The Kings were planning another playoff game against the Edmonton Oilers this season and envisioned it being different from the last two years, when the Oilers sent them on golf tees and fishing boats in successive springs.
Before Sunday’s Game 2 in Canada, there was little from Friday’s Game 1 to support a reversal of the trend.
For the Kings, there had to be a more potent penalty kill, and over the course of the regular season there was, as their PK jumped from 24th to second in the NHL.
They allowed three power play goals on four opportunities in the first game, which they lost 7-4.
From an analytical standpoint, interim coach Jim Hiller said the game was closer than regular season results would suggest, as Edmonton won three of four matchups, including the last two meetings, by an overall score of 8-3.
In the first period, the Kings gave up 10 high-danger chances and generated just one, en route to a 4-0 deficit with less than half the game gone.
The Kings needed to deploy the crown jewel of their offseason in Pierre-Luc Dubois, and when he was largely languishing in the bottom six, it was intended to create a mismatch for the bottom lines.
They scored one goal in their last six, and from Dubois no less: a Rube Goldberg scoring machine with a shot that was initially blocked by the Oilers’ Cody Ceci, sending it wide into the skate of Darnell Nurse of Edmonton and by chance. in the net.
It was one of two Edmonton own goals that night, and there was a de facto third when Ceci’s stick broke during a routine pass in his own zone , a turnover that led directly to Trevor Moore’s goal.
In a game in which the Kings scored three goals, they still lost by three.
“Two things that happened are our strengths: the penalty kill and eliminating rushing opportunities,” Hiller said. “That’s what we do well and we didn’t do either one well tonight. It’s a no-brainer, we’ve certainly seen it, and we’ll have to do something about it.
Hiller described the issues as “fixable” and said there were at least two penalties that “definitely can’t be in our game.”
One of those penalties was Moore’s clipping of defenseman Vincent Desharnais’ knee, which resulted in a minor penalty but no additional discipline despite some similarity to the play for which former Edmonton forward Josh Archibald was suspended during the 2021 playoffs.
Goaltender Cam Talbot suffered the brunt of the brutal moments defensively and had already posted a poor performance in the season finale. While the six goals he gave up Monday came on 44 big shots, he gave up four goals on just 13 shots against lowly Chicago in the final.
Hiller said No. 2 goalie David Rittich was an option for Game 2, as every player was always an option, continuing his evasive comments about his goalies.
For the Oilers, personnel changes seemed unlikely, especially within their top line. Former Duck Adam Henrique scored his first playoff goal since 2012, when he scored one for the New Jersey Devils against the Kings in the Stanley Cup Final, and added an assist. Zach Hyman, who is Jewish, celebrated the first Passover seder with a hat trick and an assist. Connor McDavid posted the first five-assist performance in the playoffs since 1998 and became only the 14th player to accomplish the feat.
They’ve won each of the last two series against the Kings after losing Game 1, but they’ve also won 21 of the 24 series in franchise history in which they managed to open a series. For their part, the Kings have already made 180-degree turns, sweeping the San Jose Sharks in the first round of 2014 and taking those same Oilers to Game 7 in 2022, even after losing Games 2 and 3 by a staggering 14 -2 combined. count.
While McDavid, Edmonton’s captain, may have posted gaudy numbers in Game 1, the Kings’ fearless leader Anze Kopitar will reach another milestone in Game 2. He will tie Kings executive and once-prolific left winger Luc Robitaille for the most playoff games played in franchise history with 94.
Game 2: Kings vs. Oilers
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Or: Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta
TV: Bally Sports West, TBS
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