The past few games have certainly not been kind to the Kings, and as they finally snapped an 8-game losing streak with a win in their previous game against the Hurricanes, the team had a chance to build some momentum in the right direction. Unfortunately, the Stars would set the tone from the beginning and have Los Angeles battling from behind. A pair of first-period goals from Roope Hintz and Evgenii Dadonov put Dallas up 2-0 and gave them control heading into the second. Drew Doughty would help the Kings keep it close temporarily, as his 9th goal of the season made it a one-score game heading into the final period. The Stars would end up putting the cherry on top in the third, as three more unmatched goals helped them secure a 5-1 win and send the Kings back to Los Angeles with another loss.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Doughty scores his 150th career goal

Despite the Kings taking their 5th road loss of the season and scoring only once, the goal did end up as a milestone for defenseman Drew Doughty. The score was his 150th career goal and brought him within 11 goals of the franchise record for scores by a Kings’ defenseman.

The current franchise leader, Rob Blake (161 goals), is now the general manager of the team. It was a nice milestone for Doughty, although he and the rest of the team would have loved to see it come in a win.

Cam Talbot continues his recent struggles

Just as the rest of the team has hit a point of adversity in the season, goalie Cam Talbot can also relate to the recent struggle. On the game, he stopped 23 of 28 shots while the rest of the team failed to back him up with some scoring of their own. Talbot is 0-5-3 throughout his last 8 games, and coach Todd McLelland stressed the importance of being able to score goals to provide him with some support. “We stress checking and preventing, but we also have to score goals.” On the year, he holds a record of 14-11-5 with 2.44 goals allowed on average. With the next four games for the Kings back in Los Angeles, perhaps it will give Talbot and the rest of the team a chance to regain their footing and tally a few W’s in the win column.

Kings fail to capitalize on power play opportunities

While the Kings only scored one time in their loss to the Stars on Tuesday, it certainly wasn’t for lack of opportunity. They managed to put up 32 shots (four more than the 28 that Dallas had) and were also given four power play chances. During those chances, the team managed to score just once on Doughty’s second-period shot. The Stars had just one power play chance and could not use it to their advantage. The Kings have been in the middle of the pack this season when it comes to their power play efficiency, as they rank 16th in the league with a power play percentage of 21.2. In games where they are given the necessary opportunities to score goals and keep games competitive, they will need to do a better job of capitalizing. The team will now head back to Los Angeles after the long road trip and get ready to host the Predators on Thursday night. Nashville is 24-19-1, and is coming off of a 4-1 loss to the Golden Knights.

The game is set to begin at 7:00 p.m. PT.