The Kings strung together six wins, picked up points in seven straight, and then arrived in Minnesota.
They’re leaving town tonight with back-to-back losses for the second time this season to the Minnesota Wild. It’s something that could end up putting a severe bite in their playoff hopes when all is said and done.
Despite falling behind 3-0, the Kings made a game of it, before eventually losing at the very end of overtime.
Despite the loss, still one of the most impressive Kings performances this season. Down 3-0, they just chipped away. Final game of a long roadie, could've mailed it in. They didn't treat it like a throw away.
OT is a coin flip. They lost. Take the point and enjoy tomorrow off.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) February 28, 2021
Following the game, LA coach Todd McLellan shared the following thoughts:
On not using the end of the road trip as an excuse and battling back to tie the game
Disappointed we got into that hole again, but the team, to a man, stuck with it and clawed their way back in right to the last second. It’s a good sign for our group. It’s not a good sign that we’re falling behind right now. We’ve got some things ahead of us that we have to work on. I’m looking forward to some of the practice time that is upcoming because we haven’t had a lot of it on the road. In any case, we probably earned a point tonight and lost two. We got what we likely deserved.
On Adrian Kempe’s performance tonight
He made a difference in the game tonight. He looked like a hungrier player. He’s such an important player for us, he’s a really good player. He does so many things well – penalty kill, power play, he can be physical, he can skate. When all those things are showing up in the game, he’s a force and he’s a tough player to handle. When a few of them are missing, he just becomes average. When a lot of them are missing, we’re short a player. And there hasn’t been many of those games. Sometimes just a gentle reminder that where you’re taking your shots from and the shot volume, it’s disappearing a little bit. We reminded him of that and as I thought he would, he responded quite well.
On getting power play goals from Kempe and Doughty, an improved special teams showing from Friday night
The power play was better tonight, obviously, getting two. It wasn’t easy, they’re an elite penalty kill team. They’re in the top three or four, I think, in the league for a reason. They get good goaltending and their pinch points are really strong. They made us earn it. We were lackadaisical yesterday. We got their attention and played with a little more zip and detail today. By no means was it easy. Kempe’s goal was a quarter shot, that was a missed shot. That’s a change up, it’s hard for goaltenders to stop that. For me, it was a night of strange goals. Look at their first one. Everybody’s in position, it bounces off a linesman, bounces into the middle, we chop at it with a stick, flutters up in the air, it’s a change up. It goes over top of everybody into the net. The broken stick goal, d-man shoots it and goes right to [Kirill] Kaprizov, everybody pauses for a second because nobody knows where the puck is. Just a strange night when it comes to goals.
On if he was holding his breath when Mikey Anderson took that hit in the corner from Nick Foligno
Well, you hold your breath for anybody in that case, whether it’s one of our players or their players. Nobody wants to see that happen. Fortunately for Mikey, he responded real well and he gave us real good minutes tonight. It was great to have him back in there.
On Lias Andersson appearing like he would be playing, but then sitting again in favor of Austin Wagner
That’s probably confusion on the media reporting side, I think. There wasn’t any confusion on our behalf. Wags has been he’s been a good player for us some nights and there are other nights we need a lot more from him. Tonight, he scored a big goal for us. He has to find some consistency in his game. Lias is still an important player on our team and he’s gonna get some important minutes as the year goes on here. That’s just the way it is.
Kempe on McLellan calling him out, noting he only had one goal in 14 games — Last couple games I didn't shoot the puck well enough. So I was looking to get in and around the net. Tonight was a step in the right direction.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) February 28, 2021
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