Eighteen good minutes, then 120 seconds
Peter Laviolette put the number on it himself. “I thought the first period was really good for 18 minutes,” the Kings head coach said after Los Angeles lost their preseason opener 4-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California. The other two minutes decided the period.
Nothing had been scored until then. Villiam Kmec wound up and fired a slap shot inside Anton Forsberg’s far post for the first goal of the preseason against Los Angeles. Then, inside the final minute, an ill-timed Kings line change handed Vegas a 3-on-0 rush the other way and Raphael Lavoie finished it. Two goals, one period, no warning.
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The middle period the Kings wanted
Los Angeles climbed back exactly the way Laviolette had asked at the intermission. Kenny Connors beat a defenceman down the left wing, carried the odd-man rush into the offensive zone, delayed with composure and slid the puck to Andre Lee in the slot for a one-timer.
Midway through the period Cole Guttman got a step behind the Vegas defence. Adin Hill stopped his move back to the forehand, but Lane Pederson followed the play and buried the rebound for his first goal in a Kings shirt. At 2-2 the game looked genuinely open.
It turned again with just over five minutes left in regulation. Jackson Hallum built speed down the right wing, worked into the bottom of the left circle and beat Forsberg from close range. An empty-netter finished the scoring at 4-2.
What a preseason opener is actually for
Very little of this roster will be on the ice for opening night, and Laviolette said so himself. “There’s a lot of new bodies in there and different faces from what you’ll see on opening night. I was happy with the effort. I thought they played hard.”
His one substantive complaint was discipline. “I thought we took too many penalties, there were penalties that we just didn’t need to take. Penalty kill was real good inside of that.” Playing in the home rink of the AHL’s Ontario Reign also gave several fringe players a crowd that already knew them. The Kings take Sunday off and return to training camp on Monday, with three more preseason games left before results start counting.
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