty kill and you’re seeing that.

On what he liked best tonight and throughout the preseason
I think probably what I like best was just that it’s just been a continuation. I’ll go back from Day 1, we came out, we were focused, we played hard to a man, and we think we’re understanding our style of play better as we’ve got going here. I think it’s, from our side, you wouldn’t see it as much, we talk to the players about certain things we want to see and more often we’re seeing those. I just think it’s been a continuation of how we play and we like how we’re playing,

On the crowd and atmosphere in the building tonight
It was great. I mean, it really started with the Patrice [ceremony] and the nice ovation, I think multiple ovations that he got from the crowd. I thought that really brought a lot of energy into the building early. I don’t know what the shots were in the first period there wasn’t a lot going on, but the crowd stayed into it and they did get to see a few really nice goals. I think the building really lit up on some of those 2-on-1 goals.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 11 AM at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City.