The Los Angeles Kings opened their season with a win last night, defeating the Buffalo Sabres 3-1 on the road.
The Kings went with the following lineup:
Alex Laferriere - Anze Kopitar - Adrian Kempe
Tanner Jeannot - Phillip Danault - Trevor Moore
Kevin Fiala - Quinton Byfield - Warren Foegele
Andre Lee - Alex Turcotte - Trevor Lewis
Mikey Anderson - Jordan Spence
Vladislav Gavrikov - Kyle Burroughs
Joel Edmundson - Brandt Clarke
Darcy Kuemper
To open the game, the Kings got hit with penalties to Mikey Anderson and Joel Edmundson pretty early on, and found themselves killing an early 5-on-3. Darcy Kuemper had to make two good saves, but overall, Los Angeles did a great job penalty killing without allowing Buffalo to build much pressure.
The Kings weren’t able to sustain a ton of offensive zone pressure from there though, and the Sabres had a couple decent chances that were denied by Kuemper, before the Kings got a power play of their own. That didn’t go any better for Los Angeles though, first giving up a shorthanded rush that forced Kuemper to make a massive save on a wraparound.
Then only seconds later after the play went back up ice temporarily, the Sabres got another opportunity, with Quinton Byfield slashing Ryan McLeod and giving up a penalty shot. However, once again, Kuemper came up big with a save, keeping the game scoreless.
Los Angeles ended up with another power play a little later, and while they gave up a rush the other way, Phillip Danault did have the Kings’ best chance of the frame, putting a backhand shot off the post in-close.
In the final minute of the frame, Kuemper then faced a few good chances from the Sabres. He had to make a big save on Dylan Cozens with about 35 seconds left, then another on Tage Thompson from in-close. However, in the dying seconds, it looked like Tyler Benson managed to put Buffalo ahead, poking a puck into the open net before the buzzer. However, on a review, it was determined time had already run out, giving Los Angeles a big break to get to intermission scoreless.
It was a pretty tough opening frame for Los Angeles, relying solely on Kuemper to keep them in the game. Chalk it up to Buffalo having already played two regular season games maybe, but the Sabres looked a lot more ready to go. They outplayed the Kings at 5-on-5, outshot them 13-5, and even got the better chances on the Kings’ own power plays. Simply put, Los Angeles could’ve found themselves in a multi-goal hole if Kuemper hadn’t been as good as he was.
The second period didn’t start much better, with Jordan Spence taking an early penalty, and the Sabres having more chances on the ensuing power play, but still not being able to beat Kuemper. The game did start to even out a tiny bit from there, with the Kings getting a couple rush chances of their own, but the Sabres still getting opportunities going back the other way, with Jordan Greenway having two different point-blank chances, but somehow, the Kings kept clinging on.
Los Angeles ended up back on the power play with about six minutes left in the frame, but once again, the Kings weren’t even the better team on their own power play. Quinton Byfield turned the puck over in the neutral zone, sending Alex Tuch on breakway the other way. Despite Kuemper stopping the initial shot, Tuch followed up to bury the rebound, finally putting the Sabres ahead with a shorthanded goal.
The Kings took another penalty from there by Adrian Kempe, and the shooting gallery continued on the power play, but Los Angeles escaped once again, getting to the second intermission still down only one. It was pretty much just more of the same from the opening frame, where the Kings were completely dominated, but Kuemper was the reason they were still in the game.
However, only 13 seconds into the third period, Alex Laferriere managed to win a race to the puck on the forecheck, then fed Anze Kopitar in the slot who beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, tying the game.
That seemed to temporarily spark Los Angeles, who went on to build a bit of momentum, and were generating some shots in the first bit of the frame.
We saw Kyle Burroughs drop the gloves with Peyton Krebs after a hit on Sam Lafferty from there, and then Kuemper soon after had to make a good save on Connor Clifon on an odd-man rush. Brandt Clarke ended up taking a bad penalty shortly after, where the Sabres had some more good chances that followed. Kuemper had to make a big glove save on Thompson from point-blank range on the power play, and then Thompson had a shot go off the post just after the penalty expired.
Things did slow down a little bit from there, but with about six minutes to go, the Kings gave up another odd-man rush, and Bowen Byram took a pass from Jack Quinn to beat Kuemper, but rang it off the crossbar. However, Jason Zucker then took a penalty for a hit on Brandt Clarke, sending the Kings to the power play with less than four minutes to go.
While Los Angeles couldn’t generate much on the initial power play, Mattias Samuelsson ended up taking a penalty in his own end, putting the Kings up on a 5-on-3. With an excellent opportunity, Los Angeles took advantage, as Jordan Spence teed up a one-timer for Kopitar, who blasted a shot past Luukkonnen to give the Kings their first lead with only two minutes to go.
Buffalo pulled the goalie to try to tie it back up from there, but Quinton Byfield was able to win a race and fed the puck out front to Kopitar, who buried it into the empty net, completing the hat trick and leaving the Kings with a 3-1 win.
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The Kings got the win, but it certainly wasn't their best outing. They were completely dominated for the first 40 minutes and didn’t really deserve to even still be in the game.
However, if there were questions about the Kings’ goaltending coming in, Darcy Kuemper did everything he could to squash those. Kuemper was excellent all game long, keeping the Kings in it and being forced to make countless saves from point-blank range. Anze Kopitar had the hat trick, but Kuemper was undoubtedly the team’s MVP in Game 1.
As a positive, the Kings did come out a lot more ready to play in the third period. It was the only period where they outshot Buffalo, and while they still gave up some great chances, they were fewer and further between.
Still, I don't think the win instills a ton of confidence. Too many players were completely unnoticeable up front, and Drew Doughty’s absence was certainly felt on the back end. For a team that’s often done a really good job in recent years limiting quality chances against, the Kings looked awful defensively through most of the night.
Still, they killed off all five of the Sabres’ power plays, and managed to capitalize on their opportunities. It wasn’t pretty, but a win’s a win, and the Kings started the season with two points.
Los Angeles will be back in action tomorrow afternoon, when they face the Boston Bruins.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
- Are the Kings destined to be a middle-of-the-pack team this season?
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