4 notes and takeaways from the LA Kings win over the Minnesota Wild
The Los Angeles Kings continue to be one of the toughest teams in the NHL to get a read on. They will lose to teams like the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks, who rank near the bottom of the NHL in points, but beat teams like the Vegas Golden Knights.
On Tuesday night, they played a Minnesota Wild team that entering the game was tied for third in points at 18 and one of two teams with only one loss. However, that changed as the Los Angeles Kings would come away with a 5-1 win on the road after a rather slow start.
The Kings seemed sluggish to begin the game and were out-shot by the Wild at one point 17 to 7 but were able to continue to hang around into the second period. Zach Bogosian would get the scoring started for the Wild but from that point on it was all Kings as they would score four straight goals.
In the second period, it would be Warren Foegele and Kevin Fiala to give the Kings the lead going into the third with each scoring a goal. The Kings have struggled at times in the third but not against the Wild as Trevor Lewis would add two goals and Quinton Byfield would score the first goal of the season for him.
The Kings have now moved to 8-3-3 on the season and will head home for a game Thursday night against the Vancouver Canucks. These are some notes and takeaways from the game Tuesday night.
Andre Lee surprise replacement on Anze Kopitar's line but didn't last long
The Los Angeles Kings had to make some changes after Alex Turcotte left the game against the Nashville Predators early with an injury. Jim Hiller didn't seem overly concerned about the injury but Turcotte was not ready for tonight.
The Kings had some options to replace Turcotte as Alex Laferriere began the season in that left wing spot and then he was replaced by Quinton Byfield, who spent last season on that line, when they shuffled their lines. Both would have been logical with their familiarity to the spot however Hiller decided to give Andre Lee the opportunity.
The thought process for Hiller probably was to avoid disrupting the other lines but Lee averaged less than 10 minutes of ice time per game. However, the experiment didn't seem to last long as the Kings would shuffle the lines coming out in the second period and Fiala moved up to the top line with Akil Thomas replacing him on the second line.
Kings began the 2nd with their wingers shuffled:
— Jared Shafran (@ShafReign) November 6, 2024
Kempe - Kopitar - Fiala
Thomas - Danault - Moore
Foegele - Byfield - Laferriere
Jeannot - Lewis - Lee
Quinton Byfield with great pass to set up first Los Angeles Kings goal
Quinton Byfield has the talent to be one of the top players on the Los Angeles Kings but hasn't shown it much to begin the season. However, the Kings first goal showed why that belief remains that Byfield can be a difference maker.
The play started with Mikey Anderson getting the puck into the zone and Byfield was able to use his speed to track down the puck. He was able to control it and pass it back to the front of the net to Alex Laferriere who wasn't able to get the goal due to a great save by Filip Gustavsson. However, Warren Foegele was there to clean it up and get the first goal of the game for the Kings.
Foegs on the cleanup crew 🧹 pic.twitter.com/t1rSGWHXcO
— LA Kings (@LAKings) November 6, 2024
In addition to the assist, it is great to see Byfield shooting more recently with 10 shots in the past three games after zero in the three games prior to that. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that on a night he has a season-high in shots with five, he finally scores his first goal. Fans have been wanting to see him shot more and hopefully this trend continues for the former first-round pick.
Kevin Fiala has been playing great since being a healthy scratch
Kevin Fiala had a really tough stretch earlier this season that included a bad penalty late in the first game against the San Jose Sharks. He would then be benched in the next game after another ugly penalty and then was a healthy scratch after missing a team meeting.
However, since returning to the lineup Kevin Fiala has been playing incredible and continued that level of play against the Minnesota Wild with a power play goal in the second. He now has six points in four games and it has been great to see him bounce back for the Los Angeles Kings.
David Rittich comes up big against the Minnesota Wild
With back-to-back road games, the Los Angeles Kings were almost certainly going to have Darcy Kuemper and David Rittich split the responsibilities in these games. Based on the opponents, and considering the Wild are the better team right now compared to the Predators, I expected Rittich to start the first game and Kuemper to play against the Wild.
However, Jim Hiller decided to flip that and it worked out really well for the Kings as Darcy Kuemper got the shutout against the Predators and Rittich had an equally impressive performance. While he did give up one goal, the Minnesota Wild entered Tuesday in the Top 10 in goals scored per game.
This would actually end up being the first game all season that the Wild had fewer than two goals and tonight was easily David Rittich's best performance of the season.
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