Game Day Thread
Game #74/82 - 4/1/26
>>6:00pm<<
on
FanDuel
St. Louis Blues vs. Los Angeles Kings
Crypto.com Arena | Los Angeles, CA
GALAXY NIGHT
Food Drive - raffle tickets for food
**Game Time 6:00pm**
TV: FanDuel
Radio: ESPN LA app, Kings app, & Sirius
ESPNLA 710 AM
LaPrimera 1330 (Spanish)
Check Out More Articles & Video on LA Kings Insider Here
Drew Doughty & DJ Smith 3/28 Post-Game Quotes
On tonight’s performance, considering the magnitude of the game
Disappointing. We got down early, all areas of the game we weren’t ourselves tonight. It’s definitely our worst game in the last three, four weeks. As big of a moment as it was, we need more out of our guys and I’m definitely one of them.
On not having what was needed early in the game
I think they scored their first goal pretty early, and then yeah, I don’t know what it was. I felt like we were ready to go. We had a good day of rest yesterday. Really, there’s no excuses for the way we performed.
On putting this game behind them
Yeah, we’re definitely going to flush this one. I’m sure we’ll go over some video tomorrow and look at the things why we weren’t playing the way we can play. I think we already all know what those things are but we should go over them anyway and yeah, flush it down. We’ve still got, whatever, nine games remaining. We’ve got to win, take it one at a time and win everyone.
On the goals against tonight, with several coming in transition
We were one and done. We’d get it on the forecheck, they break it out and all of a sudden, it was an odd-man rush. That’s not our style of hockey, that’s not the way we play. Like I said, we’ll look at those things. They’re simple things we know. We know what to do in those situations and for whatever reason, we weren’t doing them tonight,
On not translating road performance into home games
Just have the same mentality as we have on the road. Go out there in the first period and we’re going to want the crowd into it, not take the crowd out of it, like we’re on the road, but have that same mentality. Just go out there, grind, get on the forecheck early, things will start opening up to make plays later on in the game.
D.J. Smith
On the team’s performance tonight
Flat. We just played slow. We just didn’t forecheck, didn’t play to the identity that we’ve played with and that’s fast, physical, above you. That’s a recipe for disaster tonight.
On the lack of energy and team play tonight
We had no legs, right from the get go. We made it hard on ourselves by playing East/West in the neutral zone and didn’t play fast at all. When you play that way, you allow the other team to get above you and that’s what we do to teams. They were ready right from the get go. We didn’t start on time tonight and before you know it, you’re just chipping it and changing, chipping and changing and we just simply weren’t good enough.
On the energy levels tonight and the mental impact coming into this one
You always worry about that, coming back from a trip, that the first one is maybe not as sharp. Our passing wasn’t good. We were not sharp in any facet of the game, maybe other than 10 minutes in the third period, where we played a little bit like ourselves. For whatever reason, it’s not good enough. Against a team that is fighting for the playoffs, just like us, it’s just not good enough.
On his decision to make a goaltending change and if he considered any other moves
You’re solely doing it for Darcy sake, I mean, none of it’s on him, that’s on us and that’s solely just to rest him and have him ready for the next one. That has nothing to do with him. As a whole, we just were not very good tonight. The fortunate part is, there is nine games left. We’re going to look at the tape and we’re going to ask ourselves why, in the morning, why we weren’t ready, what didn’t we do, whatever the excuse is, it really doesn’t matter. All I know is, we’ve got two huge games coming up after three days, and we’ve got to be way better than we were tonight.
On the team’s continued inability to win at home this season
You know, I don’t know what it is. Last year, we couldn’t lose here and right now, we don’t lose very much on the road. That’s in your head. I can tell you this, people say it’s luck, there’s bounces, you make your own luck in this world. You do it right long enough, things happen. We didn’t come ready to play good enough today. Whether it’s our building or the road or wherever we played this game, that isn’t good enough. We’ve got three days to figure it out and then we’ve got nine games. The one thing about this team is there’s guys that care in there. So, it’d be different if there was one or two guys that just didn’t have it. Everyone didn’t have it. Maybe a few guys up front might have had it, but when that many guys don’t have it, you’re not blaming it on anyone. You’re going to take it as a group, me included, and we’re going to, turn the page and find a way to be better for the next one. It’s got to be a playoff mentality. If you lost Game 1 in triple overtime, you can’t dwell on it, you’ve got to move on, you’ve got to get better and you have to learn from why we lost the way we lost tonight.
Lineups Courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com
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BLUES PROBABLE LINEUP
NO Former Kings
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GOALTENDING COMPARISON
WESTERN CONF WILD CARD STANDINGS
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**POLL QUESTION GAME**
Just 1 question tonight with the B2B -
What will be the GOAL DIFFERENTIAL in tonight's game?
You can take 2 guesses, 2 points for a correct guess
(goal differential is winning score minus losing score)
PREVIOUS GAME'S WINNERS
Congratulations to the following posters who correctly guessed 3 points for forwards and/or 1 point for defense.
Nobody guessed 15 combined goals over 2 games for the carry-over question:
Both (2 pts):
VegasHockey
DRice
dannybuoy1
SirJW
3 Forward (1 pt):
Rusty
1 D (1 pt):
Hockey53
AngelEyes
Birdman
Drum4Pigs
KernCoKingFan
mugs
VCRW
Guinevere
randdog
Liz4LA
The Nuts
jammer06
Chateau Bow Wow
Dr. Tran
POLL GAME WIN TOTALS
King of the Mountain - 69 points
DRice
65 points
KernCoKingFan
63 points
motolare
62 points
Angel Eyes
Cross Traffic
VegasHockey
59 points
Chateau Bow Wow
Drum4Pigs
Nyssa42
56 points
Birdman
jammer06
VCRW
55 points
Forum Gold
Rusty
54 points
dannybuoy1
53 points
Clif
mugs
pray4mojo
Rogie-Vachon
52 points
Liz4LA
SirJW
51 points
Guinevere
48 points
Hockey53
randdog
46 points
hornman
44 points
DRGinLBC
empire
HiFi
43 points
notbob
42 points
Dr. Tran
McSorleyFan
40 points
sonnyboy11
38 points
CIrvine
37 points
RoS
symbology
TooCool
28 points
beady eye
26 points
Shackleford
20 pts
ICE24
Rog or Reg?
13 points
The Nuts
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