Kings 5, Oilers 2 post-game Oil Spills: Four-point loss in La La Land
By Cam Lewis
6 years agoWith a good chunk of Edmonton’s remaining games coming against the Pacific Division, there was some reason for extremely cautious optimism about a late-season run. But last night’s loss to the Kings in Los Angeles effectively dried up all of the excitement garnered from the incredibly stomping of the first-place Lightning earlier in the week.
Highlights
The Kings grabbed a 2-0 lead with quick goals to open both the first and second periods, but the Oilers battled back. Leon Draisaitl took a pass from Connor McDavid on the power play and threw sort of a knuckleball on net that fooled Darcy Kuemper. There’s been a sense of urgency on the power play in the last couple of games we haven’t seen much this season.
A few minutes later, Connor McDavid took pass from Mike Cammalleri and busted up the ice, burning Drew “Two time Stanley Cup Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist” Doughty before snapping a shot between Kuemper’s pads. If the Oilers are going to make a run this year, it’ll have to come on the back of McDavid playing at an otherworldly level every single night.
The Oilers had some good chances to take the lead in the third period. Like here, when JJ Khaira kept the puck in and fired it on net then everyone on the team proceeded to hit the post. First Darnell Nurse rung one off the post, then Mike Cammalleri was robbed on the rebound, then, finally, Milan Lucic rung another one point-blank off the iron. Woof.
The Kings took the lead late in the third period with this questionable goal. Paul LaDue sniped a shot into the back of the net, but it appeared that Tanner Pearson, who was setting up a screen, might have interfered with Cam Talbot. Todd McLellan challenged it, but the war room called it a good goal. The Kings would go on to pot a couple of empty net goals for a 5-2 win.
By the numbers
The Kings really controlled the game in the first period as the Oilers got off to a lacklustre start. Los Angeles had 75 per cent of the even strength shot attempts and all of the even strength high danger scoring chances. That’s right. The Kings stopped the Oilers from getting a single high danger chance in the first period. In the second, Edmonton played much better in terms of possession, but still struggled to get high-quality chances at even strength. The Kings took over again in the third, as the Oilers began to look worn out. The Oilers actually had four high danger chances in the third, but most of them came in one sequence. All in all, the Kings had 55 shot attempts at even strength to the Oilers 36. The Oilers were one-for-three on the power play, but they only killed one of L.A.’s two power plays.
Thoughts…
- It’s fun to try to be optimistic about this team and the possibility of a wild, improbable playoff run in the final stretch of the season, but deep down, we all know it isn’t going to happen. The one saving grace the Oilers have is that they play a bunch of games against teams they need to catch or pass, making this comeback sort of conceivable. But last night’s loss was a four-point loss, which is a massive dagger in the playoff hopes. Beyond that, the Oilers are supposed to be built to be good against Pacific teams like Los Angeles. Last night, you certainly didn’t see that. We’ve complained all year about the Oilers being big and slow, playing this outdated heavy game as the league transitions to speed and skill, yet even when they play a heavy team like L.A., they don’t seem to have an edge. It’s not so much the four-point loss that’s damning here, it’s the fact they got mopped pretty handily by a team they’re apparently built to play well against.
- On a positive side, the power play has looked quite good the last couple games. I noted against Tampa Bay that they were moving the puck with urgency rather than standing around and making hard eye contact with each other. That was the case again last night as the Oilers moved the puck around quickly, created space, and got shots on goal. That’s a recipe for success. The penalty kill, though, is still bad.
- Last night was one of those nights that the Oilers didn’t get much going outside of the McDavid and Draisaitl line. In the third, Milan Lucic’s line generated some offence, and Lucic himself hit the post a couple of times throughout the game, but the depth scoring simply isn’t there. Lucic hasn’t scored in 16 games now, and, as pointed out by Ryan Batty, in 13 of those 16 games, he hasn’t been on the ice for an even strength goal. On a more positive note, I quite liked Jesse Puljujarvi’s play on the top line. I would rather McDavid and Draisaitl be split up and Puljujarvi playing with one of those two top centres. I get the point of playing Ryan Strome more to see what you’ve got, but, unfortunately, I think we know what we have at this point.
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