Prior to Sunday’s Game 4 of their opening-round series against the Oilers in Edmonton, the Kings were facing an unfamiliar question: Can you seal the deal?
Closing out contests wasn’t an issue during the regular season, when the Kings went 35-1-2 while leading through 40 minutes and 12-0-1 with a second-intermission edge on the road. They also didn’t lose a single game in regulation during which they scored three or more goals, that was until Friday’s 7-4 faltering.
They blew a lead in a third period that saw them produce a comparatively meager number of shot attempts and positive signs in their game. To a man, the coaching staff included thanks to a challenge that went horrifically awry with an Edmonton equalizer standing and an Oilers go-ahead goal coming from the resultant power play 10 seconds later, the Kings fell apart in the final frame. Some 88% of the expected goals in the all-important portion of the game went to Edmonton, per Natural Stat Trick, and they outscored the Kings 4-0 in concrete terms.
That was hardly an isolated incident in this series, as alternate captain Drew Doughty said he had been more perturbed by what happened in the Kings’ Game 1 win, when they squandered a four-goal lead but averted disaster with Phillip Danault’s tie-breaking tally in the final minute
Coach Jim Hiller was asked if there was concern about finishing games, and the query was repeated and clarified. With a smile, Hiller answered the question he’d wish he were asked instead.
“How excited am I that we’re leading in the third period? Is that what I heard?” Hiller redirected. “I’m pretty happy that we’re playing the game well enough that we’re leading the third period against a good team, so I’ll take that, that’s the way I’ll look at that situation.”
While the Kings still possessed superior health and what is suddenly a nearly 60% clip on the power play in this series, mirroring what Edmonton has done at its peaks during the past three series (all Oilers wins) against them, the turnabout of Game 3 felt as if it had potential to linger. Instead of grabbing a practically insurmountable 3-0 lead in the series, the door creaked open loudly for the Oilers, who overcame a 2-1 deficit against the Kings in 2023 and a 3-2 series disadvantage a year earlier.
“Whatever, we’re up 2-1, and we played well for a lot of that game. We’ve got to hold our heads high and move on,” Doughty said.
The Kings fell down 2-0 on Friday before pouring in three unanswered goals and ultimately leading 4-3 heading into the closing stanza. They’d played much of the night with five defensemen even though Joel Edmundson recovered from an early shakeup, since Jordan Spence played a mere 2:55. He played just 6:40 in Game 1 as well, seeing 8:50 in Game 2, when the Kings dressed a seventh defenseman in Jacob Moverare but effectively let him languish on the bench.
Where the Kings have had tremendous continuity is up front, though the same can’t be said for the Oilers, who have diced, chopped, pureed and liquefied their forward lines. They coupled their two nuclear warheads, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, again Friday. But while that duo, which now has 78 points in 21 playoff games against the Kings, began the evening with Zach Hyman, it played most of the match with Corey Perry.
They’ve been desperately seeking any sort of spark offensively as the absence of the best defensive defenseman Mattias Eklholm, the volatility of their most offensively gifted rearguard Evan Bouchard and a carousel in net – Calvin Pickard was resourceful but unspectacular in his first start of the series and Edmonton’s first win after he made a relief appearance in Game 2 – have led the Oilers to surrender 16 goals thus far in the series.
“You never really want to give up however many goals we’ve given up in the past three games,” said Bouchard, who scored two goals, including the winner, Friday but served up a pair of turnovers turned goals in Game 1. “But we found a way to win and we’re going to have to tighten up going forward.”
McDavid’s seven points pace Edmonton in the series. The Kings’ Adrian Kempe added a goal and an assist to extend the dominance that had him atop the playoff leaderboard with nine points entering Saturday’s action.
Game 4: Kings at Edmonton
When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta
TV: TBS, truTV, MAX, FDSNW
