The Jesse Blake sports report with Jesse Blake. Welcome to the Jesse Blake sports report. Whether this is your first time here or your last time here or somewhere in between, I appreciate that you are here today so that we can discuss the Los Angeles Kings. Let me correct that, the record-breaking Los Angeles Kings. So something we do often on this show is talk about the hottest team in whatever sport. And today we must discuss the hottest team in the National Hockey League, the record-breaking Los Angeles Kings, who just broke the record for the longest consecutive road winning streak to start a season ever in the National Hockey League. They have their 11th straight road victory to start a season. The all-time record for a consecutive road victory streak at any point in the season is 12. So the next two games for Los Angeles Kings are the New York Islanders and the New York Rangers. The New York Islanders game, obviously, the record-tying game. And then on Saturday or Sunday, let me triple-check when the game is to make sure when the best game of the year is. The Los Angeles Kings schedule, I'm doing this Sunday.

It is Sunday night. I might have to do a pod just on that game. On Sunday night, we have the biggest game of the NHL regular season so far, depending on if the Los Angeles Kings are able to beat the New York Islanders because that will be the longest road record streak ever if they're able to beat the New York Andrews on Sunday. And that game is also significant because we have two of the top five best teams in the NHL going head to head on Sunday. But before we get to all of that, let's backtrack to tonight, where the Kings beat the Canadians 4-0. Cam Talbot is old and he is good. I want to submit some time on Cam Talbot. I want to spend some time on Cam Talbot. I want to spend some time on Quinton-Bifield and then just the Kings in general. That's how we're going to run down the show today. But first, before we get to those three, let's talk about how they're getting this done. And I've cherry-picked some stats. I've pulled some stats for you, some numbers. Get your calculators ready. The Los Angeles Kings, you'll need only one number on your calculator.

Los Angeles Kings lead the league in goals against... They got 51 goals against. They lead the in goals differential, 34. Shots on goal against, they're number one. Rebound shots against, number one. High danger shots against, they are number one. All five of those categories, goals against, goals differential, shots on goals against, rebound shots against, and high danger shots against. I cherry-picked those stats because those are some of the biggest numbers where the Los Angeles Kings lead the league in. But all of those things are very indicative of what has excelled for the Los Angeles Kings this season. And all the credit in the world to Todd McClellan and what they've grown there in LA the last few years. The team defense is phenomenal. You run down the list of the defensemen right now, and these are the line pairings, the deep pairings for the Kings tonight against the Montreal Canadians. It was Mikey Anderson, Drew Doudie, Gavrikov, Matt Roy, and Andreas England and Jordan Spence. You don't look at that and you say, oh, my gosh, look at that defense. That's some of the greatest defense ever. We're looking at something spectacular. When you watch the game tonight, the team defense that Todd McClellan has them playing, not just those six defensemen there, but the four group.

The four group, too, the way they get back, the way they are relentless and they don't allow opposition to have anything. The Montreal Canyons had a couple of chances on a power play. But especially at five-on-five, if you watch this Kings team closely, you notice how little anybody is able to get against them in terms of rushes into the zone, off of the rush, trying to run a full 60-foot hockey game. You can't do it. Getting second chances is impossible because those guys love clearing the pocket out of the front of the net. And all credit in the world to this team for controlling the neutral zone as well and not allowing teams to get set up and get comfy and forcing teams into hard plays. So the last two playoffs, I've got to watch the Kings a lot because they played the Oilers and the Oilers were the other big Canadian team that came on after the leave. I was always able to catch the Edmonton-Oilers play and they played the Kings the last two playoffs. I've watched a lot of the Kings playoff games. And while watching them this season. I think back to that series with Edmonton and what they were lacking.

Edmonton was so good offensively in the last two playoffs. That's where they thrive. The Oilers do because of McDavid, because of drive throw, because of Cain and all the weapons they have. And that's the next tier that the Kings needed to get to because they had the scoring. The scoring was right one-in-one with the Oilers. The games were really competitive on the offensive side, but Edmonton was able to break through on the defensive side. In that series, you saw not a single game where the Edmonton Oilers scored less than two goals. There was one game in game three, where there was three-two and the Kings won. But outside of that, we saw a three-goal effort from the Oilers, a four-goal effort, then the two in game three, then the five, then a six, then a five. And they just couldn't stop them. And there needs to be a change in the system of the Kings and just to play a little stingier and to also have a great output. They need to up the output of the offense slightly to compete with the upper echelon of teams. And they need to just control their play a little differently.

It wasn't about getting better defensemen in there. I think it was just about getting the defensemen to play a little better, getting the offensive players to play a little better defense, and switching this system not entirely, but having the team play team defense a whole lot better. And this season, that's what I think is driving this. But also what is driving this is the second part of this podcast, and that's Cam Talbot. The old man, Cam Talbot, I call him old, but he's 36 years old. He's old in hockey terms. He is old in sportsman terms. The man from Caledonia, Ontario, Cam Talbot, is having a standout season. Currently has a 9.30 save percentage on the year. He picked up his 12th win tonight. He's 12th four in one, which is just absolutely spectacular. And it's not that it's unexpected, but he's never put up numbers like this in his entire career. The last time he had a save percentage this high, it's 9.30 like I said, last time he was over a 9.20 was when he was 27 and was playing for the New York Rangers. And he played, he had 34 starts that season and he had a 9.26. Cam Talbot playing otherworldly this year is definitely helping the Kings.

