2 big overreactions after the LA Kings shootout win v. Vegas

The Los Angeles Kings gave their fans a thriller in T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas last night in a 6-5 shootout win over the Golden Knights on Oct. 8. Trevor Moore and the Kings battled back in clutch time in the third period to push the game into overtime, resulting in a shootout win for head coach Jim Hiller and his team for the first time this regular season this fall.

Anton Forsberg and Trevor Moore lead the Los Angeles Kings to an exciting shootout win vs. Vegas

Thanks to two quick goals from Quinton Byfield and Andrei Kuzmenko with the Kings' top six forward lines with the core, LA jumped out to an early 2-0 lead over the Golden Knights early in the opening frame yesterday. The Golden Knights battled back, scoring five of the game's next seven goals to eventually jump out to a multi-goal lead (5-3) going into the game's final 10 minutes in the third period.

Anton Forsberg stood tall while Adrian Kempe and Moore scored in the shootout to lift the Kings past the Golden Knights for the first time this season.

Here are two big overreactions after the Kings' thrilling 6-5 shootout win in the regular season road opener over the Golden Knights on Oct. 8.

Trevor Moore will rebound and score 35 goals this season

Vegas held a multi-goal lead in the middle of the third period in the final frame and it looked like the Knights had the momentum in its favor late in the game. Moore blazing past the Golden Knights' defensemen to get the puck and put it past Hill in net for Vegas was exactly what the Kings needed late in the third period last night when the team was shorthanded and down by two goals on the scoreboard.

"That one gave us a chance, because we’re shorthanded again too, right? So now you’re looking at the clock, you’ve got to kill the penalty, hopefully, and then you’re still down by two. That brought a lot of life onto the bench, for sure."

Jim Hiller on Trevor Moore

Moore was a crucial part of the Kings' efforts late in the game in clutch time. Not only did he score the shorthanded goal that opened the door for the Kings to come back late in the third period in the final frame last night, but he also scored the game-winning shootout goal for LA against the Golden Knights.

In the regular season's first three games, Moore ranks third among the Kings' forwards in scoring chances (13) and high-danger scoring chances (4), per Natural Stat Trick. Moore is generating a lot of chances for the Kings, and he scored a key shorthanded goal yesterday that was critical in the LA comeback win in the third period and a shootout in Vegas.

The Kings blue-line defense is doomed

Mistakes nearly doomed the Kings to two straight losses opening up the 2025-26 regular season this fall. The Kings gave up at least one goal off of defensive zone giveaways/turnovers in each of the regular season's first two games early this week.

In the past two games this week, Drew Doughty and the Kings' defense were burned at times on special teams on the penalty kill and on odd-man rushes.

Hiller didn't have much to say in the way of anything positive regarding the Kings' defensive pairing of Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci after the season-opening convincing loss to Colorado on Tuesday night.

"I thought they were fine. If you look at the goals, we came back into the D-zone, we didn’t stop once, and close the middle, that’s not on either defenseman. The other one was a seeing-eye shot a little bit, Malinski’s goal, and then you got Necas on the power play. So there wasn’t a player that missed an assignment, there was a couple as a group where we missed an assignment, we had two or three guys not stopped in front of the net, disappointed in that."

Hiller

The pairing of Dumoulin and Ceci on the blue line for the defensive group for the Kings has allowed eight high-danger scoring chances in the defensive zone this season, leading the NHL.

Hiller has continued to play Doughty with very heavy ice time in the season's first two games this week. Doughty leads the Kings in average ice time through two games this season, including playing over 25 minutes on the ice last night in the win over the Golden Knights.

This fall is the first time since 2019 that the Kings allowed at least nine goals in the first two games of the regular season (2019-20 season).