If the Los Angeles Kings are to have any hope of rebounding from their dreadful start, they will need Jonathan Quick to be better than he has been. On Thursday night Quick made 25 saves to help the Kings to a 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in LA.
It’s a good sign.
The Kings improved to 9-12-1.
“We want to make it hard for the opposition to come into our building,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “There’s some tough buildings to play in. This building has and will be that building again. We’re trying to create that environment, we’re trying to make it hard on teams to do what they want to do in our building.”
They are 6-1-0 in their last seven home games.
Connor McDavid had the only goal against Quick.
“I thought in the first [period], they really took it to us early,” McDavid said. “The two periods after that, we were finding our rhythm as the game went on, but we couldn’t outscore our mistakes.”
Tyler Toffoli had two strikes for LA and three points on the night.
Jeff Carter, Michael Amadio and Anze Kopitar had single markers in the win.
Carter’s goal made it 3-0 at the end of the first period.
“The goal right at the end of the first period is a poor goal to give up,” Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. “Five seconds left, we have control of the puck at the offensive blue line, and we give up a goal. That as kind of a microcosm of where we were tonight: not good enough.”
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Kings highlights]
Mike Smith got the start but was given the hook in the first intermission; he made nine saves in the first period.
“It seems like we win games and play really well, and when we lose, it’s not even close. So we’ve got to find a way to find that consistent play,” McDavid said.
Mikko Koskinen made 16 saves over the last 40 minutes of the game..
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