Danault & Quick Lead Kings Past Blackhawks 2-1

Sweet, sweet revenge. 

After losing to the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 in overtime seven days ago. The Los Angeles Kings returned the favor Thursday night with a 2-1 victory over the Blackhawks, in overtime. 

Jonathan Quick is hitting his stride right now. Following up his 21-save shutout Tuesday night with 28 saves on 29 shots tonight. 

Phillip Danault led the Kings' offense tonight with a goal and an assist. He blasted a one-timer past Petr Mrazek in the second period and made a nifty play in overtime to set up Kevin Fiala for the overtime game-winner.  

Fiala's goal was his 15th point of the season, tying him with Gabe Vilardi for the team lead in points. It took Fiala a few games to get going, but now that he's going, watch out.

"For the first three to four games, just like Phil Danault was last year, it's hard on those individuals to find where they fit," said Todd McLellan. "They probably don't play their games right away, they want to share everything with their teammates, and impress them. I think Kevin's playing his game now, in our system, and that's a really good thing."

The Kings sent two major assets and committed a lot of money to Fiala this summer, and it's paying off right now.

Structurally, the last two games have been great for the Kings. Settling into their 1-3-1 system and no longer getting stuck in high-flying shootouts. It's no coincidence that's come after the Kings finally got a consistent practice schedule going against. McLellan sees improvement in the structure but was quick to point out things aren't perfect. Particularly, with the powerplay. 

"It (practice) helps a lot," said McLellan. "If I was you, the next question I would as would be 'well then the powerplay should be getting better.' Because we have time to practice that as well. But we're still working on things, we're a little disjointed, the timing and rhythm is off. For me, powerplays are about rhythm and we don't have a lot of rhythm in ours right now. Ones going east and ones going west. We're just not predictable of what's going to happen next. We're going to fix it, we will."

The Kings dominated the game 5-on-5. Outshooting the Blackhawks 24-14 at even strength while posting 2.96 expected goals to Chicago's 0.77. Petr Mrazek kept the Blackhawks in the game with 33-saves and 2.3 goals saved above expected. 

The Kings are finally figuring out how to keep pucks out of their net. Now, they just need to re-discover the explosive offense they started the season with.

The LA Kings are back in action Saturday night against the Detroit Red Wings at Crypto.com Arena.