Game Day Thread
Game #62/82 - 3/7/26
>>4:00pm<<
on
FanDuel & KCAL Ch 9
Montreal Canadians vs. Los Angeles Kings
Crypto.com Arena | Los Angeles, CA
**Game Time 4:00pm**
TV: KCAL Ch 9 & FanDuel
Radio: ESPN LA app, Kings app, & Sirius
ESPNLA 710 AM
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Adrian Kempe & DJ Smith 3/5 Post-Game Quotes
On the special nature of seeing Anze Kopitar reach 1,500 NHL games
Yeah, it’s great. Coming in his last season, it’s a special year in general to play with him and hitting this milestone is pretty awesome as well. I’ve said this before, you think about yourself, how you’re getting older, and you’re not even halfway to 1,500, so it’s pretty crazy how many games he’s played, and how consistent, how good he’s been throughout these 20 years. I’m really happy and excited for him, really happy to be part of this. Hopefully we can make something good out of the last 20 games.
On the way the team played since D.J. Smith took over behind the bench
I thought we played really well. I thought the effort was there again. I thought it was there the first game against Colorado as well, so I think we kind of built off that. I think we maybe settled down and played a little bit better with the puck tonight, so I think that helped. Scoring five, should have been six, I think was good confidence booster for everybody as well. It was a good win for everybody in the room, after the change. I think this goes back to a positive group again. It was really fun.
On the goals tonight and if a game like this can propel the Kings going forward
You’ve got to get hot and you’ve got to win games, I think that’s the most important thing. If we play like we did tonight, with the effort, the way we played with the puck and off the puck, I think obviously it’s going to help us to get into good positions. Obviously you have to get hot at the right time and the window is getting smaller and smaller, so this is the time to get hot. If we keep bringing this, I think we have a good shot at it and obviously we’ll see when we get down the road.
D.J. Smith
On his first win as an NHL Head Coach in more than 800 days
You know, it was great. I’ve said all along, it wasn’t exactly the way I planned it, a good buddy mine leaving. I thought we played really hard tonight, real good start, and then we were able to finish it off. I think a lot of credit goes, obviously, to Kopi, 1,500 games and just how hard he played defensively. We’re not talking about the offensive stuff and then our veteran D were really good.
On what he liked most about the first period tonight
We came out ready. Obviously, they played back-to-back, so we wanted to jump on them right away and we did. We were physical, we forechecked, we shot some pucks. Give them credit, they pushed back hard. They’re obviously in the playoffs for a reason right now, they’ve got some guys that are making plays. That young kid back there made a lot of plays and allowed them to have a lot of pucks. But, at the end of the day, we found ways to score.
On a special night for Anze Kopitar, reaching 1,500 games in the NHL and what he’s learned about him as he’s coached him
Just talking to him as a guy, being his age and his experience. Really, I think one thing I learned about Kopi is when he comes to the rink, especially if we’re losing and not playing good, he doesn’t really want to talk about hockey. He wants to get his mind off it and get right. He’ll go in there and tell some stories, tell some jokes and things like that and I think that helps some of the guys, just sometimes when you’re down, not to think so much about the game, but tonight, he was dialed.
On getting that type of performance from Darcy Kuemper tonight
Yeah, I was standing next to [Goaltending Coach Mike Buckley] yesterday at practice and Darcy made a couple saves and he said right to me, ‘Darcy’s back’, whatever that means. Then, he starts and then away he goes, so the goalie coach knows he’s back feeling good. We don’t want to give up odd-man rushes. we shot ourselves in the foot there with a couple, but the D boxed out in front of him, then he made all the saves he had to.
On if he’ll run a few empty-net drills during practice tomorrow
I was saying that, I was thinking of giving the guys an optional tomorrow and not skating, but I think we’ll go out one guy at a time and just fire them down there. A lot of guys played a lot of minutes tonight, so tomorrow we’ll get an optional that we need and then take a crack at Montreal.
Lineups Courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com
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CANADIENS PROBABLE LINEUP
Former King
Phillip Danault
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GOALTENDING COMPARISON
PACIFIC DIVISION STANDINGS
**Bet your Karma & Win Fake Money in the VBookie Thread Here**
**POLL QUESTION GAME**
***Don't forget to play the Road Trip Game Before Monday at 1pm***
Play jcwla's Road Trip Game Here
Part 1 - How many TOTAL POINTS will be scored by all Kings who have played in 20 games or fewer in a Kings uniform this season PLUS Phillip Danault?
(if Taylor Ward plays today, it will be his 20th game this season)
You can take 3 guesses
Part 2 - Who will score the Game Winning Goal?
You can take 4 guesses per team
PREVIOUS GAME'S WINNERS
no winners to report, as last game was a 2-game question, but jammer reports
Kings goals 5
D points combined 7
Lots of people still in it for question 1, not so much for question 2
POLL GAME WIN TOTALS
King of the Mountain - 59 points
DRice
58 points
KernCoKingFan
54 points
motolare
53 points
Nyssa42
51 points
Angel Eyes
Cross Traffic
Drum4Pigs
50 points
Chateau Bow Wow
49 points
Birdman
VegasHockey
48 points
jammer06
47 points
Clif
46 points
pray4mojo
VCRW
45 points
Liz4LA
Rogie-Vachon
Rusty
44 points
Forum Gold
Guinevere
mugs
SirJW
43 points
empire
randdog
41 points
Hockey53
40 points
dannybuoy1
notbob
39 points
DRGinLBC
hornman
37 points
Dr. Tran
McSorleyFan
RoS
symbology
36 points
HiFi
33 points
sonnyboy11
TooCool
30 points
CIrvine
28 points
beady eye
26 points
Shackleford
20 pts
Rog or Reg?
19 points
ICE24
12 points
Ecktore
9 points
JC6388LAKings
6 points
kingsmen93
Rinkrat
The Nuts
3 points
JETS GARAGE
2 points
Sevenhole
1 point
DarkLeftHand
dneprovec
GO KINGS GO!!!
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