For the Oilers, it was a two-goal lead at the second intermission. For the Kings, it was a 2-1 lead to fellow division rival the Vegas Golden Knights that flipped to a 6-4 loss. The VGK scored five third-period goals, including three in a span of three minutes and 14 seconds, to snatch two points.

What hurts is how depleted the Golden Knights’ lineup was, without Olympians Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Mitch Marner, Noah Hanifin, and Shea Theodore. The Kings now sit three points back of the last wildcard spot, ahead of a playoff rematch fans have seen for four years running.

“I think a big focus for us coming out of the break was kind of tightening up a little bit defensively,” said newcomer Artemi Panarin. “Obviously, giving up five and the empty netter as well, it’s something that we’ve got to get better at.”

The shiny new toy in the lineup in Panarin, had two assists in his Hollywood debut, skating on a line with Adrian Kempe and Alexis Laferriere. It’s hoped Panarin can help reshape a power play that sat fourth-worst in the league during the Olympic break.

While the PP went 1/1, it’s not as easy as waving a magic wand at even strength. The offensive struggles remained, and Los Angeles fired just 19 shots on goal. Overall, each team had nine High Danger Scoring Chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“We weren’t dangerous offensively,” said coach Jim Hillier.

“I don’t know, in these games coming back, we were watching some games before it started, they were pretty low scoring. I would say the execution is probably not at a high level offensively right now.

Kings’ home woes

Beyond being a divisional game with two important points on the line, the level of bad blood between these two is sure to boil over into a spirited affair tonight. It’s been 10 months since the Oilers visited Crypto.com Arena, back on Game 5 of the annual first-round playoff series, with those games best remembered for the harmonica playing anthems from the Koreatown Senior and Community Center.

Back on January 10, the Kings muscled their way to a 4-3 shootout win at Rogers Place.

Getting games to overtime and shootout has been LA’s special talent this season. Only Vegas has as many loser points as LA with 14, keeping the Kings afloat despite just 23 victories on the season.

What’s reversed this season is how abysmal they’ve been on home ice.

The Kings set a franchise record in 2024-25 with a 31-6-4 home record. After another regulation L at home on Wednesday, their home record this season is 8-12-7. Only the Rangers and Canucks have fewer wins at home.

General manager Ken Holland was able to swing for the fences and acquire Panarin for cents on the dollar before the break, but the Kings have lost three in a row now. they are closer to getting leapfrogged in the standings by Nashville and San Jose than getting that last playoff spot.

This game will have some juice tonight.

Expected vs reality

For the Oilers, hopes of buckling down on their defensive posture didn’t work in their first game – at least on the scoreboard. At 5-on-5, the Ducks only registered six High Danger Scoring Chances in the game, but scored six goals.

Compared to the Oilers and their 15 HDSC, it wasn’t a matter of how many, but what happened with those individual looks. A combination of poor defending from Darnell Nurse, and soft goaltending from Tristan Jarry, helped gag away a lead.

While expected goals is not everyone’s favourite stat, it’s a good tool to see the types of chances teams create, and how well goaltending faces those chances. In their last 20 games, the Oilers have a higher expected goals than their opponents in 19 of them, and 28 of their last 33. Their record during those spans? 9-9-2 and 17-13-3.

“I wasn’t happy with the goaltending,” said coach Kris Knoblauch post-game.

“The goals that we gave up, especially in the third period, yeah I didn’t like those. Definitely there were other mistakes, but part of it is you need better goaltending and tonight wasn’t one of his best games.”

Typically, if the Oilers don’t get goals from Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl, they have little chance to win. That wasn’t how Wednesday was shaping up, with the Oilers employing five different goal-scorers.

McDavid ensured he would play, recognizing how crucial this road-trip is in the context of the standings. Similarly, Drew Doughty and Joel Armia returned from Milan quickly and played for the Kings last night.

Each team gets little time to think and must regroup.

Notes:

LA suffered one of the biggest injuries of the Olympics when Kevin Fiala’s leg got trapped underneath himself following an awkward hit from Canada’s Tom Wilson. Fiala was third on team scoring with 18 goals and 40 points.
Trevor Moore on Fiala’s injury: “Just a nightmare for him and for all of us, I just feel so bad for him. You know, he cares so much about Switzerland and playing for his country, I know that he’s obviously so bummed, so I just feel for him.”
Adrian Kempe has points in nine of his last 10 games, with 12 total.
Oilers’ forward Trent Frederic is goalless now in 33 games. One more game would tie the longest drought of his NHL career.
Adam Henrique played 12:42 in his return to the lineup. His last goal was October 23.
Zach Hyman leads the NHL in goals since December 11, with 21 tucks in 29 games.
Anze Kopitar recently collected his 1300th point, putting him in super elite company. With an assist last night, he is six points back of Marcel Dionne for the franchise record for points.
Kopitar already is the franchise leader for seasons played (20), games played (1,496), assists (854), overtime points (33), overtime assists (24), 20-goal seasons (14) and game-winning goals (79), as well as Kings playoff records for games played (103) and overtime goals (3).
Mattias Janmark left the game in the first period last night. His status is questionable for tonight’s game. If so, the Oilers may be stuck playing 11 forwards and six defencemen. Kasperi Kapanen’s timeline to return was slated for Saturday. Fans should keep close eye to information over the next few hours to get a better sense of what the Oilers lineup could look like.
The Oilers should be able to take advantage of a Kings penalty kill that ranks sixth-worst in the NHL. The Kings went 1/2 last night.

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and has been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, he also collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues.