That wasn’t the best Edmonton Oilers game.
On Saturday afternoon, the Oilers played their third of four games on this road trip, facing off against the Los Angeles Kings. Without Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, and others, the Oilers fell 3-0 to snap their three-game winning streak. Let’s take a look at what happened in this game.
Midway through the second period, the Kings jumped out to a 1-0 lead, as Alex Laferriere’s shot off the rush was saved by Calvin Pickard. However, the rebound fell right to Kevin Fiala, who tapped it in to score the game-winning goal.
With just under four minutes left in the second period, Andrei Kuzmenko beat Pickard with a hard wrister from the top of the faceoff dot, ripping it blocker side for the insurance goal. The Kings sealed it with an empty-netter.

Takeaways…

Trent Frederic made his Oilers debut on Saturday. Six seconds into the game, he nailed a King on the boards. However, he grimaced and missed a few shifts after this. Once he returned, he got into several scrums after the whistle blew. The Oilers have missed this type of grit, but he only played seven minutes and ten seconds.
Calvin Pickard is making a strong case to be the starting netminder heading into the post-season, as he saved 26 of 28 shots for a .929 save percentage. It was his fifth consecutive start, and he has a .904 save percentage in that time. Removing the horrible game against the Kraken, Pickard has a .925 save percentage in his last four games.
The penalty kill was good, as the Oilers killed off all four penalties they faced. However, they only had one power play themselves, with the Kings getting two power plays in the third period. One of which saw Warren Foegele haul down Evan Bouchard with the Oiler defenceman getting the interference penalty. Sure.
However, the refs aren’t why the Oilers lost this game. Darcy Kuemper saved all 29 shots he faced for the shutout. You can count on one hand how many high-danger opportunities the Oilers had. That’s just what happens against the Kings in LA when the Oilers are missing the two best players in the league.
With Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Mattias Ekholm, and Stuart Skinner all missing this game, winning the game against the Kings was always going to be tough, and this game shouldn’t be looked into too much. Sadly, it matters when it comes to points as the Kings move to 44-23-9 with 97 points, four ahead of the Oilers with an equal number of games played.
The Oilers will have a rematch with the Kings on home ice in nine days, but first, the Oilers finish their road trip against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday at 8:30 PM MT.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.