As the Kings headed into Ottawa seeking to sweep their trip in Canada, they got off to a good start. Just 3 minutes into the game, Phillip Danault got the scoring started for Los Angeles with a power play goal. In the second period, 2 more goals from Carl Grundstrom and Anze Kopitar would boost the lead to 3-0. The rest of the game would be about holding the lead, as a goal late in the second period for Ottawa sent things to the third and final period with the Kings leading 3-1. While the Senators would score once more in the third on a goal from Josh Norris, Los Angeles held on the rest of the way to bring the road trip to a 2-0 start.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Kopitar scores again, gets closer to Kings milestones
With Anze Kopitar’s goal in the second period that helped put the Kings up 3-0, he was able to get himself even closer to a couple franchise accolades. It was his 5th goal of the season, which put him alongside Trevor Moore for the team lead so far this year. The goal was the 398th of his career, putting Koptiar just 2 shy of 400. When he does score goal number 400 he will be one of just four skaters in team history to reach the feat.
Additionally, Kopitar (1,151 points) is just three points shy of Lue Robitaille (1, 154) for the second-most points in franchise history. The captain in Los Angeles has been doing good things so far this season and will look to keep his groove going as the Kings push forward this year.
Kempe extends his point streak
In the winning effort for the Kings, Adrian Kempe performed nicely with 2 assists on the goals scored by Anze Kopitar and Carl Grundstrom. He was able to bring his assist total on the year to 8, which is good for the second most on the team this year. Kempe’s multi-point game against Ottawa was his fourth multi-point game of the season (not to mention his third in the last 5 games), which leads all Kings players so far. He seems to be catching his stride early on in the season, and Los Angeles has certainly benefitted from it. After the contest, he shared his thoughts regarding the team’s 38 shots on goal compared to their 3 scores. “It was a little tighter than we wanted it to be and a little tighter than we deserved, but overall we got the 2 points which is the most important thing…”. As long as Los Angeles is able to remain aggressive and continue to put shots on goal like they did against Ottawa, Kempe and the rest of the squad will have no trouble remaining competitive and come away with more victories.
Impressive road win streak lives on
So far this season, the Kings’ performance on the road would make you think that they’ve played every single game in front of the home crowd. After the 3-2 win in Ottawa, Los Angeles improved their road record so far this year to 5-0-0.
It’s the most wins of any team in the league so far this season on the road, and the squad will have a chance to keep the streak alive in their next couple of games. They are just the 24th team in NHL history to win each of their first 5 road games to begin the season, which goes to show how engaged they have been despite the hostile environments that have threatened them. The road trip makes its next stop in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon, as the Kings will take on the Flyers with the opportunity to grab win number 6 in a row on the road to open the season.
The game is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. PT.
