After a successful eastern road trip that saw them win three of five games, the Los Angeles Kings open a seven-game homestand when they face the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.
The Kings won games at Washington (5-2), the New York Islanders (3-2 in OT) and the New York Rangers (6-3) but lost at New Jersey (3-1) and ended the trip with a 2-1 setback at Chicago on Tuesday. Los Angeles blew an early 1-0 lead in that contest and surrendered the go-ahead goal to Wyatt Kaiser midway through the third period following a turnover.
Normally a 3-2-0 road trip would have been reason to celebrate. But after starting the season with a dismal 0-4-2 record, a 4-1-0 trip would have felt a whole lot better for Peter Laviolette’s squad.
“We had an opportunity to move up in the (Pacific Division) standings and continue to climb out of a hole that we had at the beginning of the year,” Laviolette said. “We didn’t get it done.”
The Kings are seventh in the eight-team Pacific with eight points, just one more than last-place Vancouver, which has the fewest points in the NHL.
“It sucks not winning the last game,” Los Angeles center Quinton Byfield said. “Going 3-2 is still a little bit of a positive for us. Obviously, it would be a lot better (going) 4-1, so it stings on the way back here. But from where we started, I feel it’s getting a lot better, and it’s got to keep going that way.”
The seven-game homestand is tied for the longest of the season for the Kings, which is 0-3-0 at Crypto Arena.
Ottawa will be playing the second contest of a five-game road trip that began with a 4-1 loss to the reigning Western Conference champion Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday.
The Senators dominated the start of the contest, outshooting the Golden Knights, 11-4, in the first period and holding Vegas to just six shots over the first 30 minutes. But the contest remained scoreless until the final 11 seconds of the second period when Braeden Bowman scored a power-play goal to put the Golden Knights in front.
Ottawa rallied to tie it, 1-1, early in the third period on Shane Pinto’s breakaway power-play goal. But Raphael Lavoie scored his first career NHL goal at the 8:01 mark when he slammed in a rebound of a Nic Dowd shot to put Vegas back in front, and William Karlsson and Jack Eichel each found the empty net to seal the win.
“It was a hard-fought game,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “I thought our team played well. Loved our start, really liked our first period. I thought Vegas pushed back in the second period like a good team will do. We had so many looks that we didn’t capitalize on. I thought both goalies played well, and it was one of those games where it was just going to be decided by a bounce here or there, and we were on the wrong side of it.”
Senators forward Warren Foegele left the contest midway through the third period with assistance after a knee-to-knee hit by Jeremy Lauzon along the right boards on his right knee.
“He didn’t come back, so it’s never a good sign,” Green said.
The Kings swept two games from the Senators last season, winning 2-1 in Los Angeles and 1-0 behind 17 saves by goalie Anton Forsberg at Ottawa.