Drew Doughty three points, one goal and two assists, helped the Los Angeles Kings beat the New York Rangers 6-3 at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, and four of the six goals came from defensemen. Doughty’s 713th career point moved him past Dustin Brown for seventh in franchise regular-season scoring. Twelve different Kings recorded a point, eight of them from the blue line, which is the kind of depth contribution coach Peter Laviolette has been asking for.
How the Kings built it
- Final: Kings 6, Rangers 3. The Kings are 3-5-2 (8 points) overall and 3-1-0 on this five-game trip.
- First period: Taylor Ward (1:15), Brandt Clarke (4:52) and Doughty (17:32) scored for Los Angeles. J.T. Miller scored for New York at 13:01.
- Second period: Artemi Panarin scored on the power play at 1:30 and Mikey Anderson at 6:54. Adam Fox answered for the Rangers at 13:05.
- Third period: Tye Kartye made it 5-3 at 16:08 with the goalie pulled, and Joel Edmundson scored into the empty net at 16:37.
- Shots: the Kings finished with 26 and the Rangers with 26.
Ward’s goal came on the Kings’ first shot of the night and Clarke’s on their second. Ward was playing his first game of the season after being recalled from Ontario of the American Hockey League on Oct. 17, and he scored on his first shift. Trevor Moore started the breakout, Doughty hit Ward with a pass, and Ward finished the breakaway. “It was just a good breakout by Mooresie and Drew,” Ward said.
Clarke scored while the Kings played six-on-five on a delayed penalty. Joel Armia carried the puck below the right circle and sent it toward the crease, and Clarke deflected it in for his third goal of the season. Doughty’s goal made it 3-1 late in the period on a point shot through a screen from Adrian Kempe, with Edmundson and Panarin getting the assists.
The blue line did the scoring
Clarke, Doughty, Anderson and Edmundson all scored. Anderson’s first goal of the year came off an offensive-zone faceoff that Corey Perry won directly back to him, the third goal from a Kings defenseman in the first 27 minutes. Edmundson’s empty-netter was his first of the season, and he also set up Doughty’s goal. Erik Gustafsson had the other defensive point, an assist on Panarin’s goal.
“I thought it was really good from start to finish. We played the game fast, we made good decisions and we attacked,” Laviolette said. He singled out the defensemen: “I thought it was great contributions. I thought we moved well together up and down the ice from the defensive zone out up to the offensive zone, which put the D in play with regard to offense.”
Ward said that was the point. “I think we’ve been relying on, really, our top line for majority of the season,” he said. “So it’s good to get everybody involved and we’re going to need the same thing going forward.”
Drew Doughty’s milestones
These figures come from the Kings’ postgame notes:
- It was his first goal of the season and the 166th of his career, plus assists No. 546 and No. 547.
- His 713 career points (166 goals, 547 assists) put him one past Brown’s 712 for seventh in Kings regular-season history.
- Against the Rangers he has 13 points in 28 meetings, the most by any Kings defenseman against New York, passing Rob Blake and Steve Duchesne at 11 each.
Doughty also played a team-high 21:37 and finished plus-3, tied with Edmundson for the best rating on the roster.
Panarin and the power play
Panarin’s goal at 1:30 of the second was his team-leading seventh of the season and his second on the power play. It was also the game-winner, since it made the score 4-1 and the Rangers never got closer than two goals after that. The reworked unit moved the puck high in the zone, Gustafsson found Panarin in the left circle, and Alex Laferriere screened the goalie. Gustafsson and Panarin were teammates in New York during Panarin’s 120-point season in 2023-24, and both were rookies in Chicago in 2015-16.
Goaltending and the Reimer pull
Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves on 26 shots for his third win of the season. ESPN lists his save percentage at .885, so the Kings were not airtight. The Rangers had signed 38-year-old goalie James Reimer on Sunday and started him in his Rangers debut. He allowed three goals on eight shots and was replaced by Dylan Garand to start the second period. Garand stopped 15 of 17 and took the loss. It ended New York’s 6-0-0 home start and was Laviolette’s 849th win, which ties him with Ken Hitchcock for sixth on the NHL’s all-time list, according to Forever Blueshirts.
The Kings were outhit 24-19 and won only 41 percent of faceoffs, but they gave the puck away three fewer times than the Rangers, 15 to 18, according to the ESPN box score.
Quinton Byfield’s status is settled
Our Oct. 26 preview said Quinton Byfield’s status was unconfirmed after he practiced in a non-contact jersey. The box score settles it: Byfield played 17:10, had two shots and finished plus-1. He won 4 of 16 faceoffs, which accounts for much of the team’s 41 percent. Erik Haula went 10 for 22.
Managing the back-to-back
Laviolette said the schedule shaped how he used the bench. “Ideally, you’re thinking in your head if you can really run the bench and manage the minutes and keep a lot of guys under 20 minutes, it pays benefits for the next day and the next night,” he said. The ESPN ice-time figures show it for the forwards, led by Panarin at 19:52. Only four defensemen reached 20 minutes: Doughty, Gustafsson (20:23), Clarke (20:10) and Edmundson (20:00).
What’s next
The trip ends tonight at the United Center against the Chicago Blackhawks, who are 3-8-0. Puck drop is 5 p.m. PT on ABTV, and the Kings skipped a morning skate. Laviolette called it “a big game coming up” with a chance at 4-1 on the trip. The Kings then host Ottawa on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. PT. One lineup site projected Moore, Byfield and Ward together and Anton Forsberg in goal, but those are projections, and tonight’s starter is unconfirmed.
Notes and conflicts
One summary of the wire-service game story describes Ward as adding a second-period goal. The play-by-play data, the Kings’ own notes and two other recaps show one Ward goal, 1:15 into the first, with Anderson as the second-period Kings scorer other than Panarin. We have gone with one Ward goal. ESPN lists 26 Kings shots, while the two Rangers goalies’ lines add up to 25; the gap fits the empty-net attempt. ESPN’s power-play opportunity counts also do not match its penalty list, so we cite only the power-play goals, which every source agrees on.
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