Coming in and posting a dominant victory over one of the league's premier teams is the perfect way to start a road trip and that's exactly what the Los Angeles Kings did in their 4-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Coming in and posting a dominant victory over one of the league's premier teams is the perfect way to start a road trip and that's exactly what the Los Angeles Kings did in their 4-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Kings went out to an early lead through an Andreas Englund goal — the first of his Kings and NHL career — and a goal from Phil Danault.
They continued their dominance into the second, extending their lead to 3-1 through an Arthur Kaliyev power-play tally.
The teams then traded goals in the third, one from John Tavares on the power play to get the Leafs on the board, then an insurance goal from Adrian Kempe.
It was a dominant performance from the Kings. They finished with 61% of the scoring chances for and 53% of the high-danger chances for while also winning the expected goals battle.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Kings Finally Start Well:
A big thing Todd McLellan has talked about this season is the Kings' inability to start strong. Well, he'll certainly be pleased with the team's first-period performance on Tuesday.
The Kings came out of the gates flying and instantly put the Leafs on their heels.
Even though Kevin Fiala took a penalty early, the Kings still held all the momentum, allowing zero shots on that first kill.
Englund then found the net just a few seconds after the penalty expired and the route was on.
The Kings ended the first period with a shot, chance and goal advantage after a dominant 20 minutes.
Trevor Moore on Top of His Game:
Now healthy and done with his concussion issues, Trevor Moore looks better than he ever has in the NHL.
He's brought his point total to eight in nine games, including a team-leading five goals.
McLellan often refers to Moore's ability to escape as his best quality and we saw that on full display Tuesday.
His assist on Danault's goal was a fantastic example of this skill. He spun away from his defender to create space before dishing a great pass over to Danault for an easy finish.
He made a similar play a few more times without getting a point, but he was all over Toronto's defense all night.
If Moore can sustain this level of play and, somewhere near the production, the Kings add another game-changing forward to the mix.
Penalty Problems:
The one negative from this game is a slight lack of discipline from the Kings.
Fiala, in particular, took two stick infraction penalties in the neutral zone that were unnecessary and a bit lazy.
That has always been an issue for Fiala and something he needs to clean up. Of course, his team-leading 12 points makes it a little easier to ignore that shortcoming.
The Kings' too many men penalty which led to Toronto's lone goal was also an unnecessary one.
McLellan talks a lot about the importance of game management and the Kings failed in that department on that occasion.
Overall, the Kings were more than good enough in this game for it not to matter, aided by a strong performance from the penalty kill. But they can't make a habit of needless penalties.