LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles Kings dominated on offense and defense in their regular season home season opener as they annihilated the Vegas Golden Knights 6-2 on Thursday night.
Kopitar scored three goals, with two assist and finished with five points to start the 2021-22 NHL season in Los Angeles. He completed the hat trick around the 15:07 mark of the third period, as Viktor Arvidson was handy on the assist.
“I mean, just play. Like I said, it’s first game of the season, so first and foremost, we wanted to get off to a good start and get the two points in the bank and just kind of go from there,” Kopitar said.
It was truly a team effort as the Kings trailed early in the first period 1-0, Dustin Brown tied it up 1-1 followed up by Kopitar who scored the power giving Los Angeles the 2-1 lead. The pose and focus is much needed change from last season’s team, as Doughty emphasized that even the team made be composed of some veterans, they still have enough for another run at a Stanley Cup.
“Brownie’ set the tone for us early, made some big hits, scored a big goal for us,” Doughty said. “And then kind of the rest of the team followed him, and then obviously ‘Kopi’ stepped up with the hat trick, and then I got in there with a goal and a couple of assists.
“But the leadership group, I know we’re getting older, whatever you want to say, but we’re still driven. We want to win again. That’s all we care about and we go out there and lead by example and play our butts off, and that’s what we’re going to do every night.”
The Los Angeles Kings prepare to host the Minnesota Wild at 6:30PM at Staples Center on Saturday.
