November 8 Rapid Reaction: Senators 3, Kings 2 (OT); Lewis lower-body injury

Injury Report

Trevor Lewis appeared in three first period shifts, and when he didn’t appear for the start of the second period, a note passed along by a Kings representative shared that he had suffered a lower-body injury and was doubtful to return.

It’s still too early to get a sense of the severity of his injury.

“He obviously didn’t come back,” Todd McLellan said. “Lower-body, and we’ll evaluate him tonight and see how he is tomorrow.”

Drew Doughty also skated off slowly at the end of the second period after getting tangled up with Thomas Chabot but met with media after the game and is probably “very sore” rather than “injured.” In his club-record 426th consecutive game, Doughty registered two shots on goal, three hits, three blocked shots and was on the ice for one goal for and two against in 27:37 of ice time.

Los Angeles faces Montreal on Saturday at Centre Bell to conclude a three-game road trip.

Postgame Quotes

Todd McLellan, on the differences between the Toronto and Ottawa games:
Well, this is its own animal or entity, if you will. The first period, we kind of felt each other out. Pretty evenly played. Give them the second. They made the decision to get in on the forecheck, we didn’t. And then I thought in the third we decided to play that way. A few mistakes in our zone, especially in and around our net. Our net play wasn’t good. Often when you speak that way, you’re talking about your defensemen, but our low forward didn’t do a very good job as well, and you could see that on both goals. So, we’ve got some work to do. Pretty evenly played game. Not a lot of space either way. A lot more physical I thought tonight than it was in Toronto, so that may be a big difference, as well.

McLellan, on “gap control” and less space:
Well, gap control by both teams. Both teams play a forward-type game in the neutral zone. I thought the puck was bouncing everywhere tonight. It was all over the place. Not a lot of clean plays made, and probably sum it up as an ugly game, but one we had a chance to win in overtime and couldn’t quite take advantage of it.

McLellan, on the late push to tie the game:
Well, we were aggressive. We had to be, we had no choice. We got some pucks to the net. They had an opportunity to end it in an empty net and overpassed, and sometimes that comes back to haunt you, and it did. So, good for us to find a way to get a point, not so god on us to leave a point behind.

McLellan, on any continuity after Trevor Lewis’ injury, or whether there was too much jumbling:
No, there’s too much. Especially, what, he was two minutes of ice time and then it changes. There’s too much game left to go to three lines, there’s too much game left to ride the pine with two or three players, so we really had to juggle all night. There was no continuity, the rhythm in our game wasn’t there, and I thought that showed maybe more in the second period than any.

McLellan, on the severity of Lewis’ injury:
I don’t know. He obviously didn’t come back. Lower-body, and we’ll evaluate him tonight and see how he is tomorrow.

Anze Kopitar, on the final play in overtime:
The guy coming off the wall’s coming back. Soupy made the first stop, and I should’ve been there to clear anything out, and he scored on the rebound.

Kopitar, on the sense on the bench after the game-tying goal:
It was obviously a good lift. We got some puck time in OT. I had a two-on-one. I should’ve made a better plan than not even getting getting a shot on net. Should’ve gotten a lot better chance off that two-on-one rush.

Kopitar, on whether he was able to establish anything with Tyler Toffoli and Jeff Carter:
We were all over the place. We played, what, maybe half of the first period together and then we were all over the place. [Reporter: Kind of hard to tell, huh?] Not the game today. You couldn’t really tell what was going on.

Tyler Toffoli, on having a good handle on overtime before a late set of mistakes:
Yeah, that’s just the way overtime goes. I mean, we’ve seen it where one team gets all the chances and the other team gets a break. I mean, we’ve been on the other side of that, as well. We’ve been hemmed in and we get a break and go down and score. It sucks, but it’s just the way it goes in overtime sometimes.

Toffoli, on his third period goal:
I think Kovy made the pass up to Roysie and he got the shot through. That’s kind of what our plan was. I don’t think we really talked about it, but that’s what the plan is when there’s not a whole lot of time left. Just get the puck through, and I think A.I. was in front there, and I just got it over top of him.

Toffoli, on the difficulty in establishing a rhythm in the game:
Yeah, it’s always tough whenever you have 11 forwards, but I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part. We got away from our game a little bit and we weren’t really forechecking and doing what we do when we’re successful, and I think in the third there we got back to it. You could feel the chances coming back for us.

Toffoli, on Anders Nilsson’s two saves on him in overtime:
I mean, for the first one, he was already kind of over there, and I just tried to jam it and he obviously made a really nice save. The other one I think got deflected and went in his glove, so it’s unfortunate.

Toffoli, on whether a larger picture is acknowledged at 5-10-1, or whether there’s more acute focus:
I mean, we want to win. I mean, I’ve said this plenty of times. I don’t think anybody in this room wants to be playing to lose We’re playing to win games. We’re frustrated, and we want to be winning games, and that’s a big point there that we all wish we could’ve had.

Postgame Video

Postgame Notes

— With the overtime loss, Los Angeles fell to 22-13-3 all-time against Ottawa, a record that includes a road mark of 8-9-2. The Kings have lost three straight games in the series (0-2-1) since winning once in a shootout and once in overtime against the Senators in 2017-18. These teams will finish their season series at Staples Center on March 11, 2020.

— With the overtime loss, Los Angeles fell to 0-3-1 against the Eastern Conference, 0-2-1 against the Atlantic Division, 3-1-1 in one-goal games, 4-3-1 when scoring first, 2-3-1 when tied after one period, 2-2-1 when tied after two periods, 0-1-1 when outshot by their opponents and 2-1 in games decided after regulation.

— The Kings have 11 points through 16 games and the same record through 16 games as last year’s club (5-10-1). The fewest points through 16 games in club history is seven, accomplished three times: 1969-70, 1971-72 and 1985-86. They accrued 10 points in 1987-88 in addition to the six seasons with 11: 1983-84, 1986-87, 2001-02, 2006-07, 2018-19, 2019-20.

— Los Angeles fell to 2-1 in games decided in three-on-three overtime and 41-20 since the implementation of three-on-three in 2015-16. Their 41 wins lead the league, but with the loss, their .672 winning percentage dropped behind Calgary’s league-best .681.

— The Kings blocked 18 shots, led by Alec Martinez’s game-high five and Matt Roy’s four.

— Los Angeles attempted 51 shots (28 on goal, 10 blocked, 13 missed). Ottawa attempted 66 shots (33 on goal, 18 blocked, 15 missed). Tyler Toffoli led all skaters with five shots on goal, while Dustin Brown and Vladislav Namestnikov finished with four.

— The Kings won 30-of-63 faceoffs (48%). Adrian Kempe won 5-of-10, Michael Amadio won 6-of-11, Anze Kopitar won 6-of-18, Alex Iafallo won 0-of-1, Dustin Brown won 1-of-2, Blake Lizotte won 9-of-13, Austin Wagner won 0-of-1 and Jeff Carter won 3-of-7.

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