Kings focused on the Senators, not league's trade deadline
Having earned three of a possible four points so far on their season-long homestand of five games, the Kings took a day off in preparation for their matchup with the Ottawa Senators tonight.
The interconference clash with a last-place team will signify something of a temperature change from their hotly contested overtime loss to the divisionleading Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. There should be plenty of warmth between the benches though because Kings assistant coach D.J. Smith guided these same Senators for four seasons and 26 games of this campaign before he was let go.
“D.J., of course, was their head coach, so we know them quite well because of him,” Kings interim head coach Jim Hiller said. “They're a dangerous team. They can score goals, that we know.”
While the Senators have jockeyed around the top 10 to 15 in goals per game, they ranked 30th of 32 teams in goals-against average entering Wednesday's slate of games.
They and the Kings indirectly swapped goalies, with the Kings' playoff starter Joonas Korpisalo signing with the Senators and Cam Talbot making the move to Southern California via free agency as well. Korpisalo has been dealing with an
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illness and Ottawa will also be playing the back half of a back-to-back after facing the Ducks on Wednesday, making it unclear if the Finn will face the Kings tonight.
Talbot has recaptured his top form, playing well enough early in the season to earn an All-Star nod and then shaking off some midseason malaise to perform effectively of late. Since Feb. 18, he's gone 4-1-1 with a .951 save percentage that has been tops among goalies with at least four starts in that span.
Ottawa has been stuck in first gear in a rebuild that went from a motto of “the kids are alright” to a maxim with much less confidence and perhaps more profanity. They've failed to find consistency or gain traction in a competitive division and again find themselves well outside the playoff picture with Friday's noon trade deadline fast approaching.
Although they just acquired defenseman Jakob Chychrun last season, he's again surfaced on the hot stove, similar to how their association with winger Alex DeBrincat lasted only one year. There's no uncertainty about veteran Vladimir Tarasenko, who after spending his entire career with the St. Louis Blues will now be skating down the wing for his fourth team in two seasons. Ottawa, who signed him after a rental period with the New York Rangers, traded him to the Florida Panthers on Wednesday for a pair of mid-round draft picks.
For the Kings, Hiller said the deadline was not diverting their attention from the tasks at hand in the thick of a dense pack of teams in both the Pacific Division and wild-card races.
“There are some teams, in different circumstances, that it's more (of a distraction). Whether they're trying to add a big-name player or sell a big-name player,” Hiller said. “It's been pretty quiet around our team.”
The Kings did make some roster moves Wednesday, signing goalie Jacob Ingham to a two-way contract (he was previously on a minor-league deal, like the recently signed Aaron Dell had been) after waiving forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan and defenseman Jacob Moverare. They will head to the minors if they clear waivers. The latter two moves were part of broader machinations to become cap-compliant ahead of the deadline, not to add players from other teams but rather to be able to accommodate the group of players — some combination of Adrian Kempe, Mikey Anderson, Viktor Arvidsson and Carl Grundstrom — that were expected to return from injury later this month.