Game 5 Preview: Los Angeles Kings @ Ottawa Senators
Dion Phaneuf returns to Ottawa in today’s afternoon game.
The Los Angeles Kings visit the Ottawa Senators for a matinee matchup, with Dion Phaneuf returning to face his former team. A slew of injuries after last game have forced the Sens to bring a few new players into the lineup. Ben Harpur will draw in for Cody Ceci, and two of Nick Paul, Paul Carey and Christian Jaros will take the places of Ryan Dzingel and Alex Formenton. The decision whether to play six or seven defencemen is still up in the air.
Here are the lines and pairings from yesterday’s morning skate, with one cut still to come. Craig Anderson will be today’s starter.
Tkachuk - Smith - Stone
Paajarvi - Tierney - Ryan
Paul - Pyatt - Carey
Chabot - DeMelo
Borowiecki - Wideman
Lajoie - Jaros
Harpur
Anderson (starter)
Condon
Game Notes
- With Cody Ceci out, it’ll be interesting to see how Guy Boucher manages the defence pairings. Lajoie and Ceci have together been the Sens’ most common duo, with heavy defensive zone usage. The Chabot-DeMelo pair have been used in more offensive situations, so do those defensive zone starts now fall on Borowiecki and Wideman?
- As much as I’d love to see Christian Jaros get an extended look, it’d be fun to see Nick Paul and Paul Carey on the same line just for the sake of the play-by-play announcer.
- Since the Phaneuf-for-Gaborik trade went down in February, Phaneuf has scored 10 points in 30 games for the Kings. It still feels weird to see how much we’ve come to cherish someone who formerly captained the Leafs. He was a respected leader to the players, and will surely be given a warm welcome.
- Speaking of which, Phaneuf will be the Sens’ highest paid defenceman playing in today’s game, due to the $1.75 million in cap hit Ottawa retained during the trade.
- Remember Ilya Kovalchuk? The last time he faced the Sens at the Canadian Tire Centre (or should I say Scotiabank Place) was on March 20th 2012, where he scored the lone goal for a 1-0 Devils win.
- Ottawa’s six goals from rookies is currently the most in the NHL.
- The Sens and Kings so far have been two of the NHL’s weakest defensive teams, claiming the 31st and 30th spots respectively in shots allowed per game.
- It’s an afternoon game today, with a 2:00 p.m. start time. You can catch the broadcast on TSN5 or RDS. /
Here are some stats from NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick.
Team Stats
| Category | Ottawa | Senators | Los Angeles | Kings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -- | Value | Rank | Value | Rank |
| Goals/GP | 3.75 | 11th | 2.50 | 20th |
| Goalst against/GP | 5.00 | 31st | 1.75 | 4th |
| Shots/GP | 28.8 | 22nd | 23.0 | 29th |
| Shots against/GP | 38.8 | 31st | 37.5 | 30th |
| Powerplay % | 26.7 | 8th | 0.0 | 30th |
| Penalty Kill % | 71.4 | 23rd | 78.6 | 17th |
| Corsi (5v5, Score & Venue Adjusted) | 44.08 | 24th | 40.16 | 28th |
| Fenwick (5v5, SVA) | 45.21 | 22nd | 39.49 | 27th |
Player Stats
| Ottawa | Senators | Los Angeles | Kings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -- | Player | # | Player | # |
| Goals | Maxime Lajoie | 3 | Alex Iafallo & Anze Kopitar | 2 |
| Assists | Chris Tierney | 5 | Tyler Toffoli | 3 |
| Points | Chris Tierney & Thomas Chabot | 6 | Alex Iafallo & Tyler Toffoli | 4 |
| Shots | Ryan Dzingel & Maxime Lajoie | 12 | Ilya Kovalchuk | 16 |
| TOI/GP | Thomas Chabot | 22:04 | Drew Doughty | 27:28 |