When Mattias Ekholm was interviewed following the series clinching win in game six last night, he was asked something along the line about how difficult was the series.

Paraphrasing Ekholm’s answer, he said he thought the Oilers needed to clean up the penalty kill, but at 5v5 the Oilers were the better team for most of the series and so he wasn’t surprised by their win. When I wrote the series preview article, I said the key would be the Oilers’ 5v5 play against the Kings. The idea was to saw off against the Kings and use the powerplay to make a difference. Well, the Oilers did more than that against the Kings. The Oilers lost the goal share at 5v5 in only one game in this series, which ironically was the last game the Kings won. In addition, the Oilers outscored the Kings 15 to 11 at 5v5 in this series and punctuated that by winning the 5v5 goal share 4-1 in game six. So to echo Mattias Ekholm’s comments, the Oilers won this series because of their 5v5 play, not in spite of it. Furthermore, game six was the giant exclamation point in that statement.

Tactically neither team changed anything they had been doing in the series. The most notable change was Los Angeles switching the Danault line to the McDavid line and putting the Kopitar line on the Bjugstad line, which did give the Oilers some challenges. The Oilers had some wobble tonight at 5v5 in terms of the number of chances they gave up, which was the second most in any game of this series according to Natural Stat Trick. However, it was primarily their own execution issues as opposed to anything the Kings were doing. Most of what ailed the Oilers tonight was failing to protect the blue lines when they had the puck. I had a coach who called these two lines the “poop your pants” zones. Yes, I know he likely had other words in mind, but we were 11 years old. Anyway, his lesson was if you lose the battle at the bluelines, almost certainly you’ll be pooping your pants when your coach talks to you after your shift.

Here is a perfect example from Bjugstad. The line is set up perfectly for a short 3v2 and maybe even a 2v1 because Mikey Anderson takes a massive risk to step on this play. However, Bjugstad loses the puck and now the Kings have a quick transition chance going the other way.

The safe play here is the chip for sure. Bjugstad could have even created a change by swinging it RNH on his left flank. Instead, he gets checked at the blue line and the Kings go the other direction.

Another area where the Oilers got away from what was serving them well in the series was their spacing. Here is a clip where Darnell Nurse, with soft pressure, has to send a medium-length 50/50 pass to Zach Hyman because no forward came low enough for a short outlet. This despite the fact the clip shows this giant hole of space available for Oiler forwards to fill.

The result was a turnover to the Kings who came back the other direction with the puck. This happened more frequently than in prior games and was one factor why the Kings had more scoring chances in game six than in any other game but one.

Now that is not to say it was a horrendous game by the Oilers. In fact, more of the game than not was quite good. As an illustration, let’s talk about Darnell Nurse. Nurse had challenges tonight, but I think again, some of this had to do with his partner more than him and also the fact the Bjugstad line (which he paired with a lot) struggled. Nurse, himself had very good moments including one that led to the winning goal. Watch this clip here that leads to the Yamomoto goal. Nurse is going back for the loose puck. Ceci does a nice job running a little interference on the Kings’ forechecker, so he cannot take a direct route to Nurse. McLeod supports Nurse nice and low. Now when we freeze the frame, Nurse’s passing options are limited. Two are marked and the third is a risky backhand pass across the ice. However, because McLeod is nice and low, being marked and the other two forwards have stretched the ice, there is a nice skating lane for Nurse. After that, Nurse’s skating talent takes over finishing with a tremendous little example of his puck skills with three LA Kings around him.

This was a great example of executing a transition play from the defensive zone. Nice support from the other four players and Darnell Nurse showing off the best part of his game: his skating.

The Oilers’ second goal by Klim Kostin was also great transition work by a five-man unit. In this case, Brett Kulak gets back and makes a quick pass to Vincent Desharnais who gave him a nice short outlet (Desharnais was great in game six). Desharnais, in turn, makes another quick pass to Ryan McLeod who, for my money, is the best Oiler center at supporting his defencmen on transition plays. All of this work traps four Kings below the puck when McLeod outlets to Kostin. Now it is a race to the Kings’ end which leads to a nice slot chance thanks to Derek Ryan’s strong middle drive down the ice and maybe some stick work on the Kings defender. Kostin with the great release and it was 2-1.

The last part of today’s review is the Kings’ defensive zone work last night. To be blunt, it cost them the game. Some of it was on them and some of it was great work by the Oilers. Let’s start with the McDavid goal. This clip is a coach’s dream. First, it starts with a set play off the face-off. Watch Draisaitl’s skates on the puck drop. He is already headed up top to create a 2-3 offensive zone look. When I talked about the King’s defensive zone structure, I said one way to break it down was to use a 2-3 attack. This would pull Kings players up top which would give the Oilers two options. Seams in the slot to attack, but also some opportunities for switches up top that would lead to flank attacks. In this case, Draisaitl runs a great pick play and frees up McDavid for a chance.

The second part of the clip is even more impressive. Kane wins the loose puck and sends it to Ekholm who moves it quickly to Bouchard. In the Kings’ defensive zone, when the puck comes up top, they switch to a man-on-man look. Watch the two Kings forwards simultaneously attack Bouchard in all the confusion. McDavid then finds that quiet space between them and the net front defender for the tip-in off a great pass by the old man.

This was a great offensive zone play from start to finish. A great set piece that created a chance, but also created chaos for Kings’ defenders leading to a quick 1-0 advantage for the Oilers.

The other area of the Kings’ defensive zone that had challenges was their ability to battle. We discussed the Yamomoto goal above as it related to Darnell Nurse. Now, let’s focus on Klim Kostin. Twice on this shift, Kostin wins battles. The first is a 50/50 puck battle with Mike Anderson that results in Kostin getting the puck up top to Cody Ceci. The second battle happens off a switch down low. McLeod and Kostin play pitch and catch with the puck which allows Kostin a lane to the net without the puck. Anderson and Byfield switch with Byfield taking Kostin. Kostin bullies his way net front to wreak havoc on Jonas Korpisalo’s vision of the outside wrist shot. Game over. Series over.

In the end, the Oilers won this series because they executed their tactics better than the Kings. That is not a statement to overlook. The Kings are one of the best tactical teams in the NHL. Their 5v5 is frustrating to watch, but it works. In this series, the Oilers overcame the Kings by being more sound at 5v5. If the Oilers can continue to perform at 5v5 and figure out the penalty kill, there is a long run ahead for them in this playoffs

That’s it for this review and for this series. I will be back next week with a preview of the Vegas Golden Knight’s tactics and how the Oilers match up with them. As always, your feedback is welcome here or to @bcurlock on Twitter.