With three full days between games, the Kings engaged with the community in their local rinks tour Sunday before getting down to business on consecutive practice days in advance of Wednesday’s bout with the Buffalo Sabres.
They beat these same Sabres on opening night in Buffalo. That was a largely lackluster performance outside of Anze Kopitar’s third-period hat trick that accounted for all three Kings goals in a 3-1 win that was also aided by some acrobatics from Darcy Kuemper. Buffalo had won three of the previous four meetings, including two lopsided outcomes (7-0 and 6-0, respectively) and one of the most disappointing losses of last season, which prompted harsh comments from defenseman Drew Doughty afterward.
But it’s a new year – and in this game they’ll have neither Doughty nor Kuemper, who headline the Kings’ list of current absences – in which the Kings have not only beaten the Sabres on the road but also been outstanding at home. They’ve lost just once in regulation at home and their past three victories at Crypto.com Arena have come by identical three-goal margins, including a 4-1 hectoring of the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday. They’ll host Buffalo and then the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.
“You want to have the advantage at home and play well in front of your fans, and use all the perks of being at home to your advantage,” said defenseman Mikey Anderson, who scored a goal against Detroit. “Everyone’s happy with the way we’ve [played] so far at home, but we’ve got to keep going with it and keep getting better.”
The Kings also got Alex Turcotte back for the match against Detroit, though he was pulled from the lineup just past the midpoint of the match. As Jim Hiller revealed to Turcotte at the second intermission and to the world after the game, he had planned to drop down to 11 forwards in order to allow Turcotte to ease back into game action after missing five games with an upper-body injury.
“I totally get the whole situation,” Turcotte told Kings Insider’s Zach Dooley. “I want to play, I want to be out there all the time, but we’ve got to be smart as well. Everything went well, I feel really good, and everyone knows that.”
The Kings also averted what would have been their second three-game winless streak of the young season and now could be onto a three-game surge with a pair of winnable home games comprising their entire docket this week.
For Buffalo, three has been the magic number as a pair of three-game win streaks and two slumps of commensurate length have made up the bulk of their season. That’s allowed them to keep pace in the Atlantic Division, where six teams are separated by just three points beneath defending champion Florida and Craig Berube’s Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Sabres lost 5-2 to Philadelphia on Saturday, despite getting a goal and an assist from one of their two No. 1 overall picks on defense, Rasmus Dahlin. His 16 points put him in the top five league-wide for scoring by a defenseman, with fellow top selection Owen Power also notching 13 points.
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Up front, Tage Thompson snapped an eight-game scoring streak and then promptly began the four-gamer that he’ll carry into Wednesday’s action. In net, the Kings will most likely face 25-year-old Finn Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who has the No. 1 role despite competition from promising prospect Devon Levi.
Levi was reassigned to the minors Monday in an effort to get him more starts, while another aspiring Sabre, 2021 first-round pick Isak Rosén, was recalled to the parent club.
Buffalo at Kings
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV: FDSNW