Kings can’t overcome slow start in Game 1 loss to Oilers
EDMONTON, Alberta — The Kings tend to beat teams with their blue-collar effort. It’s been their identity for more than a decade, and it’s what 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 seen and the Kings paid a big price, losing the opener of the best-of-seven series, 7-4.
Zach Hyman recorded a hat trick as part of a four-point night, Connor McDavid recorded five assists and Evan Bouchard had four assists. Adam Henrique, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl and Warren Foegele also scored for Edmonton.
Mikey Anderson, Adrian Kempe, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Trevor Moore scored for the Kings, who were eliminated in the opening round by the Oilers in each of the previous two seasons.
“That’s not our model. That’s not the way we play. It’s frustrating,” Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. “We just have to put that game in the past and get back to doing what we do best and that’s playing good two-way hockey.”
“We’re down 1-0, but we can easily win and make it 1-1 next game. We have to put it behind us, and learn from what we did wrong and fix what we did wrong and bring it into the next game.”
Game 2 is Wednesday night.
Edmonton has had a history of struggles in playoff series openers since 2017, going just 1-8 in that span, including losing both Game 1’s against the Kings in their first round matchups the past two years, but they sent the Kings a message this time.
Edmonton scored two goals before the midway point of the first period and opened a 4-0 lead by the 8:24 mark of the second.
The Oilers’ top line of McDavid, Henrique and Hyman caused all kinds of problems for the Kings, combining for 11 points.
The Kings were able to kill off the Oilers’ first chance on the power play, but when the game started to get out of reach, the Kings tried to send a message of their own physically, and it resulted in undisciplined penalties, and Edmonton finished 3 for 4 with the man advantage.
The Kings are known as a stingy defense-first team, but they were anything but that Monday, giving up 45 shots – too many of which were Grade A scoring chances that Edmonton capitalized on.
“We’re a much better team than that. We’re a very good solid two-way team. We usually don’t give up that many chances,” Doughty said.
“Tonight, we gave up too many backdoor tap-ins and tons of chances. Talbs (Cam Talbot) made a ton of great saves, and we can’t put any blame on him. It’s the guys in front of him.
The Oilers generated a lot of their offense off the rush, which led to the majority of their goals, and it caused issues for the Kings all night long.
“We know that’s their game. We know they’re good (off the rush) … we’ve played them so many times, but that was probably the poorest we’ve played against them in the last three years in my opinion,” Doughty said.
The Kings have shown they can mount comebacks against good teams, but digging themselves a 4-0 hole against a high-powered offense wasn’t ideal. Still, they started to push back.
Anderson’s point shot through traffic made it 4-1 at the 10:56 mark of the middle frame.
Kempe made it 4-2 with 2:04 left in the second, giving the Kings some momentum heading into the third, but a Draisaitl power play goal just 1:08 into the third period made it 5-2.
“You feel like every time you’re in this building they’re going to get power plays, and we have to be better on the PK. We can’t give up three power play goals,” Kempe said.
“You can’t go 1 for 4 on the PK against such a dangerous power play. … We need to be more careful, especially against McDavid. He’s the best skater in the world, and we need to stay above him and stay on the right side of him, we’ll give up less chances.”
The Kings gave up another power play marker when Hyman completed his hat trick to give Edmonton a 6-2 lead. Hyman had four three-goal games during the regular season.
Dubois and Moore scored 1:53 apart late in the third period to cut the margin to 6-4, but Foegele’s empty-netter with 25 seconds left iced the game.
The Kings showed some fight in the third period, but those costly penalties haunted them.
“It shot us in the foot. We talked about our penalties, we talked about their power play so much before this series, and that shot us in the foot,” Doughty said. “We gave up two power plays to them to start the third, and it doesn’t matter, they’re so good on the power play. We need to smarten up in that area.
“I thought everybody played hard. We didn’t give up, even at the end of the game, we were still trying to tie it up. I didn’t question the heart or the grit of our guys, just maybe be smarter in certain situations.”
NOTES
Anze Kopitar played in his 93rd career playoff game, passing Dustin Brown, Dave Taylor and Jonathan Quick for second- most in Kings franchise history. He is only one game back of all-time playoff leader Luc Robitaille. … Edmonton is 21-3 all-time when taking a 1-0 lead in a best-of-seven series.