Kopitar, Kings have celebration cut short by Bruins
LOS ANGELES » Saturday night had been earmarked to celebrate Kings captain Anze Kopitar and his record-setting tenure with the organization, but the Boston Bruins crashed the party and walked out of Crypto.com Arena with a 4-2 victory.
On the same evening that Kopitar played in his franchise-record 1,297th game and Drew Doughty competed in match No. 1100, rookie Alex Laferriere scored his first NHL goal before 25-year-old Carl Grundstrom tacked on an academic power-play goal. That effort bridged generations but did not exactly illuminate the scoreboard despite the Kings out-shooting and out-chancing Boston. Cam Talbot stopped 21 shots in defeat.
It was Boston's captain, Brad Marchand, stealing the show by producing two goals and an assist, matching the three-point outing of David Pastrnak (a goal and two assists). Morgan Geekie also tallied and former Kings defenseman Derek Forbort contributed two assists. Backup Jeremy Swayman was resplendent in goal with 32 saves.
The fanfare for Kopitar included a video montage from the man whose record he broke, his closest friend and former Kings captain Dustin Brown (who had surpassed Dave Taylor, who drafted both players as the Kings' general manager). While the tribute, which concluded with Brown jabbing that his buddy Kopitar (three years his junior) was getting old, was special, it wasn't the highlight of the night for “Kopi.”
“That was the secondbest, the best part was that my little guy (Jakob) came in here and read the starting lineup. That was pretty cool; he nailed it,” said Kopitar, whose wife Ines also surprised him by flying his father Matjaž in from Slovenia for the occasion.
Boston was mostly content to clog up the neutral zone and slow the pace in the third period, when both teams barely cracked double digits in combined shots on goal, though one was a roofbound snipe from Marchand that tolled the Kings' bell with just over two minutes to play. Grundstrom tipped in Matt Roy's shot to make the final result a bit more respectable with 72 seconds left.
Early gains gave way to lingering pains in the second period, as the Kings killed off a double-minor penalty and tied the score before surrendering a pair of goals that left them with an uphill climb at the second intermission.
The Kings solved Swayman and found their equalizer 6:28 into the stanza when Laferriere hit the blue line with speed, received a pass from Pierre-Luc Dubois and zoomed ahead for a goal from a wrist shot as he fell to one knee.
“It was great. We actually drive to the game together and I noticed today he was wearing a tie to the game. He switched it up and I'm pretty sure the tie's going to be the fashion feature,” Kopitar said. “He didn't get onto the scoresheet until tonight but he's been doing a lot of stuff right.”
Laferriere attended Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. His father Rob grew up in New Bedford, Mass. before playing most of his college career for Boston College. That tethered their fandom to the Boston sports franchises, including the Bruins, even though the younger Laferriere grew up in New Jersey.
“My dad was a Bruins fan growing up, so it was a pretty special moment,” said Laferriere of his goal.
The Laferrieres' excitement quickly transferred as the Bruins struck twice in 48 seconds to put the game out of reach for the Kings.
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Tuesday: Coyotes at Kings, 7:30 p.m., BSW