The Los Angeles Kings liked what they saw in Trevor Moore when they traded away two key pieces to acquire him in February of 2020.

Nearly three years later, the Kings are reaping the rewards.

Moore will be looking to notch the 100th point of his NHL career when the Kings host the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.

Moore had a goal and an assist in a 5-4 win against the visiting Florida Panthers on Saturday night, his fourth multi-point game of the season.

Moore, a Los Angeles-area native who was never drafted into the NHL, said he’s kept a keen eye on his elite-level teammates with both the Toronto Maple Leafs, who traded him to Los Angeles, and the Kings, borrowing different elements of their games.

“They try to look before they get the puck and get their head up right away,” Moore said. “Obviously, I’m not at that level, but it helps to take a peek before you get the puck.”

The Kings are also benefiting from the play of 23-year-old center Gabriel Vilardi, who scored his team-leading ninth goal of the season against the Panthers.

Vilardi, the 11th overall pick by Los Angeles in the 2017 NHL Draft, is one goal from matching his NHL career high set over 54 games in 2020-21.

“He’s done a lot of good things for us,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said.

Blake Lizotte, another young center for the Kings, has scored a goal in each of the past two games.

Los Angeles winger Kevin Fiala is also set to play his former team for the second time this season.

Fiala, who spent the past four seasons with the Wild before signing a free-agent deal with the Kings in the offseason, had a goal and two assists in a 7-6 win in Minnesota on Oct. 15.

Fiala has a team-leading 11 assists for Los Angeles and nine points (two goals, seven assists) over his past seven games.

The Wild haven’t played since a 4-0 loss to the visiting Seattle Kraken on Thursday, and Minnesota coach Dean Evason said the extended rest should make a difference.

“The last game, we had no energy,” Evason said. “We’ve had four days off. We’ve had two complete days off, so there’s absolutely no reason why our energy (during practice Monday) shouldn’t lead into our energy, not only for (Tuesday), but going forward.”

The Wild are also beginning to get some key players back from injury.

Jordan Greenway played less than three minutes of his season debut against the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 20 before the left wing left with an upper-body injury.

Greenway, who had 10 goals and 17 assists in 62 games last season, will be in the lineup against the Kings.

Marcus Foligno is expected to rejoin the Wild when they visit the Kraken on Friday. Foligno has been sidelined with an upper-body injury since Oct. 30.

The Wild called up Adam Beckman and Joseph Cramarossa from the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League on Sunday.

Cramarossa is expected to make his season debut against the Kings, likely on the fourth line.

Brandon Duhaime and Ryan Hartman will not accompany the Wild on their three-game road trip because of upper-body injuries.

Hartman sustained an apparent shoulder injury during a fight against the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 30.

–Field Level Media

The Seattle Kraken have one of the best road records in the NHL at 5-1-1, while coming off a sweep of a trip that took them to Calgary, Minnesota and Pittsburgh.

The Kraken will look to find that winning formula at home, where they are 2-3-1, when the Nashville Predators visit Tuesday night.

The Kraken completed their trip with a 3-2 victory Saturday in Pittsburgh with Brandon Tanev, selected from the Penguins in the expansion draft a year ago, scoring the go-ahead goal with 3:39 remaining.

“Great for me, but I think it’s more important that the team got all six points on this road trip,” Tanev said. “That’s the mindset and the goal we had setting out to this road trip and the three games we played. We beat three good teams. That’s the idea we wanted to do.”

Yanni Gourde had a goal and two assists and Martin Jones made 35 saves for the Kraken, who have won a franchise-record four consecutive games.

“We’re playing as a team. Everybody is contributing,” Gourde said. “It’s really fun to play that way. All four lines, all (three defense pairs). Jonesy’s been unbelievable in net. It’s been really team wins.”

The key seems to have been the penalty kill, which was one of the league’s worst early in the season.

The Kraken killed off all nine penalties against on the trip and is 11-for-11 during the winning streak.

“The four guys out there (on the penalty kill) have been working hard blocking shots,” defenseman Carson Soucy said, according to The Seattle Times. “And I think that’s a big thing. We’ve done a lot of things lately that we weren’t (earlier). I don’t know if we were just missing early in the season but the dedication’s there right now and it’s paying off.”

The Predators are on a five-game Western swing. They’re 2-1-0 thus far, losing the opener at Edmonton before posting a 4-1 victory Thursday at Calgary and edging Vancouver 4-3 in a shootout Saturday.

Nashville will finish the trip with a stop at Colorado on Thursday against the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche.

Jordan Gross scored his first two career goals as the Predators rallied from a three-goal deficit in Vancouver.

Gross was playing in his second game with Nashville and 12th in the NHL.

