Kings’ Kevin Fiala returns and hopes to ‘forget’ a missed encounter

LOS ANGELES —Kevin Fialahad the perfect rebounding game after being scratched for violating a team rule the night before.

The Kings of Los Angelesforward had a goal and an assist in wednesday night’s 6-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights.

Fiala was a healthy scratch in San Jose on Tuesday after missing a team meeting when his alarm didn’t go off. He said his iPhone was broken and he tried to use his iPad as an alarm, which didn’t work.

“We will never do that again,” Fiala said. “I was lucky that I had a game today and not in three or four days. I think it was easier to let go and have a good game today. And hopefully we can forget about it all now.”

Coach Jim Hiller said before the game that he had spoken to Fiala and that both had moved on from the incident.

However, the healthy scratch came during a bad four-day spell for Fiala. He was benched during the third period of last Saturday’s game against Utah after drawing two penalties that gave him five minors in five games.

“It could look like this: ‘Oh, he got benched and now he misses (a meeting).’ I’m not worried about Kevin. Kevin gets it back,” Hiller said. “There’s nothing malicious about what Kevin did. Kevin is a team man. He wants the team to succeed. Sometimes he has problems controlling his emotions and taking punishment. But it’s nothing he does on purpose, I was happy he was rewarded tonight.”

Fiala got on the scoresheet midway through the second period when he provided an assist Anze Kopitar‘s goal to extend Los Angeles’ lead to 4-0.

Fiala then scored his third power play goal of the season 6:23 into the third period to give the Kings a 5-0 lead.

“He’s the playmaker. We need him to get on the scoresheet,” Kopitar said. “We want to help him on the power play and give him opportunities. If he gets a few points tonight, that will certainly be good for him.”

Fiala has five goals and eight points in nine games. After having his third career 70-point campaign with 29 goals and 73 points last season, he admitted he put too much pressure on himself.

“You always want to be better than last year. The real answer is that sometimes it’s hard,” he said. “Mentally, sometimes you just try to do too much or think too much about goals because of all the expectations. The simple thing is to just be in the moment and take it one game at a time. Sometimes it’s not that simple. “I’ve struggled with that a little bit this season and hopefully taking it one game at a time, staying in the moment and controlling what I can control can help me.”