The Kings closed out their four-game home stand on Wednesday night against the Buffalo Sabres. A pregame ceremony was also held in honor of Anze Kopitar, who has hit multiple franchise and individual milestones this season.
Once the game began, it couldn’t have started any better. It took just 2:55 for the Kings offense to get on the board and it came from no other than Kopitar himself. Driving to the back post, Kopitar was fed by Adrian Kempe and lifted the puck passed a sprawling Devon Levi for his 15th goal of the season. It is the 15th time in Kopitar's career he has scored 15 or more goals in a season, breaking a tie with Dave Taylor (14x) and Luc Robitaille (14x) for the most such seasons in Kings history. With the goal, Kopitar registered his 40th point of the campaign (15-25=40). Kopitar becomes the 25th skater in league history to record a 40-point season 18 or more times, and is the third active skater to do so, joining Sidney Crosby (18x) and Alex Ovechkin (18x).
Following the Kopitar goal, the Sabres responded with one their own at the 5:01 mark. It then took the Kings just 23 seconds to retake the lead as Kempe put a beautifully placed puck into the Sabres net for his 16th goal of the season, snapping an eight-game goalless streak. Not done yet, the Kings struck for a third goal in the first period when Pierre-Luc Dubois netted a power-play goal on a wicked wrister with assists coming from Alex Laferriere and Brandt Clarke. The goal for Dubois was his 10th on the season and his 20th point. Clarke’s helper was his first point of the season, coming in his fifth game.
Entering the second period up 3-1, the rest of the night was all Sabres. A two-goal night from J.J Paterka combined with a goal from Jack Quinn, a game-winning goal from Alex Tuch and an insurance goal from Dylan Cozens resulted in four unanswered tallies.
With the loss, the Kings have now dropped 12 of 14 games.
Cam Talbot returned to the Kings net and stopped 32 of 37 shots.
Next up, the Kings hit the road for a three-game road trip, beginning in Colorado on Friday before the upcoming 2024 NHL All-Star break takes place in the first week of February.
