LA Kings blow out Pittsburgh Penguins, Gains on 2nd Place Anaheim Ducks-Jan 2022
With all the hype of the Pittsburgh Penguins coming in to LA to face the kings LA took advantage and blew out the Penguins. Pittsburgh players of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were shut down. Even the return of former Kings player Jeff Carter didn’t pan out well for visitors. Carter play 10 seasons with the Kings and help them win to Stanley cups. The team had a nice video presentation during the game for Carter, who thanked the team and crowd. The game was close the first two periods as Pittsburgh got goals from veteran defenseman Kris Letang and Radim Zohorna’s first goal of the year. Dustin Brown put LA in front of the second period for his 700 career point. Jonathan Quick was stellar and goal making some great saves but the Kings dominated totally out shooting Pittsburgh for the game. This is a big game for the Kings, who pulled two within 2 point of the Ducks for third place in the Western division plus they have played 4 less games. The final was 6-2 as LA scored 3 goals in a span of 83 seconds in the 3rd period to make a close game not so close. They have won 5 out of 6 games now at the newly named Crypto.com arena.
Kopitar had 2 goals and one assist and Sean Durzi had a goal and 2 assists. Other scores were Michael Anderson (his first goal of the year) and Victor Arvidsson. Exciting news that Adrian Kempe was named to his first all star game this year.
Quotes from after the game-
Samuel Fagemo made his NHL debut in front of friends and family.
He said “It was such a great feeling. It was such a dream come true and a big day for my family and me as well. It was just so fun.” One when he found out he was going to play, he said “I found out around 10:30 in the morning today. I had practice with the Reign (Ontario) this morning so it happened quick and I just focused on the game and went back home and ate and slept so it’s been a busy day for sure.”
Asked about playing with other superstarts, he said” Special for sure. I think I’ve watched those guys since I was four or five years old so it was just so happy and it was awesome being able to sit and watch those guys from the bench.”
On playing with other players he played with in Ontario, he said, Yeah, for sure. I think that gave me calmness and confidence too and I think the guys talked to me a lot today. Kopi and those guys and then Kupari and Turcotte and Blake Lizotte and Trevor Moore and all the other Swedes talked to me and helped me. I’m very thankful for them.”
Sean Durzi
On his first three-point night
“It was good. It was nice to score a goal in a win, which was fun. It was a big game for us, I think giving up that second goal, I wasn’t too happy about it, I made a read maybe a second late, but I got a couple back and the boys really stepped up tonight.”
On the team’s response to Pittsburgh’s second goal
“Momentum’s real. It’s a big part of hockey, big part of sports. I think after they scored, the response on the bench was really good. A lot of guys just talking it through saying let’s bounce back. Good energy, guys really showed it. To get two in one shift was huge. Feeding off that, building off that, I thought the guys responded well getting pucks behind them and not playing around with it. Those situations after you get one or give one up, playing north, playing hard and good response.”
On the team’s confidence after beating good teams in the league
“I think once you start beating teams, playing a couple good games in a row, you start to build some confidence as a group and it shows. I thought just the way we play, we have the belief that we can honestly beat anyone if we play our game and playing as a group, it’s a lot of fun, good energy, good atmosphere in the room, good atmosphere on the bench and I think that’s pretty critical, just communication off the ice, away from the ice, the guys have a lot of fun playing the game and it makes it a lot more fun and the effort’s a lot better.”
On when he felt he could be a full-time NHL player
“Scoring game one gave me a little more confidence to play, I’d say throughout game one it was a lot better. I think I’ve had the belief that I could play in this league for a little while now, even before I was called up. I just wanted the chance to show it. I think having this opportunity is pretty huge, it’s something I’ve been preparing for my entire life and especially the last three seasons in pro. To get it and to try to make something with it is really something I’m working towards. 19 games in and I’m grateful for every one and I’m just going to keep doing my best and try to build and try to contribute. Try to do something that helps the team win games and helps the team move forward.”
On what scoring does for his confidence level
“It’s huge, especially for an offensive guy. You don’t think about producing because you want it to come naturally, but if you really dwell on that, it hurts your game defensively and hurts you away from the ice, kind of takes your mind off what you can do to help the team. That’s something I’ve learned from the past couple years is that it’s pro hockey, every night you’re not going to score, every night you’re not going to put up two or three points, it’s tight defensively and as long as you just try to do things right away from the puck, move pucks well, especially in my position, those things will come. It was definitely nice to get a couple tonight. It just lets me fall back in my position, play my game and know that I can score in those situations.”
Todd McLellan
On what the best parts about the win were.
“I think two things: they play a fast, aggressive game, they forced us to play that way and we were able to play with them tonight anyhow. And then secondly the response after they scored their second. To come back and put those three goals together was powerful, it deflates the opposition quickly and guys made good, confident plays”.
On Quick’s game, he said, “he made some outstanding saves. Some of them were of the difficult variety especially early. Bad luck on the first one, but let’s face it, teams that are winning games are getting good goaltending, it’s as simple as that. When you lose it’s not always on the goaltender but they’re a big part of the wins.”
On the potential of the younger players in the lineup, he said “ Young and old, we talk about that so much here. The kids coming in need to look up and see it done the right way. And our older players, the ones that are still here, do it the right way most of the time and they deserve a lot of credit for providing guidance. If you’ve had a big brother or sister at home that took care of you and showed you the way, it’s a lot easier than walking around aimlessly and we get that from our upper end group. They’re strong believers and supporters of the kids that are playing now and the kids hopefully feel that. But at some point years down the road, that’s going to transfer and we’ll worry about that when we get to it.”
Lastly, On the NHL debut of Samuel Fagemo, he said, “I thought he played tremendously. He woke up this morning practicing with the Reign, had no time to think about his first night, very little time to phone family and friends and he had a tremendous game, he played well. Couple good scoring opportunities, pretty responsible all over, good night for him.” The team is now 19-13-5 for 43 points and 3rd place in their division, 2 points behind Anaheim and 5 behind Las Vegas.
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