“Really special. It’s something you’ve worked for for a long time and it felt great,” Gross said. “Didn’t have the best start personally and felt great to get one back for the team.”

Nino Niederreiter added a goal and an assist and Juuse Saros made 42 saves for the Predators, who won consecutive games for the first time since sweeping San Jose in the season-opening Global Series at Prague.

“As soon as we scored that first goal, I felt like we had a mental advantage on them,” said Mattias Ekholm, who had two assists against the Canucks. “They seemed to be on their heels a little bit. They were just flipping pucks out, and we kept coming at them and got another goal and after that, we pressured for a fourth, and it didn’t come until the shootout.”

–Field Level Media

The Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets are showing they can hang in there with the top teams in the NHL.

Looking for a season-high fourth consecutive victory, the visiting Stars will try to keep the Jets from running their point streak to seven games on Tuesday night.

Dallas currently sits atop the Central Division with 17 points, and Winnipeg is two behind. Each club is amid a 6-3-1 stretch and playing with plenty of confidence.

Aiming for a third straight road victory, the Stars have outscored their opponents 18-6 in November and gone 6-for-11 on the power play while winning all three games. Jamie Benn recorded a hat trick and Jason Robertson posted a goal with two assists as Dallas won 6-2 at Edmonton on Saturday.

“Things are going good, and we want to continue that,” said the 33-year-old Benn, who has four goals and four assists in the last three games.

Robertson has scored six times during a career-high five-game goal streak, during which he’s also recorded 11 of his team-leading 18 points.

Meanwhile, Roope Hintz posted three goals and six assists over the same stretch. Goalie Scott Wedgewood has stopped 86 of 92 shots during Dallas’ three-game winning streak while Jake Oettinger (1.40 goals-against average) deals with a lower-body injury.

“Every game, the commitment level is there, and we have an understanding of what we need to do,” said 38-year-old Dallas star Joe Pavelski, who has two goals and three assists in five games.

“We know what to do, so we’re well on our way to that structure and being that team.”

Robertson and Hintz each had an assist as the Stars won their fourth in a row over Winnipeg, 4-1 at home on Oct. 17. Dallas has scored 21 times during a 5-0-1 run in this series, but Winnipeg earned at least a point in five of those meetings.

The Jets currently hold a 21-10 goal advantage during their own 5-0-1 overall stretch — and 11-2 while winning their past three at home — following Saturday’s 4-0 victory over Chicago. Winnipeg scored three of Saturday’s goals on the power play.

“We have full confidence in our ability to score,” Jets coach and ex-Stars boss Rick Bowness said.

Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves against the Blackhawks for his 30th career shutout and second of the season. Meanwhile, Winnipeg has also killed off all 10 opponents’ power-play chances in the last four games.

“I think the things we’re trying to see out of our team are becoming more and more consistent,” said defenseman Josh Morrissey, who scored his first goal of the season Saturday and has a team-leading 11 points.

“Hopefully, we can keep that going.”

Hellebuyck has stopped 96 of 100 shots during his last three starts. However, he allowed four goals on 29 shots faced at Dallas last month, and he’s posted a 3.51 goals-against average during an 0-1-4 stretch opposite the Stars.

Teammate Pierre-Luc Dubois has five goals and five assists on the season and has registered back-to-back two-point games. Meanwhile, Mark Scheifele scored Winnipeg’s lone goal versus Dallas this season. He has three goals and two assists in his last six games.

–Field Level Media

The Detroit Red Wings are showing signs of becoming a playoff contender and will look for their fourth straight victory when they host the Montreal Canadiens for the second time this season on Tuesday.

Detroit gave up eight goals at Buffalo on Halloween night but have allowed just three during the ensuing winning streak. The Red Wings defeated Washington 3-1, then blanked the New York Islanders 3-0.

Playing the tail end of a back-to-back on Sunday, Detroit trailed the New York Rangers 2-0 after the first period. Matt Luff and Pius Suter scored second-period goals to tie it and Dominik Kubalik’s power-play goal in overtime gave the Wings a 3-2 win.

“We had some looks and it could have easily been 2-1 or 2-2 (in the first period),” Kubalik said. “We came back to the room and said we need to keep playing and working and hopefully we’ll get one and it’s going to turn around, and that’s exactly what happened. We deserved it, we earned it and we’re happy we got the win.”

Luff scored for the first time since being recalled from Detroit’s AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids. Injuries have sidelined four of the Red Wings’ forwards and another is in the player assistance program, but they’re still plugging along.

“With the type of offense we have out of the lineup right now, guys are committed to playing the right way and it’s hard to do consistently,” coach Derek Lalonde said.

