EDMONTON — The damage that the Edmonton Oilers did to the Los Angeles Kings in a dominant 7-4 Game 1 win hit at the core of who they are. Their identity is checking at will and playing tight defensively in all situations. They took great pride in turning their penalty kill from a problem area into a strength this season.
Watching it all break down on Monday night was something they took personally. Perhaps that is the biggest lesson to come out of such a sound defeat. Letting those results hit their psyche might be the component that sparks a change that’s desperately needed for Game 2 on Wednesday.
“I think every guy in this room prides himself on what we’ve been able to do all season long,” Kings goalie Cam Talbot said on Tuesday. “So, when you take a punch to the jaw or something like that last night, you got to certainly swing back tomorrow.
“(Monday) night wasn’t our best effort defensively. Everybody knows that. The good thing is we’ve been so good defensively all season long, we know exactly what we need to do to clean it up.”
The Kings hang their hats on defense, and the statistics proved how effective they were over the 82-game schedule. They allowed the third-fewest goals with 210, an average of 2.56 per contest. Just Florida and Winnipeg let in fewer. An important part of that was a penalty kill that led the NHL for the bulk of the season and wound up second only to Carolina. They were also fourth in shots allowed on average.
But these were the Game 1 totals for Edmonton: 45 shots on goal and 77 shots attempted. Three power-play goals in four opportunities. And, of course, the seven goals.
“Especially as a (defenseman), you want to shut down the other team as much as you can,” Matt Roy said. “We’ve rallied around our PK all year, and obviously (Monday) night it didn’t go as planned. We do take that personally. We don’t want to give those goals up. Those are big goals and moving forward, we have to shut them down.
“I think just as a group everyone needs to just kind of buckle in. Take it personally. Do everything they can to prevent goals and get momentum defensively so we can go offensively.”
GO DEEPER
McDavid, Oilers outpace Kings in ‘frustrating’ Game 1 rout: ‘We got to fix that’
The growing problem for the Kings is that the Oilers are solving the Kings’ 1-3-1 neutral zone-clogging system, which other teams have had trouble getting through. Led by Connor McDavid and his unmatched speed, Edmonton was playing at its preferred high tempo and it took Los Angeles until the second period to play at a pace more to its liking.
But by then, the Kings also failed to stay disciplined when it came to infractions. Four penalties may not seem like an inordinate amount, but that can be deadly at playoff time when there are generally fewer whistles. Game 1 caused all kinds of hurt. Phillip Danault’s high-sticking minor was cashed in by the Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for a 4-0 lead. Mikey Anderson and Adrian Kempe got L.A. back to 4-2.
Trevor Moore took an ill-advised tripping penalty at the end of the second to put them short-handed to open the third. Leon Draisaitl answered on the power play 68 seconds in. Zach Hyman, the Oilers’ net-front expert, finished off a hat trick for a 6-2 lead as PL Dubois sat in the penalty box for the second time. Hyman and McDavid feasted Monday night, with the latter assisting on five goals. Evan Bouchard had four secondary helpers.
The Oilers are a confident bunch, and they’ve got four wins in five games against the Kings when you count this regular season, on top of the prior series wins in 2022 and 2023. Maybe there isn’t a psychological edge, as Warren Foegele put it, because each playoff game is its own entity. But the speed that can bust through the Kings’ 1-3-1 is becoming a serious advantage.
“One of the strengths to our team is how quick we can be,” Foegele said. “It’s not even just moving quick with your feet. It’s moving the puck quick and playing at that fast tempo. We know, in this locker room, if we can play at that pace for 60, it’s hard for teams to keep up with us. For us, it’s focusing on doing that more.”
Keeping the Oilers down isn’t an impossible task for the Kings. The Oilers were shut out on only three occasions this season and one came on Feb. 10 in Los Angeles. That night, a 4-0 victory, the Kings managed to frustrate McDavid to the point he smashed his stick in two.
The first step to throwing him and the Oilers off-kilter is a much better showing from their top four on defense. The Kings lean heavily on their top two pairings, and none of the four particularly stood out Monday. Anderson scored their first goal but lost coverage on two of Edmonton’s three even-strength goals to start the game. Drew Doughty couldn’t make up for Anderson’s struggles. Roy and Vladislav Gavrikov were burned on the penalty kill.
Another major part of their defensive breakdowns, as Kings coach Jim Hiller and players alluded to, was the ineffective play of their F3 — or third forward — in the neutral zone to help funnel players to the board and protect against odd-man rushes. The trio of Danault, Moore and Viktor Arvidsson, which Hiller wanted as the shutdown answer to McDavid’s line, was a combined minus-5 at even strength. The blue line didn’t play well, but it also needs help from its usually sound forwards to defend as a collective five-man unit.
“We need to trust everyone to be in position and do their job,” Roy said. “Once everyone can do that, you feel a lot more comfortable. You know where guys are. You can make more plays. It all just kind of goes together.”
On Tuesday, Hiller didn’t delve into any rearranging of his lines and would not address whether Talbot will start Game 2 or whether he will turn to David Rittich. Talbot allowed six goals for the second time in his playoff career, but those came on 44 shots. “Not something we’ve even talked about much yet,” Hiller said. “We’ve dug through some other things. That hasn’t been one of the things we’ve discussed.”
Meanwhile, the Oilers are expecting to face a desperate Kings team on Wednesday. Adam Henrique, who was a trade deadline acquisition by Edmonton from Anaheim, said they’ve got to match that.
“They got a lot of good veteran players over there,” said the Oilers forward, who scored his first playoff goal since 2012 with New Jersey. “They play a physical, rugged style. Tight defensive game. And they got a little skill over there too. You can’t just think that they’re a defensive team because they’ll turn it right back on you and attack.
“I think the focus for us is getting to our game and keeping that pressure on their defensive game.”
Despite absorbing a sound beating, Gavrikov stressed that the Kings need not abandon the principles that made them a playoff team. Specifically, it’s about defending better and keeping belief in the structural change, with the penalty kill that led to their improvement.
“If it would be like four, five or six games like that, that would bother me,” Gavrikov said. “But for now, it’s just one game. It can happen at any time. We just got to fix that a little bit. Some details. Be a little sharper and I think we will be fine.”
Hiller, the interim coach whose future behind the Kings’ bench might be tied to this series, exuded calm and confidence Tuesday. He didn’t have them practice, as he said the Kings took care of their on-ice preparation before leaving for Edmonton, and he felt a mental and physical break was more beneficial. “They’ve parked it already,” he said. “We cleaned it out. We parked it. We’re going to go fresh.”
But in Game 2, they’ve got to be more like who they are. Who they’ve always been. Defense first. Right away.
“They are committed to playing without the puck, our team,” Hiller said. “And they’ve committed to playing without the puck for a long time, the organization. They take pride in that. If you don’t take pride in that, then you’re going to be up and down. It’s been pretty steady for a long time.
“That is something they take pride in. Nobody felt good about the way that turned out last night. I believe you’ll see a much tighter game from us.”
It couldn’t have been any more loose in Game 1.
(Photo of Edmonton’s Zach Hyman: Paul Swanson / NHLI via Getty Images)
