LA Kings Game 82 Plus/Minus: Juiced Up, Kopitar Excels, Bedard Sweepstakes Frontrunner

As with every game, you take the good with the bad, so time to take a look at the pluses and the minuses in the game against the Ducks for the LA Kings.

– Troy Terry Goal

What the heck was that? The Kings defense was sleepwalking through that shift, with Terry sneaking into the offensive zone completely unaccounted for.

I don’t blame Korpisalo for that one. Los Angeles has to do a better job of their defensive positioning. That’s a frustrating way to open the period, especially against a team that’s lost 12 straight coming into the final game of the season. Especially on the cusp of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

– Bedard Sweepstakes

With Thursday’s loss, the Anaheim Ducks have finished the regular season with the best odds of landing Connor Bedard, beating out Columbus and Chicago. Next month’s draft lottery will officially determine the order, but there’s a very real possibility that the Kings will have Bedard in their division for the foreseeable future.

+ Two in 49

Tied at one goal apiece at the midway point of the second period, the Kings surged ahead with two goals in 49 seconds. Adrian Kempe scored his first of three goals on the night on an odd-looking powerplay goal. Ducks’ netminder John Gibson knocked the goal off its posts but not before the officials determined that the puck had crossed the line.

Then after apply a heavy forecheck in the Ducks’ defensive zone, Trevor Moore forced a turnover, leading to a 2-on-0 rush for the Kings, with Moore making it a 3-1 lead at the end of the play. The goal marked his 10th of the season and third straight year with double-digit markers.

Moore joined some good company, with a h/t to LA Kings PR for this information:

– Ducks Rally

I suppose in any rivalry, a close game should be expected, but the Ducks came within one goal twice in the third period. Max Jones redirected Kevin Shattenkirk’s shot-pass from the point less than two minutes into the period. Trevor Zegras made it a one-goal game again late in the third off a blast from the right wing. On the positive side, all of that set the stage for Kempe to get the last laugh.

+ Thrice As Nice

Adrian Kempe loves playing the Ducks. Including Thursday’s hat trick – his fourth career hatty – Kempe has 21 points (14 goals, 7 assists) in his last 15 games against the Ducks, dating back to the COVID-shortened 2021 season. The 26-year-old came into the night with 38 goals on the year, already three more than last year’s career-best, and proceeded to smash that with three more goals.

Added, Kempe became the first Kings skater to score 40 or more goals in a season since Luc Robitaille during the 1993-94 campaign (44). He is the ninth different Kings skater to record a 40-goal season in team history.

+ Kopitar Leads The Way

With two points (1-1-2) on the night, Anze Kopitar completes the 2022-23 season as the Kings leading scorer with 74 points (28-46=74), marking the fifth consecutive season leading the club in scoring and 15th time overall, the most in team history. He joins Gordie Howe (17 times) as the only two players in NHL history to lead the same franchise in points at least 15 times.

There was a time when I believed the Kings wouldn’t be as far along in their rebuild/retool – whatever you would like to call it – if Kopitar was still leading this team in points at age 35. However, he’s continuing to play at a high level as the team has surrounded him with better talent.