But the stats I read off the top where they're not giving up high danger shots, they're not giving up rebound shots, helps your goalie. And go figure, when you're playing well in front of the goalie, the goalie is getting every opportunity to make every save, and he's doing it. The team is playing spectacularly from the top to the bottom. Cam Talbot is taking advantage of every opportunity that the Kings are giving him to face low danger shots to stop the buck. And he's doing it. He's doing it consistently, and it's very impressive to watch. And the Kings have found something in 36-year-old Cam Talbot after he struggled last year in Ottawa. And it looked to be over. You have a 35-year-old who has an 898 in Ottawa, struggles a little, is up and down. Who knows what he's going to be going forward? And he's been able to rejuvenate his career in... I shouldn't even say rejuvenate. He's able to have a great end of it in Los Angeles. And I hope he can ride this for at least another season for the king's sake that it's not a one and done for Cam. But if he's playing this well, I know his contract expires at the end of this season.

I was just triple-checking that it's a million dollars they're paying this goalie and he might win a Vesna. Cam Talbot, ladies and gentlemen, give him some credit too for this spectacular run by the Kings. The other thing we got to get to is Quentin byfield. Because who would have figured that you shouldn't give up on a 21-year-old? There was a lot of undeserved talk about bust about Quentin byfield. This is the season that every Quentin byfield believer needs to start dancing and prancing and raving and screaming about byfield because he's already has a career high in goals with six. And that number is so low because he was so... He's 21. Goodness, the first two years of his career, he's 20 and 19. And obviously, he didn't have those breakout years that you expect from a second overall pick. But man, sometimes it takes until you're to become a good National Hockey League player. Like I said, career high in goals so far. And his career high in points is only 22. And he's at 18 already this season in 22 games. He's just off a point a game. Let me see if it's 22 games played, he's got 18 points.

He's on pace for like 74 off the top of my head, points-ish. That's really good for a by-field. And I think that first line that they ran out there tonight, I think that's my favorite first line that the Kings have. There's so many options in the forward group. I spent a lot of time talking about team defense and all that. But what they've done here bringing in Pierre-Luc Debois, and a couple of years ago bringing in Philip De No, and trading for Kevin Fiala this summer, not this past summer, but the summer before the summer of 2022, when they moved that first round pick and brought Fabor for Kevin Fiala. Having him in there last year, it was clearly a success. And this year, they're just continuing with that. And the byfield copetar, Kempay first line, that's got to be the first line. I think you stick with that. The Fiala De No, Trevor Moore second line looks fantastic. And then having Pierre-Luc Debois being to center a third line is such an incredible weapon that when you get to the playoffs and this Kings team's got a chance at the President's trophy to get into the playoffs, they're going to be fighting with the Golden Kites with that one and the and the Rangers and all the top teams, having that one, two, three punch down in the middle is going to be deadly.

And it's going to be a task and a half for most teams to compete within these playoffs. And that's what's going to make them even more dangerous when they're playing this great defense and they also have this one, two, three punch that a lot of teams can't compete with. But just I was supposed to be talking about quitting by field, but by field, sometimes you just need to leave things in the oven to cook for a little longer. He's a great player. The two goals he has scored, the first goal that he scored, drive in the net. You forget that the dude is six-four and a half. He's nearly six-five, and he moves like the quickest winger out there. He's driving the net that huge frame. And he's able to go around the goalie with spectacular fashion. Quentin Byfield is going to be a star for a long time in the National Hockey League. It just took a couple of years to get there. And let's end this podcast the way I started it. Sunday, Kings Ranger is going to be one of the best matchups. I think probably the best matchup we have so far of this regular season in the National Hockey League.

Two of the best teams going head to head and possibly on the line, the longest road winning streak of all time. I think that is pretty darn cool. I think that is it for me. Update you on SDPN stuff. The NFL season is winding down. If you don't listen to Drew and stew, you should be because they're going to have so much content as we get into the NFL playoffs and we get into the most fun season of the year. That's NFL playoff time. Listen to Drew and stew. They come to you twice a week. Search them up on your favorite podcast app. Searchout for them on the SDP and YouTube. Hit subscribe on the SDP and YouTube. I believe we're under 3,000 people away from 100,000 subscribers. So if you're not subscribed, subscribe to the SDP and YouTube channel. That is it for me tonight. I will see you again on Sunday. Thank you for being here. You could have been anywhere in the world if you could have been listening or watching this podcast right now. I appreciate you for that. Good night from Charlotte. And that is how it's done. The Jesse Blake sports report with Jesse Blake.

Jesse Blake, the guy that likes to hear his name twice in one sentence. Sure, I know him. No, he doesn't have an ego at all.