Quinton Byfield draws the toughest assignment for most of the night
There is no denying that Quinton Byfield has turned a corner as of late and has been one of the best players on the Kings roster. Entering the game Saturday, Byfield had a streak of three straight games with at least a point and five total over that stretch.
The Lightning have an exceptional top line but lack some depth as you get further down and one thought was that Jim Hiller could have Byfield and his line avoid that top line of the Lightning and take advantage of some mismatches. However, that was not the route he took as Byfield and his line spent the better part of the night going against that top line.
When considering that the Kings have centers like Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault, who are very good defensive centers, Hiller has a lot of trust in Byfield. After the game, Hiller spoke about Byfield's progression and what the plan is moving forward:
"He was learning the position defensively in the NHL all over again and he got ahead of his defensive game, got ahead of his offensive game. Now he’s scoring a little bit more, but a defensive game is really solid. We’ve thought for some time that he’s going to start taking on some of the tougher matchups. Him and Foegs are a pair, Foegs is a penalty killer, a good forechecker, checking-type player, dependable, so for us, it was a natural progression. This wasn’t just all of a sudden. We’ve had this in our mind for a while. Three of them can do it and they’ll do it on different nights."
The evolution of Quinton Byfield, combined with the increased offensive production as of late, should have fans very excited about what he can bring to this team moving forward.