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Well, that was a somewhat unexpected start to the California trip! The biggest challenge of the three is tonight though, with the Kings coming on strong and the back-to-back scenario.
Ottawa only had an optional skate today, but here are the best guess lineups. The only roster change was Colin Greening in for Matt Puempel.
Hoffman - Zibanejad - Ryan
Michalek - Turris - Stone
Lazar - Pageau - Condra
Greening - Legwand - Chiasson
Methot - Karlsson
Wiercioch - Ceci
Borowiecki - Cowen
Hammond (starter)
Driedger
Some notes for tonight's game:
- Ottawa hasn't beat the Kings since November 2010, and hasn't beat them in LA in over 15 years (your winning goal by Magnus Arvedson, assisted by Radek Bonk and Patrick Traverse).
- The Kings and the Senators both have winning streaks on the line - Kings at 8, Senators at 3.
- Erik Karlsson had his point streak snapped last night. No better time than the present to start a new one!
- Don't look now, but Ottawa's playoff fate is in their own hands through a combination of games in hand and direct match-ups with each of the teams between them and the last wild card spot
- It sounds like LA's big acquisition Andrej Sekera is
unlikelya game time decision to make his Kings debut tonight - Cody Ceci had an x-ray today after blocking a shot last night - no breaks, and he says he'll be good to go as long as he can get his skate on
Here are some stats for the two teams tonight. All stats are from NHL.com except for Corsi and Fenwick, which are from naturalstattrick.com.
Category | Ottawa | Los Angeles | ||
Player | # | Player | # | |
Goals | Mike Hoffman | 20 | Tyler Toffoli | 19 |
Assists | Erik Karlsson | 31 | Anze Kopitar | 32 |
Points | Erik Karlsson | 45 | Jeff Carter | 46 |
Shots | Erik Karlsson | 212 | Drew Doughty | 163 |
Average Ice time | Erik Karlsson | 26:58 | Drew Doughty | 29:27 |
Category | Ottawa | Anaheim | ||
# | Rank | # | Rank | |
Goals For | 2.81 | 11th | 2.73 | 18th |
Goals Against | 2.69 | 19th | 2.46 | 7th |
Corsi % | 50.30% | 19th | 54.00% | 2nd |
Fenwick % | 48.37% | 23rd | 53.63% | 2nd |
Shots For | 30.5 | 12th | 31.2 | 5th |
Shots Against | 32.4 | 26th | 27.4 | 2nd |