Kings 5, Senators 2
D.J. Smith took full responsibility for this awful performance.
The Ottawa Senators went from riding the high of a two-game winning streak to hitting another low with a terrible 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings in front of 13,549 Tuesday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
What a difference a day makes.
“We were just flat. We gave up way too many chances and we didn’t check hard enough,” Smith said. “And that’s on me. Our preparation to start the game starts with me as the coach, and that’s certainly unacceptable, but my job is to make sure these guys are ready to play.
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“Maybe we should have had a morning skate and we didn’t. We were loose and the game got away from us in the first period, and after that you’re fighting an uphill battle.”
Coming off a 5-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, it was no surprise to see Smith go back to Cam Talbot in this one. He made 25 stops in Friday’s 3-2 OT win over the New York Rangers Friday on the road, but he wasn’t at his best in this one.
Captain Brady Tkachuk wasn’t about to let Smith take the blame.
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“We just weren’t ready to play and it starts in here,” Tkachuk said. “There’s no explanation and there’s no excuses. It’s unacceptable. It’s on us, we just weren’t ready.”
Talbot was pulled after allowing his fifth goal on 14 shots. Kevin Fiala fired it home on the power play at 12:55 of the second to give the Kings a four-goal lead, and that’s when Smith decided to make the change. It wasn’t Talbot’s fault, but he wasn’t great, either.
Anton Forsberg came in to finish this one out. It’s the fourth time this season that Smith has changed the goalie midway through and it’s the third time the netminder has been pulled in nine games.
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Only Drake Batherson and Thomas Chabot were able score for the Senators, who fell to 6-8-0 at home. Both goals came on the power play.
This was a frustrating night for the Senators in a lot of ways. They couldn’t seem to get anything going and the Kings did a good job bottling up the defensive zone. But the Senators have to be harder to play against if they’re to have any chance of success.
It was a 3-2 overtime victory over the Kings on Nov. 27 in Los Angeles that played a key in the club winning four of its last five games coming into this one.
“It just wasn’t good enough. It’s as simple as that. There’s no other way around it,” Chabot said.
Unfortunately, the Senators didn’t take advantage of energy built up in the victory over the Sharks.
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Pheonix Copley, making his first start for the Kings since being recalled a week ago, has only played 31 games in the NHL in his career. He came into this game with a 2-0-0 lifetime record against the Senators and a .971 save percentage.
Copley recorded his only career shutout against the Senators on Dec. 22, 2018 while with the Washington Capitals. The Senators didn’t test him nearly enough and when they did he was there to make the saves.
The club was down 5-1 after 40 minutes and you didn’t get any sense the Senators would find their way back into this one. They weren’t getting nearly enough pressure on the Kings.
The first 20 minutes were disastrous for the Senators. They didn’t create nearly enough chances on the 11 shots on Copley and they were down by three goals heading into the intermission.
Viktor Arvidsson’s second of the game at 11:26 gave the Kings a 4-1 lead. That beat Talbot on the glove side and was the only one you could say he should have had. Earlier, Arvidsson scored on the Kings’ first power play at 8:43.
After the Kings pulled out to a 2-0 lead, Batherson’s sixth of the season pulled the club to within a goal. That came on the power play when he picked up a rebound in front, and it was Batherson’s first since Nov. 14 against the New York Islanders to end a nine-game drought.
Only moments earlier, Smith had called a timeout to try to settle his team down because he wasn’t the least bit pleased with what he had seen. The club was running around in its own zone, looked disorganized and wasn’t ready when the puck was dropped.
A goal by Kings defenceman Mikey Anderson gave his club a 2-0 lead only 2:15 into the first period. He took pass down low and beat Talbot from a bad angle. Only 40 seconds earlier, Matt Roy opened the scoring by firing a blast by Talbot.
“We didn’t have a good start and it’s tough to climb back,” said Batherson. “It’s just disappointing. All the dads are here and we’re just going to have to put this one behind us and move on.”
The Senators will face the Dallas Stars on Thursday night at the American Airlines Center. The players will have their fathers along for the ride for this two-game trip. There’s no question the Senators will be a looking to bounce back after this effort.
Twitter.com/sungarrioch
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