Kings rout Red Wings to open 3-game homestand

LOS ANGELES –– The season schedule was finally in the Kings’ favor and they took full advantage by summarily dispatching the weary Detroit Red Wings, 4-1, at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday evening.

After enduring an early-season stretch with nearly three weeks on the road and their first seven games away from home, including three back-to-back sets, the Kings finally had a chance to recharge. They were fresh and rested as they began a three-game homestand.

On the other hand, the Red Wings were playing their second game in 22 hours in the penultimate match of their four-game road trip after losing 6-4 to the Ducks Friday.

“They played last night, so what was important was that we jump on them. We were the fresher team, and we hadn’t been the fresher team that often this year,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “I thought we started like we were going to try to use that to our advantage with our forecheck so that probably put them on their heels a little bit. We’ve been there before.”

Adrian Kempe scored twice and the Kings also got goals from Mikey Anderson and Tanner Jeannot. Trevor Lewis tacked on two assists. David Rittich made 17 saves in his latest stint as the No. 1 netminder while Darcy Kuemper nursed another lower-body malady. Jacob Moverare made his season debut on defense in place of the injured Caleb Jones. Alex Turcotte’s return to the lineup from an upper-body injury –– which only lasted about half the contest as a precautionary measure –– as well as Jeannot’s return from a three-game suspension shuffled forward lines and led to Andre Lee’s reassignment to the minors.

Detroit captain Dylan Larkin scored his team’s solitary goal.

Cam Talbot returned to Crypto.com Arena for the first time after backstopping the Kings last season and halted 37 of 40 shots.

The Kings garnered such a lopsided shot count thanks in large part to a season-high 31 blocks.

Though Larkin’s pivoting backhand bid as he fell to the ice broke up Rittich’s shutout with 1:27 remaining in the match, Kempe bookended the third period with an empty-net goal in the final minute and a breakaway tally just 15 seconds into the closing frame. Kempe scored both goals in a 4-2 loss to Colorado on Wednesday. His four goals in two games brought his total to nine, tying Alex Laferriere for the team lead.

Even though the Kings’ marquee scorers have sputtered at times this year, Laferriere’s early surge and Kempe’s recent spike have given them a respectable baseline offensively.

“It ebbs and flows as the season goes, but you need somebody, at least one of them going, and he’s really hot right now,” said Hiller of Kempe.

Through 40 methodical minutes, the Kings nearly tripled up the Red Wings in shots on goal, 29-10, and allowed little in the way of high-quality opportunities.

Detroit forward Andrew Copp called the rapid turnaround between games after having gotten into California from Pittsburgh at 3 a.m. “not ideal” and felt this was the “most grueling stretch” of the Red Wings’ schedule. They were also without a top-pairing defenseman, Simon Edvinsson after he sustained an injury against the Ducks.

“No excuses, every team has it. We could have won tonight’s game,” said Copp, who pointed to the Kings’ high shot volume as limiting the momentum his team could generate offensively.

The Kings did not score in the second period, and even in their sparkling first period, they had some menacing moments but nothing in the way of goals until their late outburst. They played a patient game early before pouncing with two goals in 22 seconds as the first intermission loomed.

With 1:33 left in the period, a shot block by Samuel Helenius sent Lewis and Jeannot off on a two-on-one counterattack. Lewis waited out a diving Jeff Petry to find Jeannot at the back post for a rapid redirection. Jeannot scored his second goal as a King in his first game back from a three-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Vancouver’s Brock Boeser.

Trevor Moore’s takeaway in the neutral zone and Phillip Danault’s perfectly weighted saucer pass led to the first goal of the game, as Anderson banked the puck off Talbot’s pad and in from a sharp angle. It was Anderson’s third goal of the season, halfway to his career high for a season after just 19 games.

While Kempe inked up the scoresheet and Rittich nearly posted a shutout, the subtle contributions of Helenius and Moverare were also celebrated widely. Moverare finished the night with four blocks, two hits, one shot and plenty of esteem.

“He was really, really good,” Hiller said. “He was the talk of the coach’s room and, in the dressing room, I know, he was named the player of the game by the players.”

With the victory, the Kings own the fifth-best home points percentage in the NHL, tying them with Tampa Bay, which sits behind only Winnipeg, Dallas, Carolina and Vegas.

“We want this building to be a tough place to play in, and so far we’ve done a pretty good job of it,” Lewis said.