PREVIEW: Red Wings look to bounce back in Los Angeles on Saturday to conclude back-to-back set

LOS ANGELES -- The Detroit Red Wings will wrap up a back-to-back set in the Golden State when they clash with the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night.

Detroit (7-8-1; 15 points) and Los Angeles (9-6-3; 21 points) will drop the puck at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT. Broadcast coverage of Saturday’s matchup will air on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit).

“A quick turnaround,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said. “Everyone’s going to have moments in their schedule like this. We’re going to have to turn it around, but we need a really good road start similar to what we had [on Friday] and just to sustain it.”

Detroit grabbed a two-goal second-period lead before ultimately falling to the Anaheim Ducks, 6-4, on Friday. According to Lalonde, he felt his club took its foot off the gas in the middle frame, helping the Ducks climb back into the game.

“It’s hard to win in this league,” Lalonde said. “It’s extremely hard to build a two-goal lead. I think [we] just took a little bit of a breather and got a little loose with [our] game. It’s almost identical to the Pittsburgh look, where [we] started to turn some pucks over and made life hard on [ourselves]. [On Friday], we couldn’t stop the momentum like we did [on Wednesday].”

Lalonde said it was difficult to immediately assess goalie Alex Lyon’s 23-save night in Anaheim. It was Lyon’s first start with the Red Wings since Oct. 30 after being sidelined with a lower-body injury.

“I’d have to look back because obviously [Lyon] had some spectacular saves and a couple seeing-eye pucks that got through,” Lalonde said. “Hard to evaluate with some of the looks and volume they had on the power play.”

Marco Kasper was a bright spot in Friday’s loss, scoring on the power play for his first career NHL goal and recording an assist for his first career multi-point game. The 20-year-old forward became the first Red Wings skater to score his first career goal on the power play since Jonatan Berggren – who also netted a man-advantage tally on Friday -- did so on Nov. 15, 2022, in Anaheim.

“I’m happy for Marco,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. “We’re all not happy with the result. We needed to win that hockey game, and we didn’t. We were in position to win to do it, and we didn’t come through with two points.”

The Kings, who enter Saturday tied with the Calgary Flames for second in the Western Conference’s Pacific Division, dropped their second straight game on Wednesday, a 4-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

Leading the way offensively for Los Angeles this season is captain Anze Kopitar, who paces the club in both assists (15) and points (20). Adrian Kempe (7-9—16) has four points in his last three games, while Alex Laferriere (9-6—15) has four points in his last five contests.

Netminders Darcy Kuemper and David Rittich have both seen action between the pipes for the Kings this season, combining for a 2.68 goals-against average and .895 save percentage.

“The good news out of all of this is we get a chance [on Saturday] to bounce back,” Larkin said. “It’s a quick turnaround, so that’s always nice when you have a game like [Friday’s].”