The Los Angeles Kings will try to remain perfect on the road this season when they continue their four-game trek against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night.
The Kings, who opened the trip with a 4-1 victory at Toronto on Tuesday, improved to an NHL-best 5-0-0 on the road with a 3-2 win at Ottawa on Thursday. After the Saturday game, they will fly home to Los Angeles before heading to Las Vegas to the face the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
“It’s just a confidence thing, for sure,” center Adrian Kempe, who extended his point streak to five games with two assists against the Senators, said of his team’s success away from home. “We feel like we’re a pretty good road team and we can go into any building and get points.
“I feel like we’ve always been a good road team, ever since I came into the league. Obviously, we have a little bit more swagger to win some games and get some points on the road, which is a good thing.”
Phillip Danault, who backhanded in a rebound on a power play to open the scoring, credited the Kings’ depth as one reason for their road success.
“I think just rolling the lines and we can trust everyone on the ice whether it’s defensively or offensively,” Danault said. “Our D has been really good and our goalie (Cam Talbot) has been outstanding. He’s giving us a chance to win every game.”
Talbot stopped 24 of 26 shots against the Senators to improve to 5-2-1 with a 2.41 goals-against and a .915 save percentage.
“I think calm and stable are two pretty good words to describe him,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said of Talbot. “He’s good at cleaning up our messes.”
Philadelphia, which will be playing its third game in four nights and the second game of a back-to-back set, snapped a three-game losing streak with a 5-1 victory at Buffalo on Friday night.
The Flyers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period on goals by Scott Laughton, Louie Belpedio and Travis Konecny. Garnet Hathaway extended the lead to 4-0 in the second and Bobby Brink finished the scoring midway through the third after Henri Jokiharju had cut it to 4-1 earlier in the period.
“We’ve been working really hard and pressing forward and creating a lot of chances for ourselves,” Laughton said. “They haven’t been going in. Hopefully, this starts us to get going a little bit and find the back of the net.”
Philadelphia had lost at home to the Sabres 5-2 on Wednesday, the Flyers’ fifth defeat in a six-game span (1-4-1).
“I know we’ve had a bad run here and losing some games, but I like our team,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “I like some of the balance with our team. We’re going to have struggles. We are. We’re still going to have some struggles along the way this year, but I like the attitude of our team no matter if we’re winning or losing.”
Despite the loss to Buffalo two nights earlier, Tortorella said he had a simple message for his players.
“We wanted to play as fast as we could, just stay with our game,” Tortorella said. “I thought we played really well in the loss the other night, and we just wanted to get back at it.”
–Field Level Media
