Kings face tough weekend
In their two wins across three games under new coach Jim Hiller, the Kings have managed to frustrate two of the most talented stars in the league, with Edmonton's Connor McDavid and New Jersey's Jack Hughes breaking their sticks on the bench in disgust.
This weekend, their backto-back set will give them the opportunity to consternate more marquee players as they visit David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins today and Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.
In Thursday's gritty, penalty-laden victory over the Devils, the season debut of Viktor Arvidsson lifted the Kings and sunk Hughes a bit. He agitated Hughes into matching minors, after which a vexed Hughes appeared to mouth “people pay to watch me play” during a war of words in the penalty boxes. After their infractions expired, Arvidsson's backcheck hindered a partial Hughes breakaway, agitating
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him further and leading to him snapping his stick.
“He's a ball of fire, and he plays with a lot of passion,” Hiller said of Arvidsson.
“He was easy to find, wasn't he? He had five shots, he led us in shots and they were chances, he was dangerous. I saw Arvy, that's Arvy,” Hiller added. “He's competitive, he found his way to the penalty box. He made that line really dangerous. It's good to have him back.”
From one of their smaller, pluckier players who missed the Kings' first 50 games to one of their bigger, more casual forwards that underperformed for most of them, Pierre-Luc Dubois was more immersed in the fight Thursday. He drew three infractions against New Jersey and nearly set up Quinton Byfield for a goal.
“He's skating. He drew three penalties, and you don't draw three penalties unless you're involved,” Hiller said of Dubois, adding that he “seemed to be finding his groove a little bit.”
While Byfield didn't convert on that chance, Dubois later assisted on his tip-in attempt turned puck recovery and shot from point-blank range produced the gamewinning goal on the power play. Byfield now has nine points in his past seven games, as he continues to show the rare mix of speed, power and supple mitts that may make him the best player from the 2020 draft class before long.
“He's a big body, he's got good hands and he's quick. One is to screen, and then two is finding loose pucks. He did both on that goal,” Hiller said.
As the Kings' fortunes have crash-landed — even with their win Thursday, they've won just five of their past 20 contests — Byfield's game has taken off, as despite missing two games he took sole possession of the team scoring lead between Dec. 31 and today's game.
That affair will pit them against the Bruins, who have lost three straight games to slip into a points tie with the surging Florida Panthers atop the Atlantic Division.