The Kings are a different kind of story. They opened 0-4-2, then went 3-2-0 on a 5-game road trip that ended with a 2-1 loss in Chicago on the 2nd night of a back-to-back. LA scored in the 1st period at the United Center and had nothing in the legs after that. Thursday is the first game back at crypto.com Arena, with puck drop at 7:00 PM PT and a full day off in between.
The game that says the most about what LA can do came 1 night before Chicago: a 6-3 win at Madison Square Garden. Drew Doughty had a goal and 2 assists, Artemi Panarin scored his team-leading 7th, and 6 different Kings scored, with Mikey Anderson, Joel Edmundson and Brandt Clarke all getting on the board from the back end. Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves. Doughty's line afterward was about not deflating after giving one up, which is a fair summary of a club that spent the first 2 weeks of the season deflating.
That's where this game gets interesting. LA's defensemen have started shooting and scoring, and Ottawa's crease is at its weakest point of the year. The Senators showed they can still put up 7 on a bad night for the other goalie, but they've also gone quiet in 2 of their last 3, and they're playing 2 games in 3 days through Vegas and LA. If Chabot is back and steadies the breakout, Ottawa can win a tight game. If he isn't, and the Kings get the same volume from the blue line they got in New York, Ersson faces another long night.