Things haven't been going extremely well for Jim Hiller and the Los Angeles Kings (19-16-11) in the West in the Pacific Division in this past few weeks. The Kings fell to the Vegas Golden Knights (22-11-12) in the Pacific Division on home ice on Wednesday night (Jan. 14) at Crypto.com Arena, by a score of 3-2 in overtime.
Adrian Kempe and the Los Angeles Kings fall to the Vegas Golden Knights in overtime on home ice this week
Thanks to a late third period goal from defenseman Brandt Clarke, the Kings tied the game up on the scoreboard in the final frame and sent the game into overtime. Clarke's goal was scored on a nice play made by forward Adrian Kempe to get the assist.
Defensively, the Kings had some lapses. But that didn't keep Mikey Anderson, Drew Doughty, and the Kings from fighting back defensively in the game's final frame in the third period to push the game into overtime vs. Vegas yesterday.
Kempe and Anderson gave their thoughts to the media yesterday after the frustrating and tough 3-2 overtime loss to the Golden Knights in the Pacific Division on home ice.
In the game-tying goal on the late in the third period from Clarke in clutch time in the final frame, Kempe made a beautiful play for his first assist of the game in a big moment for the Kings yesterday.
Here's a look at everything Kempe and Anderson said to the media postgame following the Kings' tough 3-2 overtime loss on home ice vs. the Golden Knights at Crypto Arena on Jan. 14.
Mikey Anderson
On the team's struggles recently in the West
"Frustrating. It’s the way it’s going. Sometimes it’s a bounce, finds a way, sometimes, we can find a way to kill a penalty, but again, we tie it at the end. We’ve just got to find a way to find a way to try and get the extra point. Right now, it’s not going our way."
On how he can be a leader and help the team move forward in the Pacific Division
"You’ve got to try and stay positive. Like you said, we’ve been playing pretty good hockey in some of these last couple games, we haven’t been giving up too much. Sometimes it’s a bad bounce, sometimes we can’t get a bounce but it’s trying to stick with it, keep everyone in a good mindset, keep doing it the right way. If you do it enough over time, I think it’s got to switch, so try and stick with it."
On his frustrations recently
"You look at where everyone is in the standings, it’s you win four games, or even two games, you can jump up four spots. You play a team in your division, feel like you play a pretty good game and the extra point can be a big difference right now. So, we’re happy to get the point, but yeah, I think everyone’s just a little frustrated. We’ve got to stay positive and keep doing it the right way, stick together and then we’ll get through it."
On if the frustrations have been similar across different games
"If we look back at the Dallas game, it’s one bounce, hits my shinpad late in the game, goes in. It’s a bad bounce, but if I find a way to block it, make sure it doesn’t get to the net, who knows? We’ve got a good group in here, guys are tight, we want to keep doing it for each other. I think we’ve been playing good, it’s just we’ve got to find a way to get through and get two points instead of one or none."
On the frustration behind the overtime losses piling up in the West for the Kings
"You look at tonight, we give one up, but Clarky scores late. Every point is huge right now. We're happy to come out and tie it to get a point. Whether you get one point, you want the second one. Everyone's competitive. We got a good group in here, guys that can play, guys that have won. It's frustrating not to get both, but again, it's good to get the one, just frustrating not to get the second."
On how much Brandt Clarke has improved this regular season
"He's been awesome. He can be a wild card sometimes. That's the way he plays. He sees it different. Makes a lot of plays. When he's feeling good, he's confident. He he makes some more plays and it's a big goal tonight. But he's he's been like that, ever since he's been here, now I think he's he's got more confidence in what he's doing. He's maybe a little more leashed to try some more things. He's big for us and he'll keep getting more and play better."
Adrian Kempe
On how the frustration is building for the Kings in recent games in the West
"Tough to say. If I knew and we knew it, we would have done something different. It's hard to say. I think we're doing the right thing still. Pretty happy with the effort, the play in the D-zone, neutral, and O-zone tonight. I think we did a good job. Hard to say exactly what it is that's not working. Clearly, it's something that's not going right for us."
On how the team is playing, despite not getting on the right side of the win column in the standings
"That's what we feel at least when we talk about the games. We reflect, go back, watch video, whatever. We look at it, we're feeling pretty good about our game and it's sometimes more frustrating. I'm no saying it's not more frustrating than if we would have not been good enough to win these games. But it is really frustrating when you come out at the bottom of almost all these games where I feel like we're playing well and we're playing good enough to win.
I can only speak for myself, but it's extremely frustrating when you don't get the points, and especially the two points. You got one tonight. I think that's okay, but it's been a lot of games where we come out with zero. It's frustrating. That's all I can say."
On the difficulties for the Kings scoring goals offensively in the West this regular season
"Looking back, compared to last year, I don't know. I haven't really checked, but I'm sure that you know the coaches check and all that kind of stuff. I feel like they would have told us if chances and stuff like that were down, but yeah, bearing down on our chances, I think it's one thing. We've been talking about, not just this year, but that we want to create more offense, and we want to play more aggressive and play more in the O-zone, not just sitting back.
I think we're doing a good job with creating chances. I don't really know what to tell you. I think we can do a better job getting down on them and maybe be a little more aggressive and stuff like that. Other than that, I can't point a finger right now on what the issue is."
On if second periods are a problem for the Kings recently
"It's been like that. I think the last couple or last three games I think we've been pretty good with coming out in the second period. I think it's been better than maybe earlier in the season. We've had really good first periods, and we bury down a couple of our chances, then you don't have to worry about the second and third as much. It's going to be up and down. We're playing really good teams. Vegas, they're in first place in the division, so we're not going to go out there and dominate them for 60 minutes. That's just the way hockey works, especially in this league. Hard to say, we got to stick with it here.
I feel like we have the right mentality going into every game. We're staying positive, and I think that's the most important thing right now that we just got to keep grinding and keep doing our thing."
On how Brandt Clarke has improved his game
"I think he's been growing ever since last year. This year, I think he's been getting better and better. He's a big part of our team and a big part of our future, and everybody, all the older guys, now we're trying to help him become that next guy, and I think he's been doing a good job taking charge out there doing his thing. He's an offensive guy, and we need him to get up there as much as possible and get as many goals as he can."