The Los Angeles Kings dropped their third game in a row last night, falling 6-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
David Rittich got his first start of the year, with Darcy Kuemper unavailable. Meanwhile, Joel Edmundson was out of the lineup for the birth of his child, and Jordan Spence was held out as well. As a result, both Andreas Englund and Caleb Jones entered the lineup.
First Period
The Leafs had an early power play and did have some close misses, but then Morgan Rielly took a slashing penalty, negating the man advantage. But before the Kings could even register their first shot of the game, the Leafs struck about seven minutes in, with Bobby McMann getting a puck off a broken play and firing it past an out-of-place Rittich. Then only about two minutes after that and the play in the Kings’ end once again, Auston Matthews whiffed on an initial shot, but kept possession and fired the puck past Rittich, to quickly make it a 2-0 game.
While Los Angeles woke up a little bit from there, with about three minutes to go, Vladislav Gavrikov and Kyle Burroughs were both too aggressive going after the puck, and Bobby McMann took a pass from William Nylander to beat Rittich in alone. As a result, the Kings found themselves down by three through 20 minutes after a pretty terrible start.
Second Period
Los Angeles did actually come out a lot stronger in the second period though, building momentum with the first 11 shots of the frame in under five minutes, including a couple of good net-front chances. However, about eight minutes into the period, Jake McCabe found Morgan Rielly in front for a tip-in, making it a 4-0 game. Rittich ended up getting pulled afterwards, with Pheonix Copley entering the game.
The teams exchanged power plays in the remainder of the frame from there, and with a little over a minute to go in the period, William Nylander put a shot over Copley’s shoulder, to extend the lead. So despite a really good start to the period, the Kings took their foot off the gas and their position only worsened, down 5-0 through 40 minutes.
Third Period
For a second period in a row though, Los Angeles did start really strong, and Alex Turcotte got the Kings on the board with a nice shot from the slot off a pass from Andre Lee.
The Kings then had some good pressure on a power play right after, including a really high-danger chance for Quinton Byfield that was stopped by Anthony Stolarz. But midway through the frame, Los Angeles did strike again, with a loose puck in front finding its way in, last touched by Kevin Fiala.
Craig Berube called a timeout for Toronto from there, with the Kings outshooting the Maple Leafs by about a 10-1 margin in the period at that point. Los Angeles had another power play chance shortly after but couldn’t convert, and that’s about where any comeback hopes ended. John Tavares buried a power play goal after that, for a 6-2 Maple Leafs win.
Takeaways
Ultimately, I don’t think this was an all-around terrible game for the Kings, but they got off to a brutal start and couldn’t get close to recovering. They really weren’t alive much through the first half of the opening frame and by the time they did get going, they were already in a multi-goal hole.
Even when they had their foot off the gas at times though, they still looked better than in Ottawa. Of course, there were still a chunk of mistakes, and the loss of Drew Doughty continues to be felt. Last night alone, the Kings' defense group included a rookie in Brandt Clarke, plus three other players in Kyle Burroughs, Andreas Englund and Caleb Jones who realistically shouldn't get regular playing time in the NHL when the full defense group is available. So it was probably never going to be a great defensive outing.
In addition to the slow start, a few other things worked against them. The special teams battle didn’t go their way, with Los Angeles going 0-for-4 on the man advantage, and allowing two power play goals.
Plus, they really couldn’t get a save. Again, I don’t know that there were necessarily bad goals allowed, but the Kings can’t afford to give up six goals on 26 shots. Across the last two games, the team has now given up 14 goals on 67 shots, between three different goaltenders. Obviously, that doesn’t all fall on the goalie, but it’s a tough stat to overcome.
You can pull some positives from the back 40 minutes though, where the Kings outshot Toronto by a huge 25-14 margin. I’d argue that certain stretches of the second and third periods were among the best hockey the Kings have played through four games so far. It's a low bar, but still.
In some other notes, Jim Hiller did begin trying out some different lines, switching around Trevor Lewis, Warren Foegele and Tanner Jeannot within the bottom three lines. We’ll see if any of the new combinations end up sticking.
Quinton Byfield also exited the game late after seemingly injuring his finger – hopefully, it’s nothing serious.
Los Angeles looked good at times, but by the time they did, they were already just trying to climb out of a hole. It’s not their worst game of the season despite the score, and there were some positives takeaways, but it’s still a sizeable loss which was in large part due to a really poor start.
The Kings will be right back in action tonight, when they face the Montreal Canadiens.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
- Are the Kings destined to be a middle-of-the-pack team this season?
- Darcy Kuemper shines as Kings sneak out win over Sabres in season opener
- Kings come up short against Bruins, fall 2-1 in overtime
- Kings suffer OT loss to Senators in wild 15-goal game
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