For the first time this season, he had an impact both in the small areas of the game and on the scoresheet. The Kings need that kind of performance again from Byfield.
You'll be hard-pressed to find a more challenging game for the Los Angeles Kings this season, taking on the reigning champion Vegas Golden Knights — who have started 7-0-1 — on game two of a back-to-back.
One thing the Kings have to improve upon is their starts. In both games this week, the Kings have surrendered the first goal early and have needed to climb back.
They made this task even more difficult on Friday, going down 4-1 within 10 minutes.
The Kings' high-powered offense was able to dig them out of that hole, but they can't expect a similar outcome against this Vegas team.
It will be interesting to see two things. One, who does Todd McLellan start in goal? The plan seemed to be Pheonix Copley starting against Arizona Friday and Cam Talbot against the Golden Knights Saturday.
However, Copley was pulled under 10 minutes in against Arizona, meaning Talbot played the majority of that game. Do they trust Copley against Vegas? Or, will they trust Talbot with, essentially, back-to-back starts?
The second thing to keep an eye on is Drew Doughty. He played a team-high 27 minutes against Arizona and you'd think Trent Yawney leans on him again Saturday.
If they need him to, can the nearly 34-year-old Doughty handle nearly 60 minutes of ice time in two days if they need him to play close to 30 minutes on Saturday?
One thing that would help the Kings a lot is Quinton Byfield carrying over his strong performance from Friday's game into Crypto.com Arena.
For the first time this season, he had an impact both in the small areas of the game and on the scoresheet. The Kings need that kind of performance again from Byfield.
Projected Los Angeles Kings Lines:
Forwards:
Quinton Byfield - Anze Kopitar - Adrian Kempe
Kevin Fiala - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Alex Laferriere
Trevor Moore - Phil Danault - Arthur Kaliyev
Carl Grundstrom - Blake Lizotte - Trevor Lewis
Defense:
Mikey Anderson - Drew Doughty
Vladislav Gavrikov - Matt Roy
Andreas Englund - Jordan Spence
Goalies:
Cam Talbot
Pheonix Copley
Projected Vegas Golden Knights Lines Per THN Vegas Site:
Forwards
Ivan Barbashev - Jack Eichel - Jonathan Marchessault
Paul Cotter - Chandler Stephenson - Mark Stone
Pavel Dorofeyev - William Karlsson - Michael Amadio
William Carrier - Brett Howden - Keegan Kolesar
Defensemen
Alec Martinez—Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb - Shea Theodore
Nicolas Hague - Kaedan Korczak
Goalies
Logan Thompson