Devils Lose to Kings to Wrap West Coast Trip | GAME STORY

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Devils opened the scoring but allowed five unanswered goals in a 5-1 defeat to the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena Sunday afternoon.

Timo Meier opened the scoring for the Devils, just the 16^th time New Jersey has scored the opening goal.

The Kings' Phillip Danault scored a hat trick, while Alex Laferriere and Kevin Fiala also scored.

"We got the start we wanted. Came out and scored a goal," head coach Lindy Ruff said. "It really came down to puck management."

"At times I don’t think it’s about effort. It’s more between the ears," forward Erik Haula said. "We keep shooting ourselves in the foot. We keep making similar mistakes. At this time of the year it’s going to hurt you."

The Devils remain out of a playoff position with 64 points. The Philadelphia Flyers hold the final spot in the Metro Division with 71 points. For the Devils to earn a playoff position, the club may need 28-30 points with 21 games remaining. Which means they’ll likely need to win at least 14 of those remaining games.

“We basically have to start winning out here to have a really good chance of making it. We can’t lose many more games. I’m sure everyone has a point total in mind of what gives yourself a chance. You just keep playing. You play your heart out, give it everything you’ve got.”

The Devils finished 1-2-0 on their West Coast swing. They return home for a three-game homestand starting Tuesday night against the defending Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers.

“It’s the same story. It just sucks,” Meier said of the loss. “We have to go home and focus on the next one. We have to go now. We can’t wait any longer. We’re at the edge. Now we just have to start.”

Here are some observations from the game:

• This got away from the Devils in a 34-second span in the second period. It started with Tyler Toffoli’s attempted D-to-D pass (he rotated to the blue line) was picked off by Trevor Moore. The launched the Kings on a scrambled 3-on-2 rush. Danault was the trailer and easily tapped in the puck to make it 3-1. Six seconds after the goal, defenseman John Marino took a tripping penalty. And 28 seconds later Fiala rifled in a top corner shot for a power-play goal to make it 4-1.

• The Devils have surrendered the open goal in a game 44 times this season. They’re focus coming into this early afternoon game was to have a good start and preferably score first.

They accomplished that feat when Timo Meier scored just 15 seconds into the game. The goal was the result of a nice forecheck effort. It started with captain Nico Hischier finishing a check in the near corner. Followed by Meier finishing a check behind the net. The pressure caused a turnover and Meier was the beneficiary.

• The Devils were the victims of a tough break when Los Angeles scored its first goal to tie the game. New Jersey had an odd-man rush into the Kings zone when Danault jumped on the ice in the neutral zone. He was already behind on the play and all alone when Kevin Fiala hit him with a pass for a breakaway. What’s worse is the Devils’ shot attempt on the rush was blocked and led directly to the breakout pass for the breakaway goal.

"We can’t hand them the goals we handed them. The breakaway goal. Not having awareness of having a guy in behind us," Ruff said. "On the one side of that it looks like we’re going to create some offense. But we turned what should have been offense into offense for them."

• The Jersey boy Laferriere scored his ninth goal of the year on his hometown team. However, it is definitely a goal that Nico Daws will want back. It was a long-range shot from above the far circle with no screen. Daws has handled a heavy workload, starting 10 of the last 11 games. And he’s performed admirably. But that was a tough one to give up.

"We talked about it as a staff. We talked about it with our goalie coach," Ruff said. "The decision to go back to Daws, you can always second guess. It’s a decision we made as a group."

• Goalie Akira Schmid deserves a lot of credit for his past two games. He’s come into relief in both games and hasn’t surrendered a goal.