LOS ANGELES — The Gabe Vilardi revenge tour came to Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday night as the Winnipeg Jets forward victimized the Kings for four points in a 5-2 victory over his former team.
It loosely mirrored a 4-2 victory the Jets earned when they were last in Southern California, on Sunday, when they upended the Ducks after trailing 2-0, the same deficit they held against the Kings at the first intermission Wednesday.
Anze Kopitar and Alex Laferriere scored a goal apiece for the Kings, who wasted a strong first period with a dismal second period and have their first three-game losing streak of the season. Cam Talbot had 24 saves. The Kings, who failed to earn a point for only the fourth time in 21 games, were without Vladislav Gavrikov (knee; week-to-week) and Arthur Kaliyev (illness; day-to-day).
Vilardi stacked up a career-high four points, with plenty of wry smiles and chirps along the way. That matched the total of Nicolas Ehlers (two goals, two assists) while Mark Scheifele contributed a goal and an assist. Vilardi scored a goal and set up both of Ehlers’ tallies and one of Scheifele’s. Connor Hellebuyck had 30 saves.
Vilardi, who the Kings drafted with the 11th overall pick in 2017, was the centerpiece of a blockbuster trade that sent him, Alex Iafallo (with whom Vilardi was honored in a video tribute on Wednesday) and Rasmus Kupari (who was injured Wednesday) to Winnipeg in exchange for Pierre-Luc Dubois. If that wasn’t enough motivation, Vilardi then injured his right knee when the Kings’ Blake Lizotte tripped him during the Kings’ 5-1 win in Winnipeg two months ago, sidelining him until Nov. 30.
Vilardi was sharply critical of Lizotte after the injury, but he said they didn’t exchange words on the ice this time.
“I thought it was a dumb play by him, and I was out for almost two months because of it,” Vilardi said. “That’s my opinion on it, and not everyone has to agree with it. I have a right to my opinion as well.”
Dubois assisted on Laferriere’s goal to record his first point in seven outings, but Vilardi’s night was decidedly more noteworthy.
Just 2:30 into the third period, the Kings faced an uphill climb after Vilardi received Dylan DeMelo’s pass and lifted a backhand shot past an onlooking Jordan Spence and then Talbot’s glove. Scheifele added an empty-netter an instant before the final horn.
Vilardi was gracious, speaking of how he cherished his time as a King and categorizing this year’s Kings as one of the top squads in the NHL. But he also relished his goal as well as every opportunity to bark at the Kings’ bench, and he showed a vicious bite on the scoreboard. After the match, he opted to emphasize the warmth he felt in frigid Winnipeg.
“We’re a family. It’s amazing to see all the guys stepping up and coming together for me and Al, Ras wasn’t here, but it was a more emotional game than normal,” Vilardi said. “But then again, I always (celebrate) and get emotional when I score. I like to win.”
Just as he punctuated his sentence, an unidentified voice shouted, “They didn’t want him!”
The first 40 minutes on Wednesday were a tale of two periods in terms of both the score and possession.
Scheifele gave the Jets their first lead of the night with five minutes left in the second stanza. It looked more like a pinball game than a hockey match as the puck clanged chaotically about the Kings’ zone during a sequence filled with blocked shots, broken sticks and loose pucks, the last of which was found by Scheifele behind the net for a sneaky backhand goal.
Scheifele lauded Ehlers’ speed and also spoke to Vilardi’s triumphant return.
“How couldn’t you get fired up for this one? Back in L.A. for the first time. Him getting hurt last time we played L.A., too, is extra motivation,” Scheifele said. “He was back and flying and making a lot of great plays tonight.”
Scheifele had already assumed the team scoring lead with an assist on Ehlers’ second goal of the night, 101 seconds earlier. Solid board work broke the puck out cleanly and opened a blazing drive up the left wing for Ehlers, who burned Mikey Anderson with his wheels and Cam Talbot with his shot.
Ehlers had scored the first of three unanswered second-period goals at the 6:08 mark. Phillip Danault’s puzzling pass into heavy traffic in the Winnipeg zone sent Vilardi, who collected the giveaway, ahead with speed. He dropped a pass for Ehlers, who zoomed in and roofed a wrist shot.
The Kings had a much sharper first period overall and staked themselves to a two-goal lead.
With 7:31 left in the frame, an offensive-zone faceoff quickly became a goal for Laferriere from a nearly impossible angle. The puck was several inches behind the red line near the corner when the 22-year-old took his shot, but it ascended at the perfect trajectory to get over Hellebuyck’s shoulder, behind his neck and into the net.
“He does a lot of the dirty work for his linemates and the team, you’ve got to watch him close to appreciate it, [it was good] for him to get rewarded,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said.
They opened the scoring with Kopitar’s power-play goal, which came after his attempt to slide the puck across the blue paint to Adrian Kempe was blocked by a diving Dylan Samberg (Winnipeg alleged he was pushed down by Kempe). Kopitar walked around a prone Samberg, recovered the puck and popped it past Hellebuyck as the middle of the period approached.
Ehlers declined to comment on the officiating but did offer a blunt assessment of his team’s reaction to their early stumbles.
“We ended up scoring five goals after that, so I think we handled that pretty well,” Ehlers said.
McLellan is confident his team can course correct from this minor skid.
“It’s been a while since we had a rough patch,” McLellan said. “You could look back to the beginning of the year where we played like this and gave up five goals a night or whatever it was, and we had to figure out ways to fix it. We’re capable of doing that, and we expect the group to respond to it.”
Wow. The Kings' Alex Laferriere just did the hockey equivalent of making a 20-foot jumper from behind the backboard, only way harder. https://t.co/NBr0Z9q95U
— Greg Beacham (@gregbeacham) December 14, 2023
What a night for Gabriel Vilardi!
A four-point (1G, 3A) performance against his former team! pic.twitter.com/5ddm3ZVAXt
— NHL (@NHL) December 14, 2023
