NHL Game Preview - Los Angeles at Tampa Bay

Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:30 PM EST

Monday's trade deadline creates uneasiness and excitement around the league, and count several Los Angeles Kings among those not knowing where they might be playing the rest of the season.

Los Angeles plays at the league's top team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, on Monday night. By the time the puck drops at 7:30 p.m. ET, the trade deadline will have passed.

After Los Angeles was drubbed 6-1 by Florida for its seventh straight defeat on Saturday, team captain Anze Kopitar took full responsibility for his mistakes and added that players cannot use the worrisome trade deadline as a performance excuse.

"I'm sure it's on everybody's mind, but at the end of the day, showing up for the game, there's nothing more important than that. It doesn't matter if it's the deadline or whatever the case may be," Kopitar said.

The Kings, who rank ahead of only the Ottawa Senators in the overall league standings, have already traded away three significant players since Jan. 28.

The organization sent standout defenseman Jake Muzzin to the Toronto Maple Leafs, gritty forward Nate Thompson to the Montreal Canadiens and speedy forward Carl Hagelin to the Washington Capitals.

All the moves create an uncertainty, interim coach Willie Desjardins said.

"I think there's lots of thoughts when you're thinking about it all the time. It takes energy (out of) you," Desjardins said.

On Saturday, in a 1-1 tie in the second period and with Los Angeles late in the power play, Kopitar sent a slap shot wide from the right boards. The puck smacked off the end boards, wrapped around the rink and went right to Florida's Jonathan Huberdeau as he stepped out of the penalty box.

The left wing raced in and beat Kings goalie Jonathan Quick for the lead, and a 5-on-3 power play produced two more markers for the Panthers for a 4-1 lead and full control of the game.

The Lightning (47-11-4) probably are not worried about the deadline too much. As the NHL's top team for the majority of the season, Tampa Bay has had little to mull over, leaving coach Jon Cooper happy with his club.

The team's longest losing streak is just two games, which occurred twice. Tampa Bay even gained points in one of those brief streaks, earning points twice at home in a shootout loss to the Vegas Golden Knights and in an overtime defeat to the St. Louis Blues.

The Lightning have not played since last Thursday's 2-1 shootout win at home over the Buffalo Sabres. Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov scored, and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped Buffalo's Jack Eichel and Vladimir Sobotka as Tampa Bay won the shootout session 2-0.

Cooper's group has won eight consecutive games and will try to sweep the season series from the Kings. Tampa Bay beat the Kings 6-2 in Los Angeles on Jan. 3 as six different players scored, including Stamkos and Kucherov.

Kucherov's regulation goal against Buffalo gave him 100 points in 62 games.

"In the locker room after the game, you could tell how excited he was," Cooper said. "The biggest thing for me is how excited the guys were for him."

--Field Level Media