FINAL – Kings 4, Golden Knights 2 – Iafallo, Danault, Arvidsson, McLellan

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• News post

• Zach Dooley

The LA Kings extended their point streak to six games with a 4-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

• Alex Iafallo
• Phillip Danault
• Viktor Arvidsson
• Pheonix Copley

• Todd McLellan

# Phillip Danault

We haven’t been the best defensively, since the beginning of the year, but the last 10 games I think we’ve been really good. I think it starts from there. We take some pride defensively and then go in the o-zone and have some fun, do the right things, little details. By doing the right things defensively, we get more pressure in the o-zone. It’s weird to say, but that’s how it is and it’s been working.

Playing the right way, strong, win our battles, cycle, get speed. It starts with the D too, it’s three forwards, two defensemen and a goalie too.

Just sticking to the system and doing the right things until the end. No matter what the score is, I think it was 0-0 in the third period against Buffalo, and we just have to stick to the system.

# Viktor Arvidsson

Yeah, I think we played great. I think we started the game well, we were all over them at the start and I think that was that was good and the team kept it going.

Yeah, I think we won battles, and puck battles for sure. We were first on pucks tonight and we moved the puck quick and fast. It was just a good, overall effort.

[Alex Iafallo] flipped it, their D knocked it down, high stick and Phil got to it first. He chipped it to me and I was just trying to be poised and wait for Al to come into the play. I kind of saw him from behind and he finished, which was really good. [Reporter: From how far back did you Iafallo coming?] Pretty quick, yeah, I knew he was coming, I saw it develop and they forgot about him. I’m trying to look at [Phillip Danault] and wait for him to get that open space.

# Todd McLellan

I thought we played a pretty good game all night. We got ourselves in a little bit of penalty trouble and they capitalized, they’re missing some players but they’re still a damn good team and we kept that group to 16 or 17 even-strength shots. That’s not a bad night for our group. We found a way to be patient, didn’t have to open it up, in the past that’s got us in trouble against that team, where we get loose and we get into a track meet.

I was impressed with our group the way we played early. We were fast, we executed well, our passing was crisp, we worked into position. Let’s call it what it is, [coming out of a break] it’s usually pretty or ugly and you have your fingers crossed that pretty shows up and that was the case for us in the first period. If you recall a year ago coming back, it was ugly against Vegas, so maybe somewhere in the back of their minds they remembered that. It was also a three day break versus a six or seven day break last year, so it makes a big difference.

We’re starting to mold our way into what I think we can be. When you use that word identity, we’re seeing it more often now, we understand the value of it and we’re accepting of it, which I’m not sure we were earlier. It hasn’t hurt us offensively, we still get our chances, but we’re able to stay in games longer. The game that Jonathan Quick gave us the other night and the games that [Pheonix Copley] has given us have helped us immensely to. There’s a strong belief in that right now and that makes a big difference as well.

Any save is important, but there are some that stand out. Timing, sometimes it’s the player you make the same on, somebody that’s really hot or feeling it and all of a sudden you’ve made a big save against that individual, that gives the team of boost. Sometimes it can be the type of save. There’s a lot of simple saves, but there’s the desperation one that that a goaltender makes and that gives the team a boost. We’ve seen that from [Pheonix Copley], as well as [Jonathan Quick] the other night in Arizona.

I’ve been asked that type of question a couple of times now in the last two or three weeks and I was never on that negative side. I was frustrated a few nights with our group and I might still be next week or the week after, whenever it comes again, but I didn’t feel like we were in in a funk or a disastrous situation by any means. The difference with the line of questioning right now is the expectations that sometimes the outside world has of us and we knew that was coming this year. We have 20 wins, tonight was our 20th win, we’ll take it and we have to continue to build. Last year at this time, 20 wins, we were planning the parade route. That’s the difference between 65 days and the addition of a player. I never felt we were wallowing is the word I’m looking for.