The Edmonton Oilers went full steam ahead against the Los Angeles Kings last night in Game 1. The physical tone was set early, along with an endless wave of attack by the home team. The Kings struggled to find their feet for large portions of the game, with their last two goals gifted by unfortunate mistakes from Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci.
The playoff fever was palpable both inside and outside Rogers Place. The city was buzzing, and even Klim Kostin, a hero from last year’s playoffs, couldn’t resist the excitement. Kostin, who was a fan favourite during his time in Edmonton, was spotted among the crowd, clearly still in love with the city and its hockey.
Will Kostin get a call from the San Jose Sharks this morning about wearing an Oilers jersey? Probably. Either way, seeing Mr Klim, Klim the Dream, the Klim reaper, or whatever you call him in the building last night was fantastic.
The ground was buzzing last night with endless “Let’s-Go Oilers” chants, goalie heckling, and the continuation of songs after the DJ ended the music. The crowd wanted to erupt from the second they entered the building, and Zach Hyman, the children’s book author and 50-goal man, let them fly out of their seats. However, Hyman didn’t just score once. The Oilers star forward beat Cam Talbot three times for his first career Stanley Cup Playoff hat trick.
The delay from picking up the hats after Hyman’s third goal was arguably the longest I’ve ever witness. Gene Principe tweeted post-game that 1131 hats made their way to the ice last night.
While Hyman was banging home the goals, Connor McDavid did what only he can do. The Oilers captain picked up five assists last night for the first time in his post-season career. Hyman’s hat trick overshadowed the moment, and rightfully so, but McDavid was hands down the best player on the ice last night. He was a man on a mission, spinning around one King and then the next. LA better hope they can find a solution to defend him moving forward; otherwise, this series could be over quickly.
We’ve spoken about plenty of offence from yesterday but hats off to Stuart Skinner. He was fantastic and was incredibly unfortunate to have four goals against labelled to him. Fans weren’t happy with the mistake from Cody Ceci when he slapped the puck right into the Kings player’s stick, which resulted in a Trevor Moore goal. Let’s not be too harsh on Ceci about that. It was a reaction play that went wrong, so let’s move on and forget about it.
Back on the positives, Skinner’s save on Viktor Arvidsson was an elite, timely save. Arvidsson was on a clear breakaway from Skinner and managed to get his pad on the puck. Shortly after, the Oilers went down the other end and made it 3-0. Skinner didn’t make those saves last postseason, so it was great to see him get one early in the run.
LA did pull one back when it was 4-0 with a goal from Mickey Andersson. It looked like the Kings grabbed a second goal quickly after from Trevor Lewis, but the call on the ice was overturned because the puck his Lewis’ glove. The review took a while but even if the Trevor Lewis goal didn’t go off his hand it seemed like a clear high stick. Maybe I am wrong, but shouldn’t it have been a no goal either way?
Trevor Moore did get on the boxscore late but that wasn’t the reason people were talking about him last night. The Kings laid a horrendous hit on Vincent Desharnais taking out his knees. From the replays, it seemed clear that the intended target was the lower body of the Oilers defenceman. The officials gave Moore a two minute penalty for tripping but should more come from this?
The Oily last night has to be the donair guns. There’s only one place in the world you can do that and its right here in the City of Champions.
Game two goes Wednesday when the Oilers look to take a 2-0 lead before heading to Los Angeles later in the week.

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