***LA Kings @ St. Louis Blues GDT Saturday 1/23/21 5:00pm on FSW***
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Official Game Day Thread
Game #5/56 -- 1/23/21
Los Angeles Kings @ St. Louis Blues
Enterprise Center | St. Louis, MO
Last Season’s Meetings:
12/23/19 — Blues 4, Kings 1
10/24/19 — Kings 2, Blues 5
**GAME TIME - 5:00 PM**
TV:**Fox Sports West**
Radio: LA Kings iHeartRadio app
Please remember, DO NOT post links to Live Game Streams in the GDT or anywhere else on LGK
Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe, & Todd McClellan Post Game Quotes 1/19/21
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Anze Kopitar
On his thoughts on the team’s response and coming back to win:
It’s not the start that we wanted, obviously, getting scored on early in the game again, but it showed character. Going down two against a team like Colorado, it’s not the easiest ask to shut them down the rest of the game and score a few goals. I thought we showed quite a bit of character today. Obviously there’s still a few things we can improve on, but we’ll take the win and go from here on out.
On if the 5-on-3 power-play goal was the turning point tonight:
Yeah, I think so. Having extended 5-on-3 time is big, and nowadays you have to score, otherwise you fall behind, especially being a 2-0 game. Making it 2-1 was big. After that, Gabe got a beautiful goal off the halfwall. The power play was huge today.
On the resolve the Kings showed in coming back tonight:
Even though we got a couple points in the first couple games, blowing the 3-1 leads it felt like a [regulation] loss. We’ll take the points and to get the first W on the board was big. Now, we’ve got to build on that and keep on rolling.
Adrian Kempe
On the mental toughness shown by the Kings in tonight’s game:
They came out with the same start as last game, they were flying, and [it felt like] we were waiting to see what was going to happen in the first period. Quick was on his head a couple of times and saved us there and I think we really bounced back in the second period. In the third, I think we were trying to manage the game well, get pucks deep and get in on the forecheck, and I think we did that well. We ended up with a goal, so that was a huge win for us, and for our confidence.
On his game-winning goal:
I think we had a pretty good shift in the [offensive] zone, Kopi was flying on the outside and I tried to present myself in front of the net, waiting to see if the [defenseman] got it, but it ended up rolling away from the D and Kopi obviously made a hell of a play to me. It was nice, and it’s what I expect from him.
On Jonathan Quick’s performance tonight:
He was awesome. Like I said, he was standing on his head a couple of times. He’s given us a chance to win every game, him and Cal, he was phenomenal tonight. We’re looking forward to seeing that every night here.
Todd McLellan
On the feeling of the first win of the season:
A little bit of everything. Wasn’t a Picasso, but we don’t need the perfection right now, we just needed a win. It was an interesting battle tonight, back and forth, being hemmed in our end, then we get an opportunity and score. It was a happy night in the end, but it was a stressful night throughout.
On if he was happier with the power play tonight:
Well, the goals, definitely, and I think some of the things we put into play in practice yesterday showed up in the game today, so that’s a good sign. It means mentally, we’re trying to engage a little bit more and grab concepts and apply them. Yes, the power play was better tonight. It still has some work to do, as our whole game does, you’re probably going to hear that from me for the first half of this season, considering how short it is. It allowed us to crawl back into the game tonight and we’re happy for that.
On if he’d attribute suppressing Colorado in the second half more to the change in defensive pairings, or overall play:
I think the change helped. We were getting caught on the ice for some fairly long shifts, whether it was them hemming us in or us trying to extend a shift, maybe looking for some offense that wasn’t there early in the game. Even late into the second, we were still doing that. I thought we managed shift length a little bit better, we played as a fresher team and that’s the only way you can play against that team with the pace and the skill they come at you with.
On cleaning up the penalties, and rolling lines a bit more:
It was much better than it had been, in terms of the parade to the box, we cleaned some of that up. I don’t think we’re going to play a perfect, penalty free game, those are rare in the league, so by cutting it down, it helped. [Grundstrom] played five minutes the other night, today he had almost 11, and he had a chance to contribute to the team’s success. So did Amadio, so did Moore and the other three lines got to roll a little bit more. Let’s face it, we need 20 [players] a night to win. There’s some teams that can probably get by with 15 but we need 20 a night.
On his thoughts on the team’s response and coming back to win:
It’s not the start that we wanted, obviously, getting scored on early in the game again, but it showed character. Going down two against a team like Colorado, it’s not the easiest ask to shut them down the rest of the game and score a few goals. I thought we showed quite a bit of character today. Obviously there’s still a few things we can improve on, but we’ll take the win and go from here on out.
On if the 5-on-3 power-play goal was the turning point tonight:
Yeah, I think so. Having extended 5-on-3 time is big, and nowadays you have to score, otherwise you fall behind, especially being a 2-0 game. Making it 2-1 was big. After that, Gabe got a beautiful goal off the halfwall. The power play was huge today.
On the resolve the Kings showed in coming back tonight:
Even though we got a couple points in the first couple games, blowing the 3-1 leads it felt like a [regulation] loss. We’ll take the points and to get the first W on the board was big. Now, we’ve got to build on that and keep on rolling.
