LOS ANGELES — Playing the second half of their back-to-back set, the Detroit Red Wings lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 4-1, at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night.

Goalie Cam Talbot made 37 saves for the Red Wings (7-9-1; 15 points) against the Kings (10-6-3; 23 points), the club he spent his 2023-24 campaign with before signing a two-year free-agent contract with Detroit in July. On the other side of the ice, goaltender David Rittich had 17 saves.

“We gave ourselves a chance at times tonight,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said. “But not enough to give us a chance tonight.”

The Kings scored twice in a 22-second span late in the first period to take a 2-0 lead. Mikey Anderson put the hosts ahead 1-0 at 18:05 with a sharp-angle shot that squeaked by Talbot, then Tanner Jeannot made it 2-0 at 18:27 when he tapped in a pass from Trevor Lewis at the backdoor.

“We knew we probably had to be opportunistic tonight,” Lalonde said. “We knew there’d be some moments that we’d probably get some zone time, maybe a bend not break, and at times we got that. Unfortunately, we gave up two quick ones at the end of the first [period] and both started on our sticks.”

Following a scoreless second period during which Los Angeles outshot Detroit 14-5, Adrian Kempe padded it to 3-0 with a breakaway goal just 15 seconds into the third.

“We actually gutted out the second ,” Lalonde said. “I know the zone time and shot discrepancy didn’t feel good, but our analytics team was telling us chances were 10-8 after two. So we’re one shot away and had some looks, then the back breaker was the start of the third.”

Snapping Rittich’s shutout bid with 1:27 to play, captain Dylan Larkin fell to his knees while sending a backhand shot into the back of the net from the left face-off circle to make it 3-1. Vladimir Tarasenko and Alex DeBrincat recorded the assists on Larkin’s team-leading 10th goal of the season, which he scored after the Red Wings pulled Talbot in favor of an extra skater.

Kempe’s second goal of the night hit the empty net at 19:11 of the final frame, giving the Kings a 4-1 win.

Simon Edvinsson was a late scratch because of a lower-body injury, while Michael Rasmussen also did not play and is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, according to Lalonde.

“We’re hoping to have both on Monday,” Lalonde said about Edvinsson and Rasmussen.

Andrew Copp said the Red Wings aim to use their scheduled off-day on Sunday to “take care of ourselves, get away mentally” ahead of Monday’s road-trip finale.

“Confidence is the biggest thing in this league,” Copp said. “It’s crazy how important that is. The swagger you walk around with when you’re playing with confidence and have confidence as an individual is very, very different than when you don’t have it. At the same time, it’s earned. We got to go earn some confidence on Monday night, and hopefully bring some swagger back to Detroit.”

NEXT UP: Detroit will wrap up its four-game road trip on Monday night against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Lalonde on getting a win on Monday

“Obviously it was a tough 24 hours here. We’re taking a third-period lead in Anaheim and talking about a 2-0 start to the road trip. Then in 24 hours, we don’t get points in back-to-back games. If you’ve been in this league long enough, you get these extended road trips. If you can get the amount of points on games, four points in four games, it’s not winning the road trip but it gives you a chance. Hopefully we can take care of some home ice here.”

Chiarot on how the Kings held the Red Wings off the scoreboard for most of the night

“They obviously had a lot of zone time in our end. A big strong team over there. They made it tough on us – not a lot of room for our guys to skate. That’s what happens.”

Chiarot on if the Red Wings felt Edvinsson’s absence

Obviously a big body, plays a lot of minutes for us. It hurts not having him. You lose one of those guys, a top-six forward or top-four defenseman, it’s tough to replace. Obviously a big loss.”

Copp on what a win on Monday would do for the club

One shift can turn the whole ship around. I think we’re going to put some pressure on ourselves Monday night. Treat it as a very, very big game for us just in terms of mentality. Salvage a 2-2 road trip, then go from there. You see tough stretches and there’s always a way to get out of the tough stretch. I think really, it’s been the last two games.”