The Los Angeles Kings (16-12-9) made it known to the rest of the Pacific Division in the West yesterday that this team is ready offensively to make a statement run this regular season in the standings against the Anaheim Ducks (21-15-2). Jim Hiller and the Kings had a six-goal outburst on Saturday night (Dec. 27) in a dominant 6-1 win over the Ducks in the Pacific Division this weekend.
Jim Hiller and the Los Angeles Kings get a hat trick from Alex Laferriere in a six-goal offensive outburst in a win over the Ducks
The Kings and Hiller didn't score over two goals in the past seven games this month in early-to-mid December in the past few weeks in the West.
This is a big game for the Kings to build some offensive momentum in the West before facing the top team in the West this regular season this upcoming week against the Colorado Avalanche in late December.
Hiller gave his takeaways to the media after the commanding five-goal win offensively for the Kings in the Pacific Division on Saturday night over the Ducks from Anaheim.
Yesterday was the first time this regular season in the West that Hiller and the Kings had a player score a hat trick offensively.
Here's a look at everything Hiller said to the media postgame following the Kings' dominant 6-1 win at home over the Ducks in the Pacific Division on Dec. 27.
Jim Hiller
On the Kings scoring six goals offensively yesterday vs. Anaheim
"This felt different than the Chicago game. I know we got six against Chicago. This felt different. This felt a lot like the last couple months of last season, I thought.
I thought we put like six good shifts in a row to start the start the game. The tail end of Perry's first shift. A great play by him on that goal as well. It just felt right and so I wasn't surprised that we're able to finally score a few."
On Alex Laferriere scoring a hat trick yesterday
"He’s coming off a game against Seattle, where I thought he played really well. He had 14 [shots], sooner or later, they’ve got to start going in, and those were some nice goals tonight, too. He made some really nice plays. His line was good, complemented each other pretty well."
On the Kings getting so much offensive support from the blue line vs. Anaheim
"It's really important. You know, we're not a team that relies on one or two guys just to do some magic themselves. It it usually takes all five guys on the ice. And when you can get your defense pushing up or, making the pass, I think Eddie's sauce pass was a nice one. He had a good touch on the puck. But more than that, we kept some pretty good pucks alive and put some goody good rubber at the net from the back end. Didn't always hit the net, but some good put them under pressure and that breaks the defense down and then then you can take advantage from there."
On how the power play played on special teams yesterday vs. Anaheim
"We’ll take that one. I’m not going to say we’ve solved the whole thing quite yet, but we’ll take that one. I thought that group, in particular, with Kuzmenko and Fiala, Byfield, Clarke, Perry, I thought those guys were moving the puck pretty well. I know they scored, but I thought they were a little bit more dangerous. The other group, not quite as much, you know, but that can change game to game."
On how the Kings can build momentum offensively from the win
"We go in and play what is the best team in the league, right? So, you want to build on something, go in and beat the best team in the league in their building, that’s a big challenge. You get a game like tonight and you feel a little bit better about yourself, you go in there in the right frame of mind and see if you can’t get that done. Then, you can start building upon that area.
We haven’t had a chance this year to really string five or six in a row, and I’ve always felt like we could and that we’re going to. Maybe this is the start."
On the Kings closing out the win in the final frame in the third period
"It was a tale of two periods, right? First period was all ours, the second period was theirs. I didn’t think we skated so much in the second, we still tried to pass, first period we were passing and skating, second period, we were trying to pass, but we weren’t really skating, nor were we shooting it, we had a few opportunities. I thought we really got the game back together. Started putting pucks at the net, forechecking, skating. We still made plays but just got our legs going again, had to change the frame of mind just a little bit."