Talbot, Kings spoil Maple Leafs’ return from road trip with convincing win

Cam Talbot made 30 saves and Phillip Danault scored the winner as the Los Angeles Kings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 on Tuesday.

Adrian Kempe, Arthur Kaliyev and Andreas Englund, with his first in the NHL, had the other goals for Los Angeles (5-2-2). Quinton Byfield added two assists.

John Tavares replied for Toronto (5-3-1), which was coming off a season-long 3-1-1 road trip that culminated with Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Nashville Predators.

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Joseph Woll stopped 23 shots.

Leafs winger William Nylander extended his season-opening point streak to nine games with an assist on Tavares’ goal. He now holds the record for consecutive outings with a point to start a campaign, passing Frank Mahovlich (1961-62), Lanny McDonald (1976-77) and John Anderson (1982-83) who all had an eight-game streak.

The Kings, who entered averaging an NHL-best 4.38 goals per game, opened the scoring at 6:38 of the first period following a dreadful Leafs power play when Englund’s shot went in off the stick of Toronto defenceman Mark Giordano for the journeyman blueliner’s first goal in his 89th career game.

Talbot made two good stops on Nylander later in the period after the Swede stepped past a couple of defenders. 

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L.A. doubled its lead at 11:40 when former Leafs winger Trevor Moore spun away from Timothy Liljegren down low and found Danault on the doorstep to pot his second to end a forgettable shift for Toronto’s fourth line.

Woll robbed Kaliyev five minutes into the second, but the Kings forward wouldn’t be denied on a power play at 9:46 when he settled a bouncing puck and ripped his second.

Kevin Fiala fed Kaliyev to become the third L.A. player in the last 25 years to register an assist streak of at least eight games.

Toronto didn’t have much of anything to offer in response as the period wore on before the Kings toyed with the home side in the dying minutes of the second — prompting a series of boos and Bronx cheers from the Scotiabank Arena crowd.

The Leafs showed some life on a power play when Tavares broke Talbot’s shutout bid with his fifth at 8:25 of the third.

But the Kings put things out of reach at 12:13 when Toronto defenceman John Klingberg turned the puck over on a sequence that ended with Kempe scoring his third.

BYFIELD’S BACK HOME

Byfield was a little distracted at L.A.’s optional morning skate ahead of the big winger’s first game in his hometown.

The 21-year-old from nearby Newmarket, Ont., used to attend games with his dad at Scotiabank Arena.

“I was trying to look where I was sitting before when I was younger,” Byfield, the No. 2 pick at the 2020 draft, said Tuesday morning. 

So where did he sit back in the day? 

“Everywhere,” replied Byfield, before adding with a grin: “Nose bleeds most of the time.” 

RIELLY UNDER THE RADAR

Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly entered play tied for fourth on the team with seven points through eight games.

But unlike most players under Toronto’s media microscope, the 29-year-old has yet to be hyped up in 2023-24.

“Both ends of the rink he’s been great,” Giordano said. “Deserves more credit than he’s been given.” 

MOORE OFFENCE

Moore entered Tuesday leading the Kings in goals with five. 

The 28-year-old from Thousand Oaks, Calif., was signed by Toronto in 2016 out of the University of Denver and spent parts of four seasons with the organization before getting traded to L.A. as part of the deal for goaltender Jack Campbell.

“I don’t feel like they gave up on me,” Moore said of the Leafs. “They had a need in net … I have no hard feelings.” 

UP NEXT

Leafs: Visit Boston on Thursday.

Kings: Visit Ottawa on Thursday.