**LA Kings vs. Vegas Golden Knights HOME OPENER GDT 10/11/22 7:00pm on ESPN & ESPN+**

[VCRW]

Any game in which Vilardi and Kaliyev add secondary scoring to Kempe (or Fiala) and the second line scoring should result in a Kings win.

Seems as though team defense remains more of a problem than the plays made by individual defensemen.

 

[jammer06]

Any game in which Vilardi and Kaliyev add secondary scoring to Kempe (or Fiala) and the second line scoring should result in a Kings win.

Seems as though team defense remains more of a problem than the plays made by individual defensemen.

While true, the team as a whole was badly outplayed all night. Quick was the only reason this wasn't 7-3

 

[Ice24]

It's the first game of the season, they made mistakes, Roy made numerous and Durzi made a stupid one at the end. Let's see what they do with The Kraken coming into town. I'm glad they got this one out of the way, horrible change on the first goal as Anderson watched the puck slide right by him as he was heading for a change. Just a few bad plays that a good team capitalized on. Coaches will review the game footage and the team will see their glaring mistakes. Sometimes making the fancy looking pass is not all cracked up to be as the easy get out of zone pass is all you need. It's all good, they will learn from their mistakes. I see Clarke coming in for Roy against the Kraken and not Durzi.

 

[DryKing]

Thought Anze had a really rough night. A step slow on defending three goals, though one was off that brutal line change. He was rarely close enough to support Kempe and Fiala, and I think that 5 on 5 his line only generated 3 or 4 scoring opportunities. Converted one on an excellent play by Durzi and Kopitar, but they were a disjointed unit for most of the night.

Plus, this continued lack of preparation for starting second periods really does fall on the leadership group. That is a room thing, and it happens far too often not to be addressed.

Agreed, Kopi looked really slow out there on a line with Kempe and Fiala. I don't think he played poorly, but I would like to test Danault on that line and Kopi with Vilardi on his wing (though Vilardi and Byfield looked really good together).

Totally agree on the second period start.

While true, the team as a whole was badly outplayed all night. Quick was the only reason this wasn't 7-3

I thought the Kings looks 60/40 on 5 on 5 but Vegas constantly being on the PP is what tilted the game. Agreed that Quick saved us several times and was the only reason the game wasn't a blowout.

 

[Kurisu]

Coaches? What do you want them to do in that situation? Unless you mean not having Durzi out there.

Pretty much that. In a game where we were getting handily outplayed, and were lucky to have come back twice to tie it, how was there not some better communicated strategy and line deployment in that last couple of minutes. In retrospect, why didn't we have a more defensive minded personnel group out there for the last few shifts as the clock wound down. We gave away a point and I'm just disgusted with the whole last few minutes.

 

[Illegal_Stick]

Pretty much that. In a game where we were getting handily outplayed, and were lucky to have come back twice to tie it, how was there not some better communicated strategy and line deployment in that last couple of minutes. In retrospect, why didn't we have a more defensive minded personnel group out there for the last few shifts as the clock wound down. We gave away a point and I'm just disgusted with the whole last few minutes.

i was equally annoyed with the result, but I have no problem putting a little trust in Durzi out there. He had made the great play on the goal, so he was improving within the game. Even having him behind that net should have been totally fine - it looked harmless and they were in control offensively, which is what he's good at.

 

[Helvetica]

i don't think any coach would expect Durzi to make a play that awful. I don't really know what the expectation was in that last minute. Im going to give the Kings the benefit of the doubt that the forwards were stretched high to keep the defense from collapsing, and that having all that space was a good thing. There was very little pressure, and a bunch of open space to work with, with two other guys back (if i remember correctly). All Durzi had to do was use his feet and protect the puck, and given his ability to skate the puck most of the game, everything was fine there. He simply did the one thing you don't do in that situation, and it burned them.

/EDIT - just rewatched the replay. That is all on Durzi. Im not sure what else the coach, or players, can do there. He had a guy flanking him on each side. He had the defense stretched with wingers outside the zone. And he had a single vegas forechecker coming in slowly. He had all day to make a play and a couple easy options he could have gone with. There was no need for that pass, even more so in that situation with only 30 sec left. Guy has to be smarter than that.

 

[shoot2scor]

silver linings....

Quick looked very sharp
Villardi looked great
3rd period resilience
the Kings were in position to grab 1 point maybe 2 in a game they were badly outplayed.
The Wings at Impact are actually not bad.

on to tomorrow.

 

[Nyssa42]

I felt like Durzi was trying to run the clock down to about :30 left so they could break out of the zone with enough time to make a good rush into the O zone, but not leaving VGK with time to come back to our end. It just went awry because the breakout took too long and no one else was on the same page with Durzi (except Pietrangelo, apparently). I really feel like he was expecting someone to come back into the zone closer to him.

 

[Kurisu]

That Fourth Goal
Lastly, McLellan addressed the fourth goal – the game-winning goal for Vegas last night – in more detail. While he admitted he didn’t have an answer regaring the decision making on that play, he also was quick to point out that he didn’t believe that one play was the reason for the loss, because the other 59 minutes and change weren’t up to par either.

That play was addressed, both with individuals and with the team, as detailed below –

“We cleared the air in practice, because I think that’s the monkey in the room, is what were we doing in that situation? That was a fraction of the game as a whole. So yeah, we can all wonder what the hell is going on in that situation and I don’t have the answer for you, but if anybody was sitting in their stall, including the coaches, thinking that it was the difference maker in the night, it wasn’t. There was 59 and a half other minutes that weren’t played the way they were supposed to be played.”

Also:

Todd McLellan
On the most disappointing takeaway from tonight, and the goals conceded
Well, the end result [was the most disappointing thing], because we were still in it at the end of the night, so losing a game that we got an outstanding effort by our goaltender and we still had a chance to win, still had a chance on point, really. Obviously the focus is going to be on the play at the end, which makes no sense, it’s hard to defend it, but our team gave up 51 shots on goal tonight. When you look at the night, the first goal against was just terrible game management, coming out of the penalty box and not being aware. The second one is at the back end of a power play, you have to rewind the video a little bit, we were on the power play and we negated it with the offensive zone penalty, so terrible game management there. Third one, an actual power-play goal and the fourth one was just stupidity. A lot of it is self-inflicted but you also have to give them credit. They put a lot of pressure on us and they created a lot of turnovers and a lot of pressure on our net, so we’ve got work to do.


https://lakingsinsider.com/2022/10/...-on-vilardis-speed-fourth-goal-looking-ahead/

 

[kingrussell]

Leave it to the Kings to allow the winning goal with 24 seconds left. Overall though I thought they played pretty well.

 

[empire]

Leafs Muzzin turned over the puck and the Habs win with 19 seconds left.

New D, old D, stuff happens out there.

Great game, now we play for points.