LOS ANGELES — The Kings started the day leading the NHL in both goals per game and goals allowed this season, but they were dethroned by the resourceful Washington Capitals, 2-1, on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Washington had produced a formidable points percentage but with a firmly negative goal differential, an anemic offense and losses to two of the worst teams in the Western Conference on their current road swing. They prevailed for the first time in three games in a clash where they disrupted the Kings’ five-game winning streak.
Arthur Kaliyev scored the only goal for the Kings. Cam Talbot surrendered two goals on 15 shots, though high-danger scoring chances were nearly even Wednesday as the Kings lost in regulation for the first time all season when scoring first (11-1-1).
Anthony Mantha and Connor McMichael assisted on each other’s goals and Aliaksei Protas earned assists on both their tallies. Charlie Lindgren was effective albeit unconventional, requiring some acrobatics to make 38 saves in a performance that Kaliyev described as stealing the victory.
Washington’s room was also quick to laud the Kings’ roster.
“Credit to the Kings, that could be the best team we’ve seen all year. Four lines, [three] “D” pairs, good goalie, it was a tough win,” said Lindgren, who said he and his team did “whatever it took” to pump the brakes on their short skid and sever the Kings’ string of wins.
“They came out flying, they had almost 40 shots on net, but we found a way tonight,” Mantha added.
The third period saw the Kings dominate possession but offered them nothing to show for it. The same was true of their discipline in a game when they took no penalties but also went 0 for 3 on the power play.
“I saw two teams, an early team and a late team. The early team had the puck a lot, we looked good, sometimes, not doing a lot, but we looked good,” Coach Todd McLellan said. “Late game, we were really direct and we had a desperation to us.”
With 8:50 left in the game, the Kings appeared to tie the score when Adrian Kempe spun off one defender and surged intrepidly toward three more as he nonchalantly dropped a pass to the side of the net for Kopitar. The captain’s would-be equalizer was nullified by a Washington challenge, which alleged successfully that Quinton Byfield was offside when the Kings entered the zone well before the goal. Later in the period, Kempe hit the crossbar with another potential tying tally.
The middle frame appeared to be headed for a stalemate on the scoreboard despite the Kings lapping the Capitals in shots on net through 40 minutes, but with 90 seconds remaining, McMichael gave Washington its first lead of the night. After Talbot’s lunging save on Mantha, a failed zone exit left Mantha with the puck in the corner, initiating a give-and-go with Protas that allowed Mantha to drive the net hard and pop a rebound high in the air to be batted home by McMichael. The Kings, who had not faced a deficit at any point during their five-game surge, trailed at the second intermission behind what would stand as the game-winner.
“We’ve been playing good, connected hockey,” Mantha said of his line. “We’re fully supporting each other, we’re creating plays, we’re hard on pucks in the O-zone and it creates great opportunities.”
Washington had drawn even at the 12:12 mark of the first period, when a well-timed twist in the neutral zone by Protas shook Matt Roy and broke down the Kings’ defense. Protas’ authoritative outlet pass found McMichael, who feathered a saucer pass across the crease and Vladislav Gavrikov alike to Mantha for a redirection goal at the netfront. Roy and Gavrikov have been among the most effective defense pairings analytically since last season, but both got minuses along with Trevor Lewis’ trusted fourth line.
“We had an ill-advised pinch, the cover wasn’t completely committed to it and we didn’t play a two-on-one very well,” McLellan said. “So, three detail-like scenarios, all in succession, that leads to a goal against.”
Andreas Englund’s booming shot from the left point clanked off the end boards and bounced into the low slot, where Kaliyev pounced on the puck to score his fifth goal of the campaign, 9:04 into the game. It was something of a breakthrough after some earlier near-misses, including a jaw-dropping backdoor pass that Kevin Fiala made for Byfield, only for their efforts to be thwarted by Lindgren.
The Kings had a full three days off prior to this game and will have three more before they face the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday.
“It’s been almost too much. You could tell in the first period, we were trying to find our beat a little bit,” Phillip Danault said. “We, obviously like breaks, it’s good for our energy, but this was a little too much, I think.”