Dec. 29--Just how were Anze Kopitar and Tyler Toffoli going to handle the extra responsibilities without leading scorer Jeff Carter to share the burden?
The answer: A hat trick for one (Toffoli) and a four-point night for the other (Kopitar).
That, and a shutout by goalie Jonathan Quick helped the Kings dismantle the Vancouver Canucks, 5-0, on Monday night at Rogers Arena. The Milan Lucic-Kopitar-Toffoli line accounted for eight points and Quick made 27 saves for his third shutout for the season and the 40th of his career.
This extended the Kings' lead in the Pacific Division to nine points over Arizona and Vancouver.
"It's huge. We haven't done a great job so far with teams in our division," said Toffoli, who recorded his second career hat trick. "We kind of threw some games away. Winning at Arizona and winning tonight ... we're just trying to send a message that we're the best team in the division."
The message-sending came early.
The game started with a hint of irascibility -- OK, more than a hint -- right away from Kings defenseman Brayden McNabb, who appeared to catch Henrik Sedin with an elbow to the head and mixed it up with Canucks defenseman Alex Biega and then later with forward Brandon Prust.
"We had a good game but it all started with Nabber on the first shift," said Toffoli.
Sedin told reporters that he thought it was "a flying elbow to the head" and that the only point of contact "was my face."
"He [the referee] said it was a clean hit. I'm sure they didn't really see what happened," Sedin said.
McNabb's, and the Kings', early edginess gave way to offense, including some from McNabb himself, who scored his second goal of the season.
Second-period goals by rookie defenseman Derek Forbort, his first in the NHL, and McNabb turned a 1-0 game into a 3-0 lead for the Kings after two periods. Kopitar assisted on both goals and his four assists matched a career high for assists in a game.
For Forbort, it was his first goal in 11 NHL games. The goal, at first, went to Kings captain Dustin Brown but was changed to Forbort with some apparent assistance from Brown.
"I just kind of got a puck off the boards and wanted to get it down to the net," Forbort said. "I guess the puck had eyes because somehow it went in. But it felt pretty good to get the first one.
"Originally, I thought Brownie tipped it but he came up and said he didn't. Just the kind of teammate he is. I think even if he did tip it, he wasn't going to tell me."
Toffoli's goals were his team-leading 15th, 16th and 17th of the season. He joked that he just "closed his eyes and fired" when he beat Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom up high in the corner for the first goal of the game, at 15:33 of the first period, making it 1-0.
