The Week That Was
The Kings put together a 3-1-0 week and ended the week on a three-game winning streak with a trio of defeats against division opponents. The six-point week has propelled the Kings back into the third seed of the Pacific Division standings, jumping the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Kings opened the week in their finale of a four-game Canadian road trip in Winnipeg on Monday night with a valiant effort, but fell 4-3 in regulation. The Kings held two separate one-goal leads in the second period but failed to stay in front by period’s end and entered the final 20 tied 3-3. A third period goal from Cole Perfetti, his second tally of the game proved to be enough and the Jets earned the regulation victory. Goalscorers for the Kings consisted of Viktor Arvidsson (2), Kevin Fiala (25) and Anze Kopitar (26).
The Kings returned home on Wednesday and handled the Seattle Kraken 5-2 behind Trevor Moore’s second career hat trick. Scoring his team-leading 27th, 28th and 29th goals of the season, Moore outscored the Kings opponent single handedly. Also notching a three-point night was Pierre-Luc Dubois who factored in on each of Moore’s goals. Adrian Kempe opened the night’s scoring with his 24th goal of the season, while Fiala extended the Kings lead to 4-1 in the third period with his 26th tally of the season to round out the Kings offense. Cam Talbot stopped 21 of the Kraken’s 23 shots to earn his 24th win of the season.
One night later, the Kings traveled up to San Jose and leaned on a strong first period to beat the Sharks in a low-scoring battle. With a game-opening goal from Kempe halfway into the opening 20 minutes and a goal from Akil Thomas 18 seconds later, the Kings found all the offense they needed on this particular night. The goal from Thomas came in just his second career game and joined Alex Laferriere (Oct. 21, 2023 vs. BOS), Andreas Englund (Oct. 31, 2023 at TOR), Alex Turcotte (Jan. 31, 2024 at NSH), Brandt Clarke (Feb. 17, 2024 at BOS) and Jacob Moverare (Mar. 7, 2024 vs. OTT) as Kings players to have scored their first career goal this season. David Rittich turned aside 15-of-16 shots to earn his 12th win on the season, improving his record to 12-6-3.
The Kings then closed out the week’s games by doubling up the Pacific Division leading Vancouver Canucks 6-3. Burying a pair of goals in each period, the Kings grabbed a 2-0 lead 5:45 into the game and never looked back. Leaning on the big dogs, four Kings recorded a multi-point night in Kempe (2-1=3), Fiala (1-1=2) Drew Doughty (1-1=2) and Anze Kopitar (0-2=2). Kopitar’s two assist gave him his 300th career multi-point game of his career, joining Marcel Dionne (392) and Luc Robitaille (321) as the only skaters in franchise history with as many multi-point outings. Cam Talbot stopped a season-high 39 of 42 shots to improve his record to 25-18-6 on the campaign.
Notable News From The Week That Was:
- The Kings hold a record of 18-10-1 under Interim Head Coach Jim Hiller.
- Adrian Kempe’s six points (4-2=6) across the four games led all Kings skaters.
- The Kings power play went 3-for-10 in their four games, placing them 10th in the NHL (22.4%).
- The Kings penalty kill went 9-for-10 in their four games, placing them 2nd in the NHL (84.8%).
The Week That Is
With the Kings heading into the penultimate week of the 2023-24 regular season, they’ll have three games on the schedule. Coming against only two teams, the Kings will face the Calgary Flames, sandwiched in between a pair of games against the Anaheim Ducks. With the easiest remaining schedule in the NHL, both Kings opponents have been eliminated front playoff contention.
The Kings will begin the week in Anaheim, playing in their final road game of the regular season. Going up against the 25-48-5 Ducks, the Kings will look to extended their winning streak against their Freeway Face-Off rival to nine games. The Kings current eight-game winning streak against the Ducks is the longest winning streak between the two teams since the Ducks entered the NHL in 1993. Entering Tuesday’s game, the Ducks are 2-6-2 in their last 10 games and have lost seven of their last eight games (1-5-2). Despite ranking 30th in the NHL standings, the Ducks have multiple weapons for the Kings to be wary of. Beginning with Trevor Zegras, the fourth-year NHLer has had an injury-riddled year but has found his game as of late. Having only appeared in 27 games this season, Zegras has just 11 points (4-7=12) but the flashy forward has four points (0-4=4) in his last four games. The two-headed monster for the Ducks offensively this season has been Frank Vatrano and Troy Terry. With Vatrano leading his team in goals (32) and points (55) and Terry leading in assists (33), the Kings will have to all eyes on the trio of American forwards to have success slowing their rivals from the southeast.
Two nights later, the Kings will close out their season series against the Calgary Flames. Currently 1-2-0 against the Flames this season, the Kings will look to hold serve on home ice after having beaten the Alberta team 5-3 earlier this season at Crypto.com Arena. Like the Ducks, the Flames have also struggled as of late winning just two of their last 10 games (2-8-0). Going back to the two teams last meeting on March 30th, the Kings fell 4-2 and were heavily outplayed. Outshot 35-18, and losers in the faceoff circle 29-24, the Kings surrendered a season-high three power play goals. With revenge on the Kings mind, two players the Kings will aim to slow down are two players the Flames received in trades over the past year in Andrei Kuzmenko and Yegor Sharangovich. Combining for four points (0-4=4) in the last meeting, both players have numbers have improved since joining the Flames. Kuzmenko has notched 17 points (8-9=17) in 23 games with Flames since midway through the season and has an active point streak of five games (4-5=9), while Sharangovich has career-highs in all offensive categories with 56 points (30-26=56) in 76 games this season.
Two night after that, the Kings will host the Ducks on Saturday night to close out the week’s games.
Upcoming games this week:
- 4/9 @ Anaheim Ducks @ 7:00 (KCAL)
- 4/11 vs. Calgary Flames @ 7:30 (Bally Sports West)
- 4/13 vs. Anaheim Ducks @ 7:30 (Bally Sports West)