Alex Nedeljkovic bounced back from his poor outing against the Sabres by making 27 saves against the Rangers.

“I just wanted to focus on me (Sunday), stop the puck for the boys and give them a chance to win in front of me,” Nedeljkovic said.

Ville Husso has emerged as the No. 1 goalie. His shutout against the Islanders was his second of the season. He’s 5-1-1 with a .941 save percentage.

Husso’s first shutout came in Detroit’s 3-0 season-opening victory against the Canadiens.

Montreal will look to snap a three-game losing streak in its return visit. In their last outing, the Canadiens lost at home to Vegas on Saturday 6-4.

Most of the scoring was done in the third period, as the Canadiens trailed 2-1 after two.

“I think we played a really good first period,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “In the second we had good intentions, we had options but we weren’t able to execute our plays, they had a lot of offense on the other end and it didn’t allow our defensemen to change.”

The Golden Knights took the lead on a power-play goal at 4:45 of the third and never relinquished it.

“We had a good push at the end of the second to start the third, but we weren’t able to kill the penalty that gave them the advantage,” St. Louis said. “I liked our fight, but we shot ourselves in the foot a few times.”

Forward Josh Anderson won’t make the trip to Detroit. He was suspended for two games without pay for boarding Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo during the third period.

–Field Level Media

The Vegas Golden Knights will try to extend their seven-game winning streak Tuesday night when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have won three straight.

The Maple Leafs are coming off key back-to-back wins — 2-1 over the visiting Boston Bruins on Saturday and 3-1 over the host Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday. They started the streak with a 5-2 home victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday.

Vegas, meanwhile, defeated the Montreal Canadiens 6-4 on Saturday in the third of five consecutive road games.

“We cannot take it for granted, for sure,” said Vegas winger Jonathan Marchessault, who had a goal and an assist at Montreal. “Winning in (this) league is pretty hard. We got a reality check last year.”

The Maple Leafs have rebounded from a four-game losing streak and so far have been able to deal with the loss of goaltender Ilya Samsonov (knee) after the second period on Saturday. Samsonov is expected to be out for at least one week.

Erik Kallgren, who started the season as the No. 3 goaltender, made 29 saves on Sunday.

“I feel like my game has been pretty good, but we haven’t had the results we wanted,” Kallgren said “You just have to keep working and these games will come, too.”

The game against Vegas is Toronto’s third straight against the top teams in the league.

They have passed the first two tests.

“Both (Saturday and Sunday) we stayed with it,” said the Maple Leafs’ Mitchell Marner, who assisted on the go-ahead goal in the third period Sunday by John Tavares. “We talked about this being a big weekend, especially back-to-back against two great teams. Both games, defensively speaking, we did what we wanted to, held our objective down there.”

Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe started the game Sunday with the fourth line of David Kampf between Zach Aston-Reese and Denis Malgin.

“I thought Denis was our best player through much of the game,” said Keefe, who is on much more solid footing after the team struggled to close October. “He’s one of those guys really hanging on to the puck on the inside and making things happen. That line was really good, it’s a few games in a row where they’ve been responsible but also really dangerous.

“The win is on the back of playing sound defensively. Tonight was a reflection of how I felt about the game rather than the lines’ (performance). One of those games where not a lot was happening and I thought changing things would maybe get the guys’ attention and change the chemistry.”

Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy had his fourth line of Nicolas Roy between William Carrier and Keegan Kolesar open the game in Montreal, something the coach has done before.

“They really set the table for the next line coming over the boards, and they end up finishing a few plays,” Cassidy said. “I was glad to see them get rewarded on the scoresheet, because sometimes those types of lines, they get lots of shots, shots, shots, shots and they don’t always go in.”

Kolesar had a goal and an assist Saturday. Roy scored a goal and Carrier added an assist.

“We know what we have to do,” Roy said. “Be reliable. We can play against the fourth line or we can play against a first line and be hard to play against. We want to spend as much time in the o-zone as we can. When the next line goes on the ice, they have more space.”

–Field Level Media

After what head coach Don Granato described as a “learning point” of a loss to the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Buffalo Sabres will look to rebound when they host the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday.

Thanks to Jeff Skinner’s goal early in the third period, Buffalo held a 3-2 lead through 47 minutes of Saturday’s game with the Tampa Bay Lightning. However, the Lightning then showed their mettle in scoring three unanswered goals for the 5-3 comeback win.

“We lost that game because of difference in experience, not skill. That was evident when you look at the detail of it,” Granato said.

While the coach praised the Sabres’ effort level, Granato felt “we didn’t play an experienced enough game down the stretch, specifically.”

