This Season’s Almost Over, Right?

The Senators held the unfortunate record of having the worst road streak in the league – this season they have not been able to win more than one game in a row. Couldn’t streak a road win to save their lives. Enter the LA Kings. The Sens won their game against the Ducks in OT the precious night (thank you I guess Ottawa) so history should dictate the Kings would win tonight, right? Yeah not so much.

It was obvious from puck drop that neither team is very good this season. They both seemed slow and the only play of note was when Jake Muzzin nearly killed a guy, absolutely crushing him into the boards on a penalty kill. Muzzin has been one of the Kings best and most solid players this season, so it wasn’t surprising to see him step up. (The penalty was surprising – Quick lost the puck briefly leading to a scramble by the net and some scuffles after for which only Doughty was called for holding. Tkachuk at least should have got a corresponding penalty.) Kopitar and Brown did get the opportunity for a shorthanded bid thanks to Muzzin’s hit, and so did Carter a few plays later, but that pesky post got in the way! Ottawa repaid us by taking a few shorthanded chances of their own on the Kings next two power plays – so many chances I once again wished I could remind them that a power play means we have the extra man! By the end of the first, the Muzzin hit and 18 shots were all the Kings could take away from the period. (Though since 18 shots have been close to a final total of shots for them lately, that could be a victory.)

3:47 into the second they had a goal to their name thanks to Kyle Clifford’s beautiful tip of Muzzin’s shot from the point (see? Muzzin does good.) It was a lead they managed to keep for most of the period. Sure they were still kind of slow, no one was really making highlight reel plays, and their passes still had trouble connecting, but Ottawa wasn’t playing much better. Leipsic had a couple of nice shifts strung together, including one where he practically danced around four Senators to bring the puck to the net, and Doughty showed why he’s a Norris trophy winner keeping up with Tkachuk every stride of his almost breakaway and doing his chances of a shot at the net. But when Thompson took an obvious tripping penalty at 14:49 it only took Ryan 10 seconds to clean up his own rebound and tie up the game. Then it only took 1:41 for Tierney’s shot on Quick’s short side to give them the lead.

Aaaaand 1:22 into the third for their third unanswered goal. Which is around the time the team seemed to give up. I literally took no notes during the third period because the Kings weren’t doing anything noteworthy. It wasn’t even like the Senators goalie was very good. He was giving up rebounds like candy. He’s big (6 foot 6) but had trouble tracking the puck. But par for the course this season, the Kings couldn’t take advantage. They didn’t skate with a clear plan, no set plays, just chasing and not even doing a very good job at that. When they pulled Quick with 2:21 remaining the empty net goal was inevitable, because heaven forbid the Kings actually draw up a 5-on-6 playbook, and then it was mercifully over. Clifford said post-game “That’s awful. It’s just embarrassing, to be honest. Not much else to say, other than that.” He’s right.