Todd senses “a little frustration” in Kempe, scoreless in five straight as percentages regress

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• News post

• Jon Rosen

In the latest indicator that their team game is returning to full health, the LA Kings again instituted a strong forecheck and reaped the puck possession and defensive rewards in a 2-1 overtime win over the Chicago Blackhawks similar to the teams’ meeting at United Center last week.

• Adrian Kempe
• Trevor Moore
• Blake Lizotte
• Phillip Danault

• Todd McLellan

# Trevor Moore

I don’t know if you ever really move past it. It’s always constant reminders. It kind of gets away from you at times, but I think we’ve done a good job of cleaning up a lot of the areas where maybe summer hockey got into our game.

• # Blackhawks faceoff domination

# Blake Lizotte

You have to put a lot together to actually win a faceoff. It’s not just whacking the puck – it’s reading the other guy, reading the ref, reading where you are on the ice.

# Todd McLellan

[Faceoffs are the] first indicator of how competitive the group will be. The centermen seem to wear that number, but it could be D in the D zone, it could be forwards all over the rink

# Phillip Danault

It was a tight game from both teams. Both goaltenders played unbelievable. That was kind of a playoff game.

• # Adrian Kempe scoreless over last 5 games

# Todd McLellan

I think [Adrian Kempe] hit two or three pieces of metal tonight, and that’s going to happen. When you’re Adrian and you’re counted on and there’s some expectations for you to score and finish and it’s not going quite going well or you, you have to be able to push that aside and play all the other parts of the game. I sense a little frustration in him, and when he gets frustrated, sometimes the other things don’t go as well either, but I think that’s a process of him learning to become a full-time goal scorer – when it doesn’t go well, there are other things you can really do well. He wasn’t a poor player by any means tonight, but there are some things he can control when it comes to frustration.

He and many others go through these phases when you’re getting a lot of chances and you’re actually shooting the puck probably pretty good. When you’re hitting that many posts and crossbars, you’re pretty darn accurate. But you have to experience it. He experienced it as he evolved as a young player when he was scoring 10 or 1 goals and in a year he went long stretches [without scoring]. This is different. Expectations are high now. And he’s getting the chances now. In the past, he didn’t get them. So, he’s got to learn to deal with it and he’ll be fine.