In Los Angeles, the Kings stood around and watched the visiting Nashville Predators erase a 1-4 deficit in the third period on Saturday.
Fortunately, Alex Iafallo struck for the game-winner with 59 seconds left in regulation for LA.
“I think there’s a lot of work to be done in learning how to win again,” said Los Angeles forward Dustin Brown, who had a goal and two assists. “And what I mean by that is, for whatever reason we kind of sat back on our leads. I think we maybe took our foot off the gas, and then our forecheck doesn’t work and our neutral zone doesn’t work, and then we’re playing D zone.”
Jack Campbell made 28 saves in the win.
Matt Duchene scored on the power play for the Preds.
Ilya Kovalchuk, Anze Kopitar and Michael Amadio had multi-point games with a goal each and assist each.
“We want to be what we saw for the first two periods,” LA head coach Todd McLellan said. “We’re accomplishing things as a team. We’re starting to develop our identity. We slip back a little bit every now and then, and that’s why there is so much inconsistency in our game. But once we get it and everybody buys in for a full 60 (minutes), we’ll be fine.”
Viktor Arvidsson, Duchene and Colton Sissons rallied the Predators back in the third period.
“There’s lots of good things in the third we can build on, but we shot ourselves in the foot. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit. They were the better team through 40 minutes. They pushed us around a little bit,” Duchene said.
Brown had an empty net goal for the Kings and Drew Doughty potted a goal in the empty net as Nashville was pulling its goalie.
Mikael Granlund also scored for the Preds.
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Kings highlights]
Juuse Saros made 31 saves in the loss.
“It’s a good wake-up call for us this early in the season,” Duchene said. “I think that was our worst game of the year.”
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