Those of us following the Ottawa Senators will note that the Sens’ only regulation loss in their last ten games occurred against this very same Kings team just over a week ago. Worth mentioning, the Sens played well defensively, holding a formidable west coast opponent to a singular goal. More importantly though, the Kings shut out the Sens for Ottawa’s only goose egg of the season. Also, remember when Ottawa led the league in shutouts last season? they don’t have a single shutout in the good sense yet this year. I’m manifesting things over here (and not for you, Anton Forsberg).
Just over a quarter of the way through the season, the Sens have moved past those early jitters and found their way into the middle of the pack of an Atlantic division where only Buffalo (hahaha) and Toronto (HAHAHA) have fallen behind a few paces. Otherwise, someone needs to separate from the mix here and why not the Sens? They obviously miss Brady Tkachuk as much as any good team would miss its captain but also the Sens have played better defence of late and the special teams have started to recover from an abysmal start. The Kings meanwhile find themselves in a similar position in the Pacific; they do everything fine without having any game-breaking element to their style.
Game Notes:This marks the final meeting between these two teams this season until the Cup finals (Ottawa in seven of course).At five-on-five Ottawa (52.29 xGF%) and Los Angeles (50.41) stack up pretty closely with Ottawa’s exceptional even strength defence providing a slight edge. Ottawa doesn’t generate much at five-on-five but they’ve enjoyed shooting luck (even though their 892 save percentage leaves something to be desired (LA has fared better at 910)). All stats courtesy of naturalstattrickOttawa still has one of the worst powerplays in the league (Tkachuk’s absence noted) at 7.1 xGF/60 but they’ve gotten some shooting luck there too. LA has a middle-of-the-road powerplay (9.0 xGF/60) but have no shooting luck.By rates, Ottawa has the second best penalty kill in the league at 6.8 xGA/60 but hasn’t gotten the saves, while LA also has a stifling penalty kill (7.5 xGA/60) that has endured mediocre goaltending but nothing like Ottawa.Go Sens Go.Injuries:Brady TkachukDrew Doughty
Where to watch/listen: Note this is an amazon prime game! @9PM EST
Lines from Last Game:
Senators
Perron – Stützle – Batherson
Amadio – Pinto – Giroux
Eller – Cozens – Zetterlund
Cousins – Halliday – Hodgson
Sanderson – Zub
Chabot – Jensen
Kleven – Spence
Kings
Fiala – Byfield – Kempe
Foegele – Danault – Laferriere
Kuzmenko – Kopitar – Moore
Armia – Turcotte – Perry
Clarke – Dumoulin
Edmundson – Anderson
Moverare – Ceci