You never want to say a game is a sure win in sports, but there’s no doubt that was a must win for the Oilers. Edmonton gave up a late lead in Anaheim and rolled into Los Angeles for a game with the dead last Kings that gave them a solid chance to finish their road trip on a positive note. That didn’t happen.

What happened…

The Oilers come out completely flat to the start the game and the Kings capitalized as Dustin Brown gave them an early 1-0 lead. The first 10 or so minutes were largely spent in Edmonton’s zone as the team couldn’t effectively break the puck out.
Before the end of the first period, the Oilers managed to tie the game up at 1-1 thanks to a power play goal from Alex Chiasson. To be honest, they were lucky to come out that first period with a tie.
Things started to look better in the second period as the Oilers came out of the gate with some life to them. Chiasson parked himself in front of the net and buried his second goal of the game, giving the Oilers a 2-1 lead.
That didn’t last long as the Kings tied the game back up a few minutes later with a power play goal of their own. Anze Kopitar found Brown, who was completely alone in front of the net. He isn’t going to miss from there very often.
I’m not really sure what happened here, but Kopitar, somehow, was able to get himself behind both Edmonton defenders. He took a pass off the boards for a breakaway and buried one past Cam Talbot. Again, of all the guys on the Kings, maaaaaybe keep an eye on where Kopitar is? Woof.
The Oilers had a big flurry in the third period but couldn’t tie the game as L.A. would add two empty net goals to seal the deal.

By the numbers…

The shot chart matches what your eyes will tell you from that game. The Oilers were asleep to start the game, they got a little bit better in the second period, and then the Kings went into lead-protection mode in the third and Edmonton started to put their foot on the gas. Still, despite the effort in the third, the Kings, who thrive at hanging on to leads, were able to hold the Oilers to just four scoring chances at even strength in the third. They controlled the possession game, but couldn’t bust through L.A.’s tight defence.

Thoughts…

  • Boy, there’s a game you don’t want to lose. The Kings scored five goals (albeit, two into an empty net) despite the fact they were averaging just 2.1 goals per game to this point. L.A. also got walked the previous night by Vancouver, so Edmonton was easily the more rested team. Despite that, the Oilers looked asleep to start the game. The Kings were able to grind their way to a lead and hold on to it in the third.
  • Alex Chiasson has 10 goals now which is more than he had last year in 61 games. He’s been a great bargain find, but obviously his 41.7 shooting percentage is going to die down eventually. Hopefully that isn’t any time soon because the Oilers need all the offence they can get.
  • I wasn’t really a fan of Ryan Spooner on the McDrai line. Spooner has speed, which is a good thing with those two, but he doesn’t think the game at the same level. Drake Caggiula was a better fit on that line because he was good at going to the dirty areas in the offensive zone. I mean, it’s fair for a new coach to want to mix things around to see what works, but I don’t see Spooner working on that line.
  • I won’t fault Cam Talbot for this loss. He wasn’t great, stopping 27 of 30 shots, but you aren’t going to win when you can only manage to score two goals on a team like the Kings. The breakaway goal by Kopitar was a horrendous effort from Adam Larsson, both on the completely unaware read and the lame back check, and Brown’s power play goal involved more poor defensive zone awareness.
  • Ty Rattie played just over three minutes and he was on the ice for one shot attempt for and seven against. Anyone else get the feeling his time here might be done soon? The second line had a rough go last night. Nugent-Hopkins was on the ice for 10 shot attempts for and 22 against. They didn’t thrive in the defensive zone and they got virtually nothing going offensively. I feel bad for RNH. They badly need to find him some wingers. And then there’s Jesse Puljujarvi who played only seven minutes last night. Same old, same old.
  • Through 23 games, Edmonton has a .478 points percentage. That’s just slightly better than the .476 points percentage they finished with last year. They’re going to have to figure things out quickly in order to climb back up the standings. As we know, the Pacific Division is hot garbage, but the 1-3-1 start against divisional opponents doesn’t inspire much faith right now.
  • The reffing in the third was bad, there’s no doubt about that. Brown smacked Klefbom in the face after a shot and managed to talk his way out of a penalty. McDavid took many hooks and grabs that didn’t get called. Still, the refs weren’t the reason the Oilers came out like a bag of hot garbage in the first period. Maybe don’t play like junk for half of the game against the 31st placed team on the second leg of a back-to-back and you won’t need the refs to bail you out in the third period.