Last night, after the third goal by the Los Angeles Kings, I wrote the following on the social media platform X:

What did this post mean? It meant the Edmonton Oilers as a team had not learned any lessons from Game 1. Even when the Oilers started to make a comeback later in the game, I was pretty certain it was going to end in a loss.

The Kings attacked the middle of the ice at will in the first game. As I noted in the Tactical Review, the Oilers from the defence out didn’t defend this area very well. Whether it was leaving middle ice open or putting pucks into dangerous spots without support or not backtracking through the middle, the Oilers were exposed.

When the Kings scored the goal last night, it was clear the Oilers hadn’t learned from Game 1. What do I mean? Let’s take a look at the video.

I am about to illustrate the first three goals the Kings scored on Wednesday night. Two of those are on the power play. Yet, they all carry the same characteristics.

Let’s start with the first goal. This is the end of the Kings’ first power play, and really, this goal is the product of a rush attack, not a set power play plan. As the Kings enter the zone, Jake Walman gets beat on the entry. I do not like this play by Walman. The attacker is within a stick’s length. He needs to either get the puck or the player. He gets neither.

What I am more interested in is the effort of Mattias Janmark. I do not understand how Janmark doesn’t mark his player all the way to the net. He gets beat to the inside and really just lets Clarke go straight to the net without much effort. This creates a two-vs-one down low against Darnell Nurse. I am not a Lay-Down-On-The-Ice-To-Block-Passes type of guy. The minute a player does that, he eliminates all his options to defend plays except one. The puck beats him, and it’s in the back of the net.

This play is all about the Oilers allowing the middle of the ice to be exploited over and over. This has been a theme of this series.

The second goal, quite frankly, is worse.

On this play, the puck is dumped around the net, and it ends up on the side wall. At my first freeze frame, there are four LA Kings in the picture and only three Oilers. That’s a problem, for starters.

Secondly, look at the positioning of Darnell Nurse. He is above the puck in his own zone when it remains up for grabs. There is not a defence coach in the world who is going to tell him to go above the puck here. Yet, he rolls off the play and gets on the wrong side of the ice.

The puck goes behind Draisaitl, and now the outmanned Oilers are in trouble. The last freeze frame is on Connor McDavid. One of the issues with the nuclear option is that the Oilers like to get McDavid on the wing. I really dislike this and have said so for years. McDavid doesn’t understand wing play defensively. He wants to be up the ice to attack. In this play, the puck was on his side. He needed to be in this battle and on the defensive side of the puck. Corey Perry was right to be up the ice. McDavid was wrong. Goal against.

It’s laughable how much time and space Quinton Byfield had in the middle of the ice attacking the Oilers’ goal. Again, a theme.

The last goal was a more normal power-play goal. So, why do I dislike it from the perspective of defending the middle of the ice?

Take a look at the four Oilers in the picture. When this puck is going back to Kempe, each of them has their toes pointed up ice and ready to defend. That’s good. Problem? No one did.

One of Nugent-Hopkins or McDavid has to get a piece of this shot. I get that it is uncomfortable, but that’s their job. Instead, they do not.

In the meantime, the Kings have two players in the middle of the zone again. You can appreciate one player getting into the middle, although the Oiler forward need to be defending him. The one that is most alarming is Kuzmenko getting to the net front without anyone even paying attention to him.

Yes, it was a fluke bounce off the boards, but would the result have been different if the puck was on net. Kuzmenko went to the net without any concern or any attention being paid to him.

At the end of the day, the Oilers have just allowed too much free play by the Kings in the middle of the ice. From Game 1 to Game 2, nothing really changed in the Oilers’ efforts to protect the middle of the ice. If that continues into Game 3, it really could be a very short series.

Obviously, a better commitment to defending needs to happen. However, what else?

On the backend, John Klingberg was as advertised. He got exposed on the rush, but at least played some solid minutes and made some nice plays. Jake Walman is hurt. No question. At this juncture, the team should go with Bouchard-Walman, Nurse-Emberson and Kulak-Klingberg. The Kings have three good lines. This gives the Oilers some balance.

Stuart Skinner. I think he has been hung out to dry. However, it is also fair to say that saves need to be made. Do I think Pickard is an upgrade? No. Does he need to start Game 3? I think so, because I am not sure where this team is with Skinner and vice versa. There seems to be a malaise when the going gets tough with him. Nothing analytical I can point to, but just a sense.

The forward group, I liked going into the game. In the end, the fear I had with Adam Henrique has been found out. He cannot play center anymore. He needs to be moved around. I have no idea if Noah Philp is an option, but I would like to see it. I thought the Kane-RNH-Hyman line had moments, and I would run them back. The nuclear option, I don’t know. Right now, I am pretty convinced Connor McDavid can control the play regardless of his wingers. So maybe moving Draisaitl to his own line would be wise.

However, above all, until the Oilers start playing like the team that allowed the fourth least high danger chances against, there are really no solutions that will impact this series. Attack the middle and defend the middle needs to be their motto starting in Game 3.

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