Ugly start buries Kings in loss against Penguins

LOS ANGELES — The Kings played a solid 40 minutes of hockey on Saturday night. But unfortunately for them, it was the first 20 minutes that mattered most. 

Three goals in the first period were enough to put away the Kings (5-8-2), as they dropped this one 5-2 against the Penguins (6-9-2) at Crypto.Com Arena.

“It cost us a game,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “It cost us two points tonight. I think we had a good mindset of where their team would be with regard to what they were going to bring to the table and we didn't respond to it.”

By the time the crowd had a chance to settle into their seats, the Kings were already down 2-0 in the first five minutes of the game, with both goals coming from Tommy Novak cashing in rebounds. 

A failed clear attempt by Erik Gustafsson led to a shot from the blueline that was saved by Darcy Kuemper, but Novak was left unchecked in front of the net to score the game’s first goal. A few minutes later, Mikey Anderson couldn’t handle a puck at the blue line, which sparked an odd-man rush the other way. After the original shot was saved, Scott Laughton got caught puck-watching as Novak, again, scored off the rebound with no resistance. 

“Just slow, a little sloppy,” Anderson said of the start. “I mean, it's maybe not everyone, but individual plays, like we gave up one, I don't keep a puck in three-on-two odd-man rush and they score. So those are the plays we can't have, especially knowing or had a feeling they were going to come out and give a push, and we just didn't have anything for it.”

After the second goal, Laviolette called a timeout to try and give his team a reset.

“We didn't answer their pace, we didn't answer their compete, and therefore they capitalized,” was the message that Laviolette gave to his players during the timeout. 

It appeared the timeout worked, for a moment. 

The Kings settled in and began controlling the puck and getting sustained pressure in the offensive zone, and it didn’t take long for them to break through. A shot by Anderson from the point missed the net, bounced off the glass and over the net to Corey Perry, who dropped a perfect bunt into the net to put the Kings on the board. 

“I think it's on the room not being ready to go, and it's hard to dig out of a hole when it happens that fast,” Anderson said. “We needed it, and it was an okay response after that.”

The Kings kept up the pressure until the final three minutes of the period, when Drew Doughty and Artemi Panarin each were sent to the penalty box. Doughty’s penalty was costly, as Egor Chinakhov ripped a wrist shot that banged off the side post and then off the back post so fast that the officials didn’t recognize the goal in real time. Once play ended, it was reviewed and called a good goal. 

“If you don't execute with what you're trying to do out there, it usually leads to opposition and possible runs coming back at you, possible goals coming back at you, points coming back at you,” Laviolette said. “There's definitely things that we could have controlled better out there.”

Alex Laferriere’s power-play goal made it a one-goal game just three minutes into the second period, and the Kings thought they tied it late in the period from another goal by Laferriere, but the Penguins challenged the play for offside, and it was determined that the Kings were offside before entering the zone.

Moments later, Evgeni Malkin rifled a one-timer that deflected off of Sidney Crosby and into the back of the net to put salt in the wound.

The third period was more of the same. The Kings had chances, but couldn’t convert. They outshot the Penguins 28-19 in this one, but had little to show for it because of the Penguins’ ability to limit the high-danger scoring chances. 

“The way they defend, they're more in a zone, less man-on-man, but it makes it hard to kind of get stuff there,” Anderson said. “Maybe it makes it more compact in the middle, but I think we spent too much time on the outside, maybe trying to find the right play instead of just throwing a couple of greasy ones to the net. I mean, we had some looks from plays off the wall or the corner finding a guy in tight, but I think we needed more of that to ultimately score more goals.”

Crosby then put the nail in the coffin by jumping out to a breakaway with an empty net. Gustafsson hooked Crosby out of desperation, but Crosby dove and poked the puck into the empty net. 

The Kings drop this one 5-2 after trouncing the division-rival San Jose Sharks 7-2 on Wednesday, as consistency has remained an issue for this team in the early going of the season. 

“We have to keep learning from it, but at a certain point, you have to keep owning up and get it done,” Anderson said. “You can't just keep saying ‘we're going to learn, we're going to learn.’ It's got to get better."