LA Kings Tampa Bay Lightning

The LA Kings scored three straight goals in the final two periods, earning a complete team 4-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. With the win, the Kings also ended a 10-game losing streak to the Lightning.

Scoring

1st Period

LAK – P. Danault (4), Assists: G. Vilardi (4), M. Anderson (3)

TBL – B. Hagel (2), Unassisted

2nd Period

LAK – G. Vilardi (5) (Power Play), Assists: D. Doughty (3), K. Fiala (5)

LAK – B. Lizotte (1), Assists: B. Clarke (2), A. Kaliyev (3)

3rd Period

LAK – A. Kempe (5), Assists: A. Kopitar (6)

TBL – N. Kucherov (1), Unassisted

Takeaways from the contest:

Gabe Vilardi PPG

Coming into the game, the LA Kings’ powerplay over the last few games had looked reminiscent of last year’s. Todd McLellan’s club was two for their last 19 over a four-game span.

While they didn’t convert nor do much of anything on their first powerplay opportunity, Gabe Vilardi’s re-direct of Drew Doughty’s blast from the point on their second powerplay chance got past Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Vilardi was elevated to a top-six forward role just before puck drop as Viktor Arvidsson was a late scratch, with what the coaching staff identified as an illness that he tried to work through in the morning skate, tried to work through in warmups, but ultimately decided that he wasn’t feeling up to the task.

“I can’t say enough about the young man, he’s been outstanding since training camp,” Kings head coach Todd McLellan said after the game. “The fact that Arvy wasn’t able to go after warmup, it was a bit of a surprise to us, but things got shuffled quickly, and he has the toolkit to be playing up there. He’s got a lot of confidence on the power play right now, he’s checking well, using his body, his size. I think, as he leaves the rink every day, he’s really enjoying the game, and he’s earned it.”

For Vilardi, the goal marked his fifth of the season, and he’s been one of the best surprises of the young season.

Brandt Clarke’s Assist

To stay or not to stay? Brandt Clarke added another reason for the Kings to keep him beyond the nine-game limit without burning the first year of his entry-level contract.

With under seven minutes left to play in the second period, Arthur Kaliyev found Brandt Clarke alone in the low slot. The young defenseman had a ton of time to assess the situation as he stared down Vasilevskiy. You could feel the anticipation that something special was about to happen as the fans at Crypto.com Arena slowly rose from their seats.

Once the Lightning defenseman took the bait, that left Blake Lizotte wide open for a backdoor tap-in.

“Arty made a nice play to find me with a lot of time and space. Really gave me a good amount of time to read my options. I saw Lizzo backdoor because the D cheated off to me. Good play all around, good play by him,” he said between the second and third periods.

Clarke has two games remaining before the organization needs to decide to keep him up with the NHL club or send him back to the OHL.

Kings kill off 5-on-3

Quinton Byfield was tabbed for a faceoff violation with the LA Kings comfortably holding onto a three-goal lead early in the third period. Shortly after that, Sean Durzi followed him to the box, creating an important 5-on-3 powerplay for the Lightning for 40 seconds.

It was a huge moment in the game at the time, considering what transpired in Washington on Saturday night.

However, McLellan’s group rose to the occasion. They cleared pucks out of the defensive zone, not allowing Tampa to get much of anything in the way of a quality chance on the two-man advantage before also killing off the 5-on-4.

“I thought our penalty kill was very good against an outstanding [power play],” the Kings coach said. “There were a whole bunch of good things tonight, but I thought our penalty kill gave us a strong belief. 5-on-3, a few other situations, we drew a penalty on our penalty kill, great goaltending. That was a real important thing, and then fewer home run chances for the opposition. We’re not perfect, but there were fewer, and I thought we committed more to checking than we have in the past.”

Defensive shutdown

Despite a flukey-type goal that made it a two-goal deficit for the Lightning late in the third period, the Kings arguably played their most complete effort on the young season. Again alluding back to the Capitals game on Saturday, the Kings’ defensive structure just wasn’t there, which allowed the collapse to happen.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles was sound in finishing their checks, bringing a heavy forecheck, and clearing the puck out of the defensive zone, especially in the third period. Adrian Kempe added an insurance goal in the final frame, but I thought the LA Kings brought their “A” game defensively, not allowing Tampa any high-danger chances for (HDCF) in the third period.

“We aggressively checked, and sometimes when you ask your team to check, they back off, and they’re just standing and taking it, but we aggressively checked,” McLellan said. “When we had to go up ice, we went up ice. When we had to do what we needed to do in the neutral zone, we did it. We were all playing the same system, for the most part, versus off on our own.

“This is a brand new slate for us. Yeah, there are some tendencies (from last year) that showed up, which is a good sign, but I’d like to think we’re moving in the right direction, even the game in Washington, other than the comeback. We’re starting to do some things characteristic of last year, but this is this year’s group. We’ll still find our way and evolve as we go,” he added.

It was a type of period that the team can build upon and have some confidence in with two games remaining on the homestand in Winnipeg and Toronto, where they will need to bring that same defensive structure.

POWERPLAY:

As noted, the Kings went 1-for-4 on the powerplay, while Tampa went 0-for-4 — the first time that’s happened to them this season.

UP NEXT:

The Kings will have Wednesday off before hosting the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday. Puck drop is set for 7:30 pm PT.

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