Game Day Notes: Los Angeles Kings at Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers will host the Kings for their final meeting of the season tonight. L.A. is comfortably playoff bound while the Oilers are riding things out.

1. The Kings and Oilers have played three times so far this season. Tonight’s game will be their final of four meetings. Los Angeles won the first to games between the two teams with a couple of lopsided scores — 5-0 on Jan. 2 and 5-2 on Feb. 7. Most recently, the Oilers won 4-3 in Los Angeles back in late February.

2. Since winning the Stanley Cup in 2014, which was their second championship in three years, the Kings have missed the playoffs twice in three years. They’ve also only won one playoff game since that last Stanley Cup. This spring, though, they’ll be back in the playoffs after missing out last season.

3. The Kings currently sit third in the Pacific Division with 89 points in 75 games. They’re four points behind San Jose and have played one more game. They’re tied with Anaheim with 89 points but the Kings have won more games. They’re well ahead of Calgary at this point and are pretty comfortably in a playoff spot. The only way they’ll miss out is if they get jumped by the Ducks for third in the Pacific and then get jumped by a Central Division team like Dallas or St. Louis.

4. Anze Kopitar is the biggest reason for Los Angeles’ successful season. The team’s offence is extremely underwhelming as only three players — Kopitar, Dustin Brown, and Tyler Toffoli — have eclipsed the 20-goal plateau. Kopitar leads the team with 86 points in 75 games, which is 31 points clear of Drew Doughty who sits in second on the team. This is especially impressive given that he also plays their most difficult defensive assignments too.

5. The strength of the Kings is defence and goaltending. While they’re a middling team offensively, they’ve allowed the third-fewest goals in the league. Their blueline is rock solid with Doughty leading the way with a Norris-calibre season and their goaltending is strong when it needs to be. Jonathan Quick has a .922 save percentage in 58 games, Darcy Kuemper had a .932 save percentage in 19 games before being dealt to Arizona (more on that later), and Jack Campbell, the former first round pick of the Dallas Stars who appeared to be a bust, has a .927 save percentage in four games so far.

6. The case of Kuemper is an interesting one and I think it highlights how good the Kings are defensively as a team. Or, well, how terrible the Coyotes are, too. Kuemper was rock solid with L.A. and had far and away the best numbers of his career. The Coyotes took a gamble and bought high on him, but since coming to Arizona, he has an .888 save percentage in seven games. That’s a small sample size, but I think it paints a picture of what the Kings have going on that the Coyotes don’t, which is a strong defensive game.

7. This will be Edmonton’s first game back at home after their four-game Eastern road swing. I know some of the teams they played on the trip were underwhelming, but the Oilers played some of their best hockey of the season on that trip over the past week. They pounded Ottawa and Carolina (who, yes, are pretty bad) and showed offensive swagger we haven’t seen all that much this season. It’s a little frustrating to see the team pull it together now that the games don’t matter, but hopefully it leads to confidence rolling into next season.

8. Speaking of the road trip, Ty Rattie really capitalized on his opportunity over that stretch. He was placed on Connor McDavid’s line prior to the Florida game and has since scored three goals and two assists in four games. I wrote the other day that it doesn’t matter who plays with McDavid, it matters more that the team stacks a line behind him. The Oilers don’t need to break the bank in free agency to find McDavid a winger. I think the success Rattie has is a great indication of how McDavid can be successful with just about any winger so long as they have a scoring touch and go to the net, which Rattie does.

9. With a couple weeks left to go in the season, McDavid is right in the hunt for another Art Trophy win. It’s honestly insane that he has 94 points in 74 games. For starters, the team’s power play has been junk all season, so a lot of this production has been at even strength. Also, McDavid spent about a month earlier in the season dealing with a flu that slowed him down. His 1.27 points-per-game is better than last year and he’s just going to keep improving.

10. Can McDavid still win the Hart Trophy? A player hasn’t missed the playoffs and won it since Mario Lemieux in 1988. Lemieux put up 168 points as a 22-year-old that year and the next best guy on the team was Dan Quinn who had less than half as many points as Lemieux did. I doubt McDavid wins it because I feel like it’s taboo for an MVP not to be in the playoffs, but I don’t think there’s a player more valuable to their team than McDavid right now. The difference between when he’s on the ice and when he isn’t is pretty staggering. I know we’re all upset that the Oilers wasted McDavid’s entry-level deal, but if the Penguins can mess up a young Lemieux’s 168-point season and then go on to win back-to-back Stanley Cups a few years later, thee’s hope for the Oilers.