Great individual and team performances on the ice and on the scoreboard yesterday (April 4) from the likes of Adrian Kempe and Quinton Byfield helped interim head coach DJ Smith and the Los Angeles Kings (31-26-19) defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs (31-32-14) in an overtime thriller, by a score of 7-6 this weekend.
Los Angeles Kings and DJ Smith get a much-needed win on home ice over Toronto in overtime on Saturday afternoon/evening at Crypto.com Arena
A game that looked to be going against in terms of momentum from the Kings and Smith and the coaching staff yesterday on home ice ended up in LA's favor, with Byfield scoring the game-winning goal on the scoreboard in the extra frame in overtime.
The win over Toronto for Smith and the Kings keeps this team in playoff contention this upcoming potsseason in the wildcard race down the stretch this spring this regular season in the next upcoming couple of weeks.
Smith gave his reaction to the media yesterday after the Kings' stirring and up-and-down 7-6 overtime win over Toronto on home ice this weekend.
Yesteday's win over Toronto marks over 30 games this regular season in the West that the Kings have gone past regulation to overtime in the extra frame or the shootout.
Here's a look at everything Smith said to the media postgame following the Kings' thrilling 7-6 overtime win in the extra frame on Saturday afternoon (April 4) vs. the Maple Leafs.
DJ Smith
On his takeaways from the win vs. Toronto yesterday
"That’s a really weird game. We created a ton and just shot ourselves in the foot. 6-4 lead, we just made some poor decisions with the puck. But if we played great and we lost 3-2 tonight to a top goaltending display, I’d sit here and not feel any better with a moral victory. So we’re going to take that and we’re going to take the two points, and then we’re just going to throw the tape away and we’re going to move on to the next one."
On the Kings setting the league record in the NHL for the most overtime games in a season
"I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Obviously, it’s a record. In saying that, I don’t know where we are in regulation losses. We play with everybody, whoever it is, but you can sit here and chuckle about it a little bit tonight, because you win. You don’t win that game, and you’re not feeling very good. We get a day off with Easter, we got a morning skate, and then we’ve got ourselves another playoff game Monday night. We’re going to have to check harder and be more involved from the get-go."
On what the Kings could've done differently yesterday vs. Toronto
"It’s a hard one, because when you say you don’t play good, you didn’t play good in certain scenarios. Our power play could have scored, I don’t know how many. We had 13 shots we had Grade-A chances. Penalty kill would like one back, probably. Then there was just some broken plays where we turn pucks over, but there were stretches of the game where we had the puck for countless minutes, chances, rush plays.
For a team that doesn’t score a lot, we created a ton of opportunity. Now we got to tighten it up, for sure, but there’s been games, that Utah game in here, for example, where we just were no good every which way from Sunday and we were really good offensively, we weren’t good defensively so I think when you say we weren’t good, we weren’t good defensively, we were really good offensively."
On the Kings needing to play better defensively this regular season down the stretch
"We’ll the one thing about the LA Kings is, we know how to play defense. And there’s one thing you can do is tighten it up. And there’s guys back there and guys on this team that know how to play defense, and that’s something we’re going to have to address is, we got to make sure we’re giving up less. We give up 20 shots, but the grades of the chances, are they rush chances? But in saying that, again, a lot of the forwards are playing their best hockey of the year offensively right now."
On how the Kings line of Alex Laferriere-Quinton Byfield-Trevor Moore played vs. Toronto
"That line has been really good. Q gets two tonight. I mean, when your top two lines score like that, typically you win that game going away, you just don’t like the way you won. But, Lou Lamoriello told me you never critique a win. And you know, you play 10 games, the best teams in the league win six or seven times out of 10. And you critique those four losses or three losses, you start picking on the wins, before you know what you’re critiquing everything. So we’re just going to take the two, and we’re going to move on."
On how the fourth line played yesterday vs. Toronto
"They play together. They like playing with each other. I wish I could get them out there more, it’s just the special teams is what happened. When those guys play 10 minutes, we’re a pretty good team. That means we’re rolling over the bench. Guys are coming. Guys are playing faster. But when you’re down, you know you’re forced to lean on some of the big dogs a little more in saying that, the big dogs got the job done."