LA Kings Game Notes: Kings Open Season With Win in Buffalo

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Somehow, someway the Los Angeles Kings picked up two points in a 3-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres to open their season in a game they had no business doing so. Sloppy, slow, uncoordinated, outworked, and outbattled, are all words you could use to describe the Kings’ performance for a majority of that game. 

This just goes to show you how irrelevant the preseason is, because after a preseason where the Kings came out strong and fast in the beginning, were able to use their speed to generate chances off the rush and cycle the puck in the offensive zone for extended periods of time, none of it was displayed in the first game that actually mattered. 

Los Angeles Kings Game notes
Los Angeles Kings Game notes (The Hockey Writers)

Generating offense was tough for the Kings. Puck possession and creating chances were so limited that even during the Kings’ power plays, the Sabres had the more dangerous looks. They spent a lot of time in their own end scrambling and playing desperate hockey. 

Performance aside, all signs were pointing toward a Kings loss. It was their first game of the season while it was the Sabres’ third. The Kings usually don’t fare very well when they visit Buffalo. It was the Sabres’ home opener after starting off their season 0-2 which was bound to give them an extra push. All of that considered, on top of a sluggish performance where they were severely dominated, yet somehow the Kings started off the season 1-0-0?

Kuemper Stole The Show 

Sometimes you need your goaltender to steal a game for you with a lights-out performance and in his first game back as a King, Darcy Kuemper did just that. He was the story in this one making 32 saves and finishing with a .970 save percentage. Throughout the game he stayed calm and composed, coming out to challenge, staying square, swallowing pucks, tracking pucks, and even contributing with multiple desperate saves including one on a Ryan McLeod penalty shot in the first period. The game could have gotten away from the Kings early when both Mikey Andersson and Joel Edmundson landed in the box giving the Sabres a decent amount of time on the two-man advantage but Kuemper stood tall stopping a few point-blank shots. From there on out he just continued to bail his team out chance after chance doing everything possible to hold down the fort, showing shades of 2018-19 Kuemper back when he was a member of the Arizona Coyotes. 

“One of those nights where you’re glad you have a goaltender and that’s one of those goalie wins but a win nonetheless,” head coach Jim Hiller said. “He kept us in it early, kept us in it in the middle, and he kept us in it late, so that means that it gave us a chance to stay in the game and hang around and that’s exactly what we did […] we were opportunistic and it was all because the goaltender gave us a chance to hang around.”

“Word-class stops, he definitely kept us in the game the first 40 minutes and we were able to pull one out for him,” said Anze Kopitar.

Captain Kopitar Remains Electric 

Let it be known, that Anze Kopitar doesn’t age. It’s just remarkable how dominant he has been for so many years and heading into his 19th NHL season he was the other reason the Kings were able to leave Buffalo with a win. Providing all of the offense last night, he collected his seventh career hat trick, with all three goals coming in the third period.

Alex Laferriere forechecked hard winning a puck battle against Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dhalin in the corner, before he dished one out to Kopitar who put it high glove side, tying the game at one. His second goal came on the power play with just 1:38 left to go in regulation. Kevin Fiala sent the puck down to Jordan Spence who popped it back up to Kopitar, and he let one go from the top of the left circle. Kopitar capped the night off with an empty net goal assisted by a sneaky behind-the-back pass from Quinton Byfield. The engine that is Kopitar continues to run effortlessly for the Kings. 

“There’s not a lot of guys who can do that and continue to do that year after year, it just goes to show the quality of player that he is,” Hiller said. “We needed somebody besides the goalie […] we needed to find somebody else who could also step up and it was Kopi and it often is and it has been for a long time.”

Related: Predicting the Los Angeles Kings’ 2024–25 Stats Leaders

“He’s the guy that we all look up to, he’s played in so many big games and that’s just leadership […] he’s just an incredible player,” said Kuemper. 

Penalty Kill Success Was a Bright Light

Two great individual performances are what got the job done for the Kings, but as a team, there were very few positives they are going to want to take into the next game. One of them was the penalty kill. The Kings took five penalties but managed to kill all of them, going a perfect 5/5 on the PK. It was the only thing going for them as that continued hound for the puck and aggressive style caused the Sabres to struggle setting up in the offensive zone. Keeping formation and position on the penalty kill wasn’t something that the Kings were focused on, which could have been a problem if the Sabres were able to capitalize on the space they had down low. Instead, it was pressure the opposing team up high so that they don’t have enough time to react and create. Well, it worked for them in the preseason and it worked again last night. The Kings caused many turnovers, intercepted pucks, and caused Sabres players to bobble pucks, limiting their chances. 

The Fourth Line Was the Best Line

It’s not very often a team’s fourth line is the one that spends the most time in the offensive zone, but in a game where creating offense was a struggle, Andre Lee, Alex Turcotte, and Trevor Lewis stepped up to the plate being the only line that was able to spend extended periods of time in the offensive zone. The Kings only had two rush attempts the entire game and one of them was thanks to Lee. The percentage of total scoring chances for the Kings was at 77.78% when Lee was on the ice and 60% percent when Turcotte was on the ice. No other Kings players saw a percentage that high. This was clearly the best line for the Kings offensively and what makes it even more surprising is that all three of them had the least amount of ice time with none of them cracking eight minutes of time-on-ice.

“They played well, I should have played them more […] that was really the one line that was playing some o-zone time,” Hiller said. “Those guys sure earned a lot more than they got tonight and I look forward to getting them back on the ice.”

This was the first of seven games the Kings will play on the road to kick off their season before returning to Los Angeles for their home opener against the San Jose Sharks on Oct. 24.

The Kings are back in action on Saturday in Boston to take on the Bruins in an early one. Puck drop is set for 10 am PST.

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