After going down 3-0, the Kings showed some resilience, fighting back to bring the game within a goal, before coming up a bit short. Cal Petersen was okay but he allowed three goals on 25 shots and got lucky on Nathan MacKinnon’s shot, which would have been a pretty bad goal to give up, had it counted. He seemingly had some trouble catching pucks cleanly throughout the game. Petersen did make some good saves and didn’t have a chance on Mikko Rantanen’s goal but he still wasn’t overly impressive against the Avalanche.
Andreas Athanasiou, however, has three goals in three games with the Kings so far. His goal yesterday was excellent as well and showcased a deadly shot. Lias Andersson had some good moments in his first game with the Kings but didn’t make a huge impact overall. That said, Andersson did have under nine minutes of ice time, which isn’t much to work with.
The Kings competed relatively well against a very good team, so there are still positives takeaways from the performance. On top of that, every game has been a one-goal difference and so far, Los Angeles has been competitive and has certainly had a chance to win each game. Despite three losses to start the season, this is still a team in the midst of a rebuild and so far, they’ve been a decent team for the majority of the three games.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Were you happy with Lias Andersson's performance in his Kings debut?