Shorthanded on D, Maatta’s first goal, McLellan’s message, and Other LA Kings Bullets

Of course, a particular defenseman in Arizona is rumored (HERE) to be available…

• I give him a lot of grief, but Olli Maatta has admittedly looked great since returning to the lineup. He’s played some big minutes when the team needed him, scoring his first goal with the LA Kings on Thursday night. Maatta has been disappointed with his tenure in Los Angeles thus far, so hopefully, he continues to build off this positive momentum.

• Yes, the Panthers were shorthanded on Thursday, but the LA Kings’ 4-1 victory should not have an asterisk next to it. Todd McLellan‘s group still had to show up, and despite a slow start, they played very well. The Panthers were able to open it up in the first period, leading to the game’s first goal. However, LA tightened things up in the second period, leading to Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown‘s goals.
• They took a 3-1 lead into the second intermission, and it was important for them to close out the game. In his postgame presser, McLellan spoke on his message going into the final period:

• I couldn’t fit it into the character limit on Twitter, but he summed up his statement indicating that he wanted his team to keep the foot on the gas pedal. That’s exactly what they did.
• In Colorado, Cale Makar and Darcy Kuemper went into COVID protocol before Thursday’s game against the Predators. Per Elliotte Friedman, the Avs were given the option of not playing, but the players wanted to continue as planned. However, Panthers’ Anthony Duclair indicated his team was not granted a choice.

• Jonathan Quick made his fourth consecutive start on Thursday, but Cal Petersen is guaranteed to start one of the games in the back-to-back this weekend. It’ll be interesting to see which game he gets. He’s never faced the Capitals (Sunday’s opponent) in his career. He had a rough outing in his only start against Carolina, allowing five goals on 20 shots.
• Provinces in Canada are taking proactive measures to prevent the spread of COVID as Montreal did not allow any fans in the building for their game against the Flyers on Thursday:

• In Ontario, the Maple Leafs and Senators are allowed just 50 percent capacity in what feels like March 2020 all over again:

• The Nashville Predators, down seven players, extended their winning streak to six games on Thursday while snapping the Avalanche’s winning streak at five games.
• Last week, Blues forward Nathan Walker was recalled from the AHL in an emergency situation. All he did was score his first career hat trick. A very cool, behind the scenes video following the special moment: