Talbot shuts down Leafs, gets fourth win as a King

TORONTO ❯❯ Cam Talbot made 30 saves as the Kings beat Toronto 4-1 on Tuesday night in a game in which Maple Leafs winger Wil- liam Nylander extended his season-opening point streak to a franchise record nine games.

Talbot improved to 4-2-1 in his first season with the Kings after signing a oneyear, $2 million contract as a free agent after an injuryplagued season with the Ottawa Senators limited the 36-year-old to 36 games last season.

“I never take a day for granted here,” Talbot said. “At this point in my career, all I wanted to do was get an opportunity to show that I can still play and still battle for starts.

“When I'm healthy, I feel like I'm gonna be at the top of my game like that.”

Adrian Kempe, Phillip Danault, Arthur Kaliyev and

THE SCORE

KINGS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 1

Up next: Kings at Senators, Thursday, 4 p.m., BSW

Andreas Englund scored for the Kings. Quinton Byfield added two assists.

Joining the Kings, Talbot was reunited with head coach Todd McLellan, who was behind the bench for all four of his seasons with the Edmonton Oilers from 201516 through 2018-19.

“Very competitive,” McLellan said of his netminder. “He's a little longer in the tooth like some of us, but he takes care of himself so well that he can play — and play a lot. He's hungry.”

John Tavares scored for Toronto, which was coming off a 3-1-1 road trip that finished with a 3-2 overtime loss to the Nashville Predators on Saturday. Joseph Woll stopped 23 shots.

With an assist on Tavares' goal, Nylander passed former Maple Leafs Frank Mahovlich (1961-62), Lanny McDonald (1976-77) and John Anderson (1982-83) who had eight-game point streaks.

“Every team goes through times during the year where you have a difficult schedule,” Tavares said. “With the type of team that we have, we have to recognize and understand how you have to fight through that.”

The Kings, who entered averaging an NHL-leading 4.38 goals, opened the scoring at 6:38 of the first period when Englund's shot went in off the stick of Toronto defenseman Mark Giordano. It was the journeyman's first goal in his 89th career game.

The Kings doubled their lead at 11:40 when former Maple Leafs winger Trevor Moore spun away from Timothy Liljegren down low and found Danault near the net for his second goal of the season.

Woll robbed Kaliyev five minutes into the second, but the Kings forward scored on a power play at 9:46 when he settled a bouncing puck and scored his second.

Kevin Fiala fed Kaliyev to become the third Kings player in the last 25 years to register an assist streak of at least eight games.