Kings Maintain Longest Active Win Streak with their Seventh

Considering that Ottawa is only a few losses away from securing second last in the league (New Jersey secured bottom a few days ago) I expected a more convincing showing from a team on a current NHL high 6 game win streak than letting in an obvious goal 29 seconds in. And considering Petersen is the future of the Kings, I expected more confidence from said goaltender on that. But what are ya gonna do? The Kings were completely unstructured and unaware the game had started for at least the first five minutes. The puck barely entered the offensive zone let alone got near Andersen until Trevor Lewis’s miracle goal, where his tenacity paid off as he knuckleballed the puck over his blocker. Ottawa’s too many men penalty got even better (in theory) when 54 seconds in they took a delay of game penalty, leaving only three defenders for Ottawa for 1:06. But wow did the Kings blow it. How they didn’t go up two more goals is beyond me. Even a Wagner fight against Colin White lasted barely 10 seconds and was uneventful.

And considering this might be the last game of the season for now (thanks Corona Virus) the second was even less exciting to write home about. Doughty took the first of two penalties (dammit Drew!) and Frk looked good, but that was about it. Really. A couple of minutes into the third I was preferring boring, as Ottawa executed a perfect shot against a screened Petersen on a delayed call, then Doughty took his second penalty of the evening. Doh! Thankfully it seemed to wake the Kings up instead, and they killed it easily. Dustin Brown was also looking good all evening – he had the tough hit of the game in the first period, plenty of looks at goal, and drew an important penalty in the third. It had technically expired by the time Vilardi scored the equalizer but his 7 points in 10 games (3 goals, 4 assists) equals a team high set by Anze Kopitar his rookie year. Another Kings power play made Anderson look better than he was, until Frk snapped one top shelf blocker side thanks to a gorgeous pass from Vilardi. Ottawa pulled Anderson with a couple of minutes left; the Kings couldn’t make the empty net to save their lives (I clocked at least 6 attempts) but thanks to Petersen, Ottawa couldn’t find the back of the net either. If this is the end, it’s been a fun ride (at least the last seven games have been!) and if it’s not, see you against the Ducks on Saturday.