Washington @ Los Angeles preview
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Last Meeting ( Mar 6, 2023 ) Washington 2, Los Angeles 4
The Los Angeles Kings will go for their sixth straight win when they host the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.
The Kings, who have been idle since a 4-0 shutout of the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday, have outscored opponents 20-5 during the streak.
Washington, on the other hand, is suddenly struggling. After a 9-1-1 stretch in games played mostly at home, the Capitals have lost two straight and have been outscored 7-1 in the process.
Washington opened a five-game West Coast road trip with a 2-1 loss at the San Jose Sharks on Monday night. The Sharks pulled ahead with a third-period power-play goal. Evgeny Kuznetsov scored for the Capitals, and Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves.
"It's a broken record," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. "We'll look at all the different shots and rebounds and (ask) ‘What can we do better?'... We have to find a way to break through. We just, for whatever reason, haven't hit our stride offensively."
Washington went 0-for-3 on the power play and is 3-for-53 on the season, having gone 11 games without a goal on the man advantage. And the stingy penalty kill is suddenly struggling as well, having allowed five power-play goals in its past three games after going 10 without giving up one.
The Capitals outshot the Sharks 34-23.
"I think there have been a lot of games throughout the year where they are one-goal games and we just can't seem to find the back of the net," Washington forward Connor McMichael said. "(Monday), I think we outchanced them pretty heavily. We had a lot of great looks. We just couldn't put the puck in the net."
That's not a problem the Kings can identify with. While Washington is averaging 2.33 goals per game -- the second-lowest figure in the league -- Los Angeles is scoring 4.00 goals per game, tied for tops in the NHL.
Former Capital Pheonix Copley made 18 saves to blank the Canadiens. Trevor Moore scored twice, and Pierre-Luc Dubois had two assists for Los Angeles.
"We just stuck with our game," Moore said. "A couple of turnovers there in the second, but other than that, it was pretty (good) shift after shift. We just did what we wanted to do, stayed patient and got the win."
Moore has six points (four goals, two assists) in his past three games.
Kevin Fiala added an assist against Montreal and has six points (four goals, two assists) during the winning streak after a slow start to the season.
"Just work hard and shoot the puck more. Go to the net more. All of those small details -- just doing more," Fiala said of his recent surge, per the Los Angeles Times. "Also just driving the puck. I want the puck more. All of that stuff, I feel that I did a better job lately, so it's nice."
Los Angeles is 11-0-1 when scoring first this season.
The Kings' power play has gone 2-for-9 in its past three games, while the penalty kill was successful 10 of 11 times in that span to move into first place in the NHL with an 89.4 percent success rate.
Dating back to the 2018-19 season, the Capitals have won six of the past eight meetings between the teams.
--Field Level Media