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The Los Angeles Kings earned their first win of the season last night, defeating the Winnipeg Jets 5-1.
The game also marked Pierre-Luc Dubois’ return to Winnipeg following the offseason trade, while Arthur Kaliyev also suited up for his first game of the year (playing alongside Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore), following his suspension.
The Kings had an early power play, but it was the Jets who had the better opportunities, as both Adrian Kempe and Jordan Spence lost pucks at the opposing blue line, resulting in rush chances the other way (including a breakaway for ex-King Rasmus Kupari). It was a messy first few minutes, and a power play for Winnipeg followed, but Cam Talbot managed to keep the game scoreless, and got a bit of help from the crossbar on a shot from Josh Morrissey. The play did start to even out a bit later in the frame, but it was far from the Kings’ best period.
Los Angeles came out better in the second frame though, and then killed off an early penalty. Then despite not a ton of chances being exchanged in the first half of the period, the Kings ended up on a power play of their own midway through the period. There, they were able to sustain quite a bit of pressure, and none other than Pierre-Luc Dubois buried a rebound against his former team, opening the scoring with his first goal as a King to a chorus of boos.
The teams traded some power plays after that, and things got chippy, as Andreas Englund ended up dropping the gloves with Dylan Samberg after a hit on Cole Perfetti, before a scrum broke out later. Then with a few minutes to go, Trevor Moore managed to extend the Kings’ lead to 2-0, beating Connor Hellebuyck off a pass to the front of the net from Phillip Danault. By the end of the period, the Kings had outshot Winnipeg by a 12-4 margin in the middle frame, in what was a pretty huge recovery period
The third line continued pressing in the third period, and struck only three minutes in, with Arthur Kaliyev finishing off a good pass to the front of the net from Trevor Moore. Then later in the frame, Moore picked up his second goal of the game with a great shot, extending the lead to 4-0. The Kings weren’t done there, and Phillip Danault managed to beat Hellebuyck on a power play with a few minutes remaining, making it a five-goal lead. While Mark Scheifele managed to spoil the shutout with about a minute left, the Kings still picked up the 5-1 win.
Despite a messy first period where things didn’t look great, the Kings responded to put together a really strong back 40 minutes.
Through the second and third periods combined, the Kings managed to hold Winnipeg to just 13 shots. That said, while the Kings’ goaltending is absolutely a point of concern, Cam Talbot’s performance last night at least helped to quiet those concerns a little. If not for a really strong first period from Talbot, the Kings would’ve found themselves down, possibly in a multi-goal hole. The score may not represent how crucial Talbot’s performance was to the game, but he deserves a lot of credit.
The third line was obviously the standout on a production-front for the King as ell, with Trevor Moore, Phillip Danault and Arthur Kaliyev combining for four of the Kings‘ five goals. Especially for Kaliyev’s first game back, it instills confidence that this is a line that can have a lot of success, with Viktor Arvidsson out for a while.
Pierre-Luc Dubois was also booed throughout the night as expected, so it was great to see him score his first goal with the Kings in that fashion.
On the other side of the ice, you have to feel for Gabriel Vilardi, who went down awkwardly for the Jets and left the game. He’s expected to miss 4-6 weeks, and especially given his injury history, it’s a really tough break.
So despite a bit of a rocky start, the Kings put together a really strong game overall for their first win of the year. They’ll be back in action tomorrow, when they face the Minnesota Wild.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
- Kings assign Brandt Clarke to AHL and extend McLellan, Kaliyev suspended
- Kings announce season-opening roster
- Kings fall to Avalanche in season opener
- Kings battle back against Hurricanes, lose in marathon shootout 
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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