Kings at Senators
The Ottawa Senators have been inconsistent at best since their stunning playoff victory over Montreal in the 2013 postseason and coach Paul MacLean paid the price for it when he was fired Monday morning. Dave Cameron will make his debut as an NHL head coach when the Senators host the reigning Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings on Thursday. MacLean's dismissal came, ironically, one day after Ottawa ended a five-game losing streak.
The Senators missed the playoffs last season and haven't won back-to-back games since Nov. 4-6, so MacLean's dismissal wasn't exactly a shocker. "At the end of the day, it’s the players on the ice winning and losing games. And we haven’t been winning enough," veteran defenseman Chris Phillips said. The Kings haven't been winning enough either - at least on the road, where they have the second-fewest wins in the league (3-5-4).
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN West (Los Angeles), RDS (Ottawa)
ABOUT THE KINGS (14-9-5): Los Angeles kicked off a five-game road trip with a 1-0 loss at Buffalo despite outshooting the Sabres by more than a 2-to-1 margin (34-16). That defeat came three days after the Kings outshot Philadelphia 38-16 in a 2-1 home loss. “We’ve got to score goals, we’re not scoring enough," defenseman Drew Doughty said after Los Angeles absorbed back-to-back defeats for the third time in less than a month. "We’re playing well defensively, we’re not giving up a lot, but the bottom line is, we need to put pucks in the net.”
ABOUT THE SENATORS (11-11-5): Ottawa's success in 2012-13 was built around goaltending and a defense that permitted a league-low 104 goals during the strike-shortened season, but general manager Bryan Murray noted that the formula no longer was working. "We continue to be a big turnover team in our zone," Murray said after announcing MacLean's firing. "The chances against our team are, some nights, atrocious." A lack of offense also proved to be the undoing of MacLean - the Senators have not scored more than three regulation goals since Oct 30.
OVERTIME
1. Ottawa activated G Robin Lehner from injured reserve but Craig Anderson will be in net against Los Angeles.
2. The Kings have won three straight and six of seven versus the Senators, including a 5-2 victory at Ottawa last December.
3. Senators C Mika Zibanejad has scored four goals in three games and is riding a four-game point streak.