EDMONTON, Alberta — The Kings tend to beat teams with their blue-collar efforts. This has been their identity for over a decade and this is what has made them successful.
But in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round series against the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night, that blue-collar identity was nowhere to be found and the Kings paid a heavy price, losing Game 1 of the best-of-seven series, 7-4.
Zach Hyman recorded a hat trick and Adam Henrique, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl completed the Oilers’ scoring. Connor McDavid had five assists and defenseman Evan Bouchard had four in this resounding victory.
Mikey Anderson, Adrian Kempe, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Trevor Moore scored for the Kings, who were eliminated in the first round by the Oilers in each of the previous two seasons.
Edmonton scored two goals before the midpoint of the first period and opened a 4-0 lead at 8:24 of the second.
The Oilers’ top line of McDavid, Henrique and Hyman caused all kinds of problems for the Kings, especially in the first period.
The Oilers opened the scoring at 6:52 after McDavid made a nice spin at the top of the faceoff circle and sent a backhand pass to Hyman, who made no mistake to beat the Oilers goaltender. Kings Cam Talbot.
Just 2:44 later, that line was back when Hyman found a streaking Henrique, who beat Talbot with a wrist shot over his shoulder for a quick 2-0 lead.
The Kings had a great opportunity to cut the lead in half when Victor Arvidsson took a pass from Mattias Ekholm and went in alone, but Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner didn’t have to make a save as the shot snapshot from Arvidsson missed the net.
Moments later, Hyman would make it 3-0 when he took a nice pass from McDavid who came out from behind the net and had the time and space to pass to Hyman for the goal.
After Kings forward Phillip Danault assessed a retaliatory penalty on Hyman for hitting Talbot, the Oilers made it 4-0 after Drasaitl’s center pass was knocked away by Nugent-Hopkins.
The Kings simply had no answer to the Oilers’ massive attack. During the first half of the match, the visitors didn’t get near the dirty areas and they made Skinner’s evening relatively easy. Especially in the first half of the match.
The Kings fought back, but the 4-0 deficit was too much to overcome.
Anderson’s point shot at 10:56 of the second period cut the lead to 4-1, and they looked to score again, just 1:39 later as Trevor Lewis deflected a shot through Skinner, but upon examination it was ruled no. -goal as the puck deflected off Lewis’ glove.
The Kings made it 4-2 with 2:04 left in the second period when Kempe’s central pass deflected off Bouchard’s skate to give them some life heading into the third period, but it was short-lived .
After Moore took a nasty penalty late in the second period, Draisaitl made it 5-2 with a power play just 1:08 into the third period to put the game out of reach.
Edmonton scored its third goal of the game on the power play when Hyman completed his hat trick at 6:17 of the third.
The Kings tried to send a message to the Oilers physically, but it backfired and the visitors were awarded three bad penalties. Edmonton’s power play took advantage of three of its four man advantage opportunities.
The Kings finished 0 for 2 on the power play.
Dubois cut the Oilers lead to 6-3 with 3:04 left to complete the scoring, then Moore made it 6-4 with 1:11 left, but Oilers forward Warren Foegele iced with an empty net with 25 seconds remaining. .
The Oilers had lost the first game of their last seven playoff series and had not won the first game of a home series since 1990.
More to come on this story.
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