Come off the first half of a back-to-back, switch out your goalie. That’s the plan almost universally followed in this era when stats rule and the numbers say that goaltending drops off significantly in the second game. And that was the plan followed by the Detroit Red Wings after they blew a lead or two in Anaheim Friday on the way to a 6-4 loss. So Saturday night, in net versus Los Angeles, was Cam Talbot, former LA King. Note also that he was acknowledged on the enormous new screen at the former Staples Center during one of the early breaks in the game.
The switch out thing worked until there were about two minutes left in period one late Saturday afternoon (an unusual 5pm start). That’s when Mikey Anderson put his third goal of the season behind Talbot. That one hadn’t been announced when the Kings went on a two-on-one rush with Trevor Lewis going down the right side and waiting until the last second to dish a puck over to Tanner Jeannot with Talbot in full splits but unable to get a body part on the puck. Bam! It was 2-0.
Interesting note on that second goal: aside from Lewis, the other two participants were Tanner Jeannot and Samuel Helenius, neither of whom would have been on the ice for the Kings a week ago. Jeannot was serving a three-game suspension that ended with this game. Helenius was toiling away in Ontario for the Kings’ AHL affiliate, where he has played 150 games over the past couple of years since being drafted in the second round in 2021. This was his fourth NHL game. According to a Kings media profile, he is not a scorer, but a big body who presence on the fourth line makes an impact. Kings’ coach Jim Hiller commented after the game that it was like father-like son in the Helenius family. Hiller played the senior Helenius in the minors a generation ago.
The Kings, in fact, had five players inserted who would not have been in the LA colors until lately. Jeannot and Helenius were complemented in this category by Alex Turcotte, just off of injury, and Eric Portillo, a goalie playing backup who has never appeared in an NHL game. He’s a 6’6’ Swede drafted by Buffalo in round three in 2019. He played at the University of Michigan for three years before joining the Reign last year. His rights were traded to the Kings in 2023. The last was defenseman Jacob Moverare, a call-up who has the respect of his teammates, winning their Player of the Game award as well as what Hiller described as universal acclamation from the coaching staff. Hiller complimented his game afterwards.
Period two ground to halfway with the best chance being a pressure shift in the Detroit end by LA’s Byfield line (with Foegele and Laferriere). One thing the Wings could say was that they were staying out of the box. (Against Anaheim, they had allowed two power play goals, though to be fair, they scored three.) Interesting that shortly after this, Byfield was reunited with Kopitar and Kempe on an attacking line. It might have been that Byfield was double shifted, though. A bit hard to say, but he was out there a long time and with two pairs of complementing players. Then Kopitar and Kempe appeared with Jeannot, so go figure.
Nobody scored in the second period, with the shots in the frame being 14 for the Kings (29 total) and 5 for Detroit (10 total).
Period three had one brief, thrilling moment fifteen seconds in. Adrian Kempe grabbed a puck and flew up ice, working the puck from slightly right of slot to the center, zipped a wrist shot past Talbot, and raised his hands in celebration. The crowd, which earlier in the night had had their mushy moment with the returning goalie, now chanted his name in derision, “Tallll-bottt, Talllll-bottt.” Oh how quickly that change had come.
As the period wound down, it was all about not saying “shutout” and jinxing Dave Rittich’s chances. It would be his eighth blanking in just over 200 games, but it was not to be. The Red Wings scored a beauty as Dylan Larkin received a pass in the slot, did a spin while balancing on one knee, and flung the puck low into the net.
Kempe scored an empty-net goal to make the score 4-1 as the Wings dropped their second game in two nights.
Hiller said after, “We played good, but we just gave them a little too much,” speaking of some early turnovers. He went on, “We were the fresher team. We haven’t been the fresher team often this year,” citing Detroit’s having played the night before, “but I really liked the start. That first period was probably our best period.” The reason? The effort to block shots and the goaltending in the first 20 minutes.
Hiller is looking for his top scorers—he named Byfield and Fiala in this category—to get going, especially now that Kempe has found his mojo. The Kings next play Buffalo at home Wednesday, then Seattle in a week’s time. Detroit plays San Jose, in San Jose, on Monday, a game and schedule that one of their execs sighed and called “tough” after Saturday’s loss.
