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Kings’ home opener after two: Thrashers 1, Kings 0

By Helene Elliott
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The Kings again had some chances early in the second period but couldn’t put one away. Seconds after Dustin Brown had hit the right post from point-blank range, the Thrashers took the lead.

Brayden Schenn was credited with a faceoff win over Alexander Burmistrov in the neutral zone but the puck came to Atlanta’s Chris Thorburn. He made defensemen Jake Muzzin and Davis Drewiske look bad by getting between them for a shot that Jonathan Quickpushed aside. But the rebound came directly to Thorburn, who flicked a wrist shot past Quick at 2:26 for his second goal this season — half the total he scored last season.

The game was curiously unemotional, with neither team doing much to excite the crowd. The Kings’ line-juggling -- putting Andrei Loktionov on the top line with Anze Kopitar and Brown and moving Ryan Smyth to a line with Jarret Stoll and Justin Williams -- didn’t do much to ramp up the ofense.

The Kings did have a 22-21 edge in shots through two periods, but they had won only 14 of 35 faceoffs and had given the puck away 10 times, according to the NHL’s official stats system.

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-- Helene Elliott

Sports Now
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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