LOS ANGELES (AP) — Willie Desjardins was uncertain how much impact he really had on the Los Angeles Kings in his first game behind their
bench. The interim coach didn’t alter the lineup from their last game under John
Stevens
Johnny Gaudreau Jersey Kids , and he hasn’t yet implemented any major strategic changes.Whatever or whoever was behind it, the Kings showed more than
enough spark to rout their closest rivals.Ilya Kovalchuk had a goal and two
assists, and the Kings opened Desjardins’ tenure with a 4-1 win over the Anaheim
Ducks on Tuesday night.Jack Campbell made 30 saves and picked up his first
career assist as the Kings comfortably won the first Freeway Faceoff of the
season for these two struggling Southern California rivals.Dustin Brown and Kyle
Clifford scored first-period goals for the Kings as they picked right back up
from Saturday’s win over Columbus to earn their first back-to-back victories of
the season.Desjardins has run just one practice since getting his new job Sunday
after the Kings fired Stevens early in his second season in charge. Los Angeles
had slumped to the bottom of the overall NHL standings, but the Kings welcomed
the new boss with a big win.“It was good to get back,” Desjardins said. “I
thought the guys played hard. I thought we didn’t maintain the game as well as
we wanted, but the first period was a good start, and we’ll build on that.”The
former Vancouver coach’s new players responded with plenty of the passion they
often lacked under Stevens, who took the fall along with assistant coach Don
Nachbaur for the Kings’ 4-8-1 start. Tyler Toffoli’s empty-net goal clinched
LA’s third win in four games following a six-game skid.“It was a wakeup call for
everybody,” said Kovalchuk, who has nine points in the last four games. “We’re
taking responsibility for what happened
Mark Giordano Jersey , and we’re responding to it. We looked in the mirror, and we all know we can do a better job.”Ryan Kesler scored and John
Gibson stopped 23 shots for the injury-wracked Ducks, who have lost eight of
nine and earned points in just three games during that span. While the Kings
appear to be turning a corner, Anaheim is stuck.“They pushed us, and we had no
response,” Kesler said. “Very disappointed in that. We got down 3-0, we had a
pretty good second period, and in the third period, we really didn’t muster very
much.”Brown got the Kings’ first goal of Desjardins’ tenure when he swatted
Kovalchuk’s centering pass out of midair just 6½ minutes in. The goal was
Brown’s third in four games since spending the first 10 games of the season
sidelined by a broken finger.Clifford scored his second goal of the season later
in the opening period, getting alone in front of Gibson for a backhand.
Kovalchuk made it 3-0 early in the second
Youth Matthew Tkachuk Jersey , getting his fifth goal on a breakaway set up by a long pass from Campbell.Kesler got the Ducks going with a deflection of
Marcus Pettersson’s shot later in the second, but Anaheim didn’t score again.