It didn’t help that the Sabres were again missing a key defenseman. Just as Ilya Lyubushkin returned from a four-game injury absence, Rasmus Dahlin was a late scratch from the lineup. Dahlin is day-to-day with an upper-body injury and is questionable to face the Coyotes.

Owen Power helped fill the void on the blue line by recording two assists against Tampa Bay. The first overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft has seven points (all assists) over 12 games this season.

It was the Sabres’ second consecutive loss, as they went 0-2-0 on back-to-back nights of a two-game road trip against the Carolina Hurricanes and Lightning.

The Coyotes would welcome the idea of just a two-game excursion. Arizona has just started a grueling 14-game road trip. It matches the longest road trip in NHL history, a record previously set by the 2009-10 Vancouver Canucks.

Despite the tough month ahead for the Coyotes, they began their marathon trip in good form with a 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Saturday.

While Buffalo couldn’t hold its lead against the Lightning, the Coyotes were on the right end of a third-period comeback. Trailing 2-0 after 46 minutes against Washington, Arizona scored three times, including Nick Ritchie’s game-winner with less than 36 seconds remaining in regulation.

Ritchie also scored the equalizer, giving the forward his third multi-point game of the season. Ritchie has never scored more than 15 goals in any of his seven previous NHL seasons, but he already has six tallies in 11 games.

Arizona launched its comeback by “being physical,” defenseman Josh Brown said.

“Some guys were kind of running around a little bit, and we had some big hits to turn the momentum,” Brown said. “And then just getting pucks to the net. Sometimes we were trying to hold on, trying to make the extra play.”

Brown benefited from this pressure himself, scoring on a rebound 6:33 into the third period to spark the Coyotes’ late surge.

Karel Vejmelka stopped 34 of 36 Capitals shot, and likely will be the Coyotes’ starting goaltender again on Tuesday.

Eric Comrie has gotten the bulk of starts for Buffalo this season, including Saturday’s game against Tampa Bay. Comrie has a 3.39 goals-against average over eight games.

The Sabres’ power play is 8-for-24 over their last six games, with at least one power-play marker scored in each of those games.

–Field Level Media

The Vancouver Canucks will look for a bounce-back win while keeping one of the league’s worst teams reeling when they visit the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.

The Canucks are coming off a 4-3 shootout loss to the visiting Nashville Predators on Saturday, while Ottawa dropped its fifth straight game with a 2-1 loss to the visiting Philadelphia Flyers that same day.

Vancouver scored three first-period goals and led 3-1 entering the final period before Nashville scored twice in less than two minutes early in the final frame. After neither team scored in overtime, Matt Duchene scored the only goal in the shootout to send Vancouver to its second loss in its past three games.

Center J.T. Miller posted a goal and an assist for the Canucks, who also received goals from wingers Ilya Mikheyev and Andrei Kuzmenko, while defenseman Quinn Hughes added two assists. Goalie Thatcher Demko (1-6-2, 3.91 goals-against average) had 27 saves.

“We knew that just because the first period was in our favor pretty much the whole time, that the game wasn’t over,” Miller said. “There were a couple of mistakes made.

“We played a good 40 minutes, set ourselves up. And obviously, at this point in time we’re tired of getting teams coming back on us.”

Canucks center Elias Pettersson, with five goals and a team-high 10 assists, has a team-leading 15 points, one ahead of Bo Horvat, who has a team-high 10 goals with four assists. Miller and Kuzmenko have seven goals apiece.

Ottawa, which is last place in the Atlantic Division, took a 1-0 lead in the first period against the Flyers on center Claude Giroux’s 300th career goal, which also gave him a tally against every team in the league.

After Kevin Hayes’ goal at the 5:17 mark in the first period tied the game, Zack MacEwen’s goal with 1:36 left in the second period proved to be the difference.

“We’re in a little hole,” said Giroux, who played for the Flyers from 2007-2022. “But I’ve been in bigger holes before and come out of it, so right now I’m very frustrated, but not worried about it.”

Cam Talbot, who the Senators acquired in a trade with the Minnesota Wild this past July, made 26 saves in his Ottawa debut after missing the first three weeks with a rib injury.

The Senators, who outshot the Flyers 34-28, went 0-for-5 on the power play, while the Flyers went 1-for-3, with Hayes’ first-period equalizer coming on the man advantage.

“It comes down to special teams” Senators coach D.J. Smith said. “They score on their power play and we go 0-for-5. The game’s on the line and you get a power play in the third period. We’ve got to find a way to put it in.”

Winger Brady Tkachuk has a team-high 10 assists and is tied for the team lead with six goals, as his 16 points are at least five more than any other Senator.

Giroux and center Shane Pinto also have six goals, while winger Drake Batherson is second on the team with 11 points (three goals and eight assists).

–Field Level Media