Adrian Kempe
On the mental toughness shown by the Kings in tonight’s game:
They came out with the same start as last game, they were flying, and [it felt like] we were waiting to see what was going to happen in the first period. Quick was on his head a couple of times and saved us there and I think we really bounced back in the second period. In the third, I think we were trying to manage the game well, get pucks deep and get in on the forecheck, and I think we did that well. We ended up with a goal, so that was a huge win for us, and for our confidence.
On his game-winning goal:
I think we had a pretty good shift in the [offensive] zone, Kopi was flying on the outside and I tried to present myself in front of the net, waiting to see if the [defenseman] got it, but it ended up rolling away from the D and Kopi obviously made a hell of a play to me. It was nice, and it’s what I expect from him.
On Jonathan Quick’s performance tonight:
He was awesome. Like I said, he was standing on his head a couple of times. He’s given us a chance to win every game, him and Cal, he was phenomenal tonight. We’re looking forward to seeing that every night here.
Todd McLellan
On the feeling of the first win of the season:
A little bit of everything. Wasn’t a Picasso, but we don’t need the perfection right now, we just needed a win. It was an interesting battle tonight, back and forth, being hemmed in our end, then we get an opportunity and score. It was a happy night in the end, but it was a stressful night throughout.
On if he was happier with the power play tonight:
Well, the goals, definitely, and I think some of the things we put into play in practice yesterday showed up in the game today, so that’s a good sign. It means mentally, we’re trying to engage a little bit more and grab concepts and apply them. Yes, the power play was better tonight. It still has some work to do, as our whole game does, you’re probably going to hear that from me for the first half of this season, considering how short it is. It allowed us to crawl back into the game tonight and we’re happy for that.
On if he’d attribute suppressing Colorado in the second half more to the change in defensive pairings, or overall play:
I think the change helped. We were getting caught on the ice for some fairly long shifts, whether it was them hemming us in or us trying to extend a shift, maybe looking for some offense that wasn’t there early in the game. Even late into the second, we were still doing that. I thought we managed shift length a little bit better, we played as a fresher team and that’s the only way you can play against that team with the pace and the skill they come at you with.
On cleaning up the penalties, and rolling lines a bit more:
It was much better than it had been, in terms of the parade to the box, we cleaned some of that up. I don’t think we’re going to play a perfect, penalty free game, those are rare in the league, so by cutting it down, it helped. [Grundstrom] played five minutes the other night, today he had almost 11, and he had a chance to contribute to the team’s success. So did Amadio, so did Moore and the other three lines got to roll a little bit more. Let’s face it, we need 20 [players] a night to win. There’s some teams that can probably get by with 15 but we need 20 a night.
Subject To Change
FORWARDS
Kings Injuries/Unfit to Play*
Martin Frk
Matt Luff
Alex Turcotte
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Blues Probable Lineup
(courtesy of www2.dailyfaceoff.com)
FORWARDS
Former Kings
Kyle Clifford
Brayden Schenn
_________________________________________
GOALIE COMPARISONS
PLAYER STATS
HONDA WEST DIVISION STANDINGS
This Season’s Poll Question Game:
Due to the uncertainty of this upcoming season and only interdivisional play, the Poll Question is going to be the SAME for every game — at least to start out - I think I’ll make other questions once we’ve played each team a few times.
Which player is going to score the FIRST goal for the Kings?
and
Which player is going to score the FIRST goal for the Avalanche?
SHOOTOUT GOALS WILL NOT COUNT (in the case of a 0-0 tie)
(2 points available per game)
**You can take 3 guesses per team**
You may also guess “no goals” for either or both teams as one of your 3 guesses.
Take your best guesses in your post below. Edits to your “guess” post WILL be allowed up until puck drop time. I will make every effort to list the correct lineups by the time of puck drop, but I make no guarantees that my lineups will be correct.
The only prize is the glory of seeing your name in the next GDT if you get it right.
Previous Game’s Winners
Congratulations to the following posters including our only poster Dr. Tran who got both first goal scorers in Doughty and Rantanen :
Both:
Dr. Tran
Doughty:
Ecktore
Rantanen:
CIrvine
notbob
DRGinLBC
LAKingSteve
Rusty
Histiking
VegasHockey
KHenry14
hokiecat
cokingsfan
TooCool
LeftyKing
Poll Win Totals
King Of The Mountain with 4 points:
Rusty
3 points
Chateau Bow Wow
cokingsfan
DRGinLBC
Dr. Tran
hokiecat
2 points
05/29/93
AngelEyes
CIrvine
dannybuoy1
JayWells24
Joe Lavigueur
LAKingSteve
Liz4LA
MaxwellSmart
NobleSavage
notbob
pray4mojo
TooCool
VegasHockey
VCRW
waynet
1 point
Ecktore
Helvetica
Histiking
Ice24
jammer06
John a90
jom
KHenry14
LeftyKing
Nyssa42
Puckmaster
Ragbone
Rogie-Vachon
Sevenhole
srm1105
STONE
Stormy2213
Zombitar
***Bet your karma in geogirl’s KARMA BETTING THREAD HERE***
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Photos courtesy of nhl.com.