FINAL - Kings 5, Blues 1 - Grundstrom, McLellan - LA Kings Insider

Last updated Nov 2, 2022 Edit Source

• News post

• Zach Dooley

The LA Kings skated to a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues to begin a three-game road trip against Central Division opposition.

• Carl Grundstrom
• Kevin Fiala
• Rasmus Kupari

• Todd McLellan

# Carl Grundstrom

I think we played pretty well against Toronto and we had a couple of chances, so tonight we just tried to build on that. It was nice to get two goals tonight.

I think we all want to play fast, make plays and go to the net. I think it’s been a well-balanced line so far.

Honestly [Kevin Fiala] just has a really high skill level, he has great hands and great vision. I just try to stay open when he has the puck.

Yeah, absolutely. We’ve just got to play our game, play tighter defensively and that’s what’s happened over these last couple of games. If we can keep doing that, we will be fine.

# Todd McLellan

It has for a couple of nights now – We’ll get some rest and we’ll see what happens in Dallas, but for the moment, yes. I knew we were going to have our hands full, they were obviously not very happy with our game just as we weren’t a few games ago. I liked the way we started, I liked the way we stuck with things, I think we checked our way to some goals, which was really important. Down the stretch, the penalty kill came up big, I thought Quickie had a real good night. Overall, a pretty good team effort.

It makes it a lot tougher for the other team to pick and choose who they’re going to focus on. [Kevin Fiala] seems to be able to at a high level regardless of where he is. It allows [Gabe Vilardi] to play with some first-line players for a little bit. It just feels better right now, it looks better, fewer chances against for the most part. Overall, all four lines contributed.

You’ve got to take what you’re given. I think, early in the year, we were forcing some stuff and still getting rewarded. Tonight, we took what was there. Grunny didn’t have anything on his goal, he came down, fired it and it was in the net. Kup found something when he set up a goal off the backside and it’s in the net. You have to read quickly and take what’s there and our team did a better job of that tonight than we have been.

Well, we don’t want to take anybody out of the lineup, if we could dress 23 at night or 30 a night we would, but it’s just the way it works early in the season. Some guys come out just so other guys can go in. As the year goes on, there are going to be injuries, there’s going to be some upward play by people, some others that maybe don’t play quite as well and those decisions have to be made. [Carl Grundstrom] has proven himself to be a pretty effective player, he’s done a tremendous job in adapting to penalty killing this year, something he’s added to his game. We’re fortunate to have him.

Yeah, I wasn’t even aware of it. You know, the next 100 are going be a lot tougher than the first 100. I’m only worried about 101 which is tomorrow in Dallas and we’ll have our hands full there.