The Los Angeles Kings continue their seven-game road trip Thursday as they visit the Philadelphia Flyers, who are looking to tighten up defensively as they return back home.
The Kings are 2-1-1 on a trek that most recently featured a 3-2 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Los Angeles led 1-0 and 2-1 in that contest on Tuesday before ultimately settling for one point as Darcy Kuemper allowed the tying goal late in regulation and the decisive tally early in overtime.
Still, Kuemper finished with 28 saves, including eight on the power play.
“Not good enough, clearly,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said. “Third periods have been our best, I think, it’s been a trend, anyway, for a while. It was not tonight. We relied on Darcy way too much.”
The Kings have lost two of three following a six-game winning streak. They yielded three goals in each of those two recent defeats after not giving up more than two goals in any game during their winning streak.
“It’s frustrating when you don’t come away with two points,” said Kings forward Adrian Kempe, who scored 33 seconds into Tuesday’s contest. “We’ll take the one point, I guess, and move on. … It could’ve gone either way. But I think, overall, maybe not our best game.”
Alex Turcotte scored the other goal for Los Angeles, giving him four goals in 26 games this season. Entering 2024-25, he had one career goal in 32 NHL games.
“He’s a skilled guy,” Kings defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov said of the 23-year-old Turcotte. “You can see that much in the game. … I think he’s making (progress) step by step and he’s earned it.”
Speaking of progress, the Flyers are hoping to begin trending in the right direction after dropping five of their previous seven games. They came back from a two-goal deficit to draw even against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday, but they ultimately fell short in a 6-4 decision.
“No matter what, we’re going to battle hard,” veteran forward Sean Couturier said.
Flyers coach John Tortorella would like to see a much more complete effort.
“I don’t think we played well,” Tortorella said. “We crawled back in it, which was good. But we didn’t spend enough time in the offensive zone. I don’t think we played well to get the puck back. I don’t think we played well.”
Owen Tippett has been an offensive bright spot of late with five goals in seven games this month. On the other hand, Samuel Ersson has allowed at least three goals in each of his past six games.
“Now that the game’s over, you’ve got to get home and get some rest and get ready to go,” Tippett said. “It’s nice to get back at it after a loss and turn the table quick.”
The teams split their two meetings last season with each winning on the other’s home ice. They will reunite in Los Angeles on Dec. 29.
–Field Level Media
