The Ottawa Senators will try to continue their successful start to the longest road trip of the season and take advantage of a Los Angeles Kings team that has struggled at home when they meet on Monday night.
The Senators opened their season-long seven-game road trip with similar 3-2 victories over the young and surging Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks. Ottawa improved to 3-0-2 in the past five road games.
The Kings, meanwhile, returned from a successful six-game road trip (4-1-1) only to lose 2-1 in overtime to the visiting Boston Bruins on Friday night, dropping to 1-4-3 at home this season.
“We got the one point, but we’re not satisfied with that,” Kings captain Anze Kopitar said. “We’ll try to get back on track on Monday.”
Ottawa broke ties in the third period by scoring with 1:58 left against the Ducks on Thursday and with 6:38 remaining against San Jose on Saturday.
“Just another gritty effort, a lot like the other night,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said after the latest win.
As fast-paced, end-to-end teams like the young Ducks and Sharks take over the NHL, Ottawa is becoming known as a difficult, tight-checking team to get through.
“They work, they grind, and when they had their chances, they definitely capitalize,” San Jose forward Will Smith said of the Senators.
Ottawa received a welcome addition when defenseman Thomas Chabot returned against the Sharks after missing three games with an upper-body injury. He played 21:45 and took three shots on goal.
Senators forward Fabian Zetterlund scored against the Sharks to end a 10-game goal drought. It was his first goal since Oct. 27 and just his second of the season.
Zetterlund scored 19 goals last season while playing for both the Sharks and Senators, and 24 the season before in San Jose.
“It was nice to see him get rewarded,” Green said. “He’s been snakebitten.”
The Kings blanked Ottawa 1-0 on Nov. 15 and won the first four games of their recently concluded road trip, but they proceeded to lose 2-1 to the Washington Capitals last Monday and 4-3 in a shootout to the Sharks on Thursday.
One area that needs improvement for Los Angeles is its power play.
The Kings went 0-for-5 with the man advantage against the Bruins to drop to 14.3% on the season, the third-lowest rate in the NHL.
They finished 27th on the power play last season at 17.9%.
“We’re getting chances,” Kopitar said. “(Against the Sharks and Bruins), we got some good chances, so just keep on battling, keep on going. Maybe try and simplify a little bit, try to get more stuff to the net and create off of that, and just work at it.”
Los Angeles has been using five forwards on its first power-play unit, with Adrian Kempe occupying the point, but coach Jim Hiller said after the loss to Boston that tweaks could be forthcoming.
“I’m not going to single one guy out, but I think the group of five of them clearly are not getting it done as constructed,” Hiller said. “That’s something we’re thinking about and it doesn’t look good. It’s cost us games. So, when you get to that point, at some point, you might have to make some changes.”
