LOS ANGELES — This playoff series isn’t going to be a walkover, by any stretch of the imagination.
Yet when the Kings built a 4-0 second period lead Monday night against an Edmonton Oilers team that had tortured them the last three postseasons, L.A.’s most loyal and devoted fan base – consider what Kings fans have endured through the years before you argue with me – could be excused for being sure, or at least hoping against hope, that this time would be different and maybe even spectacularly so.
Instead it almost was the reverse of another miraculous comeback.
And yes, in the wake of a 6-5 Kings victory achieved in the final minute of regulation on Philip Danault’s knuckleball of a shot past Stuart Skinner, it was worth checking to see what was going through Kings radio commentator Daryl Evans’ mind as Edmonton’s comeback unfolded, with a goal at the very end of the second period and four in the third.
Evans, for those coming in late to Kings fandom, fired the final shot in what to date remains the most memorable comeback in the team’s 58-year history, the Miracle on Manchester on April 10, 1982 at The Forum. That night, the Kings were down 5-0 to the Wayne Gretzky-led Oilers after two periods, the visitors were laughing it up on their bench and then-Kings owner Jerry Buss decided he had seen enough and left the game to drive to Palm Springs.
So, of course, the hosts scored five in the third period to tie, with Steve Bozek making it 5-5 with just five seconds left in regulation. Evans scored the game-winner 2:35 into overtime, sliding on his knees in celebration, and that goal and that comeback changed the course of a best-of-five series the underdog Kings won in five.
The conditions aren’t quite the same now, naturally. But for a franchise that has had its nose rubbed in it by Edmonton the past three springs, who knows if such a blown lead would have meant anything psychically this time in a series in which the Kings at last have home-ice advantage and seemed in a better position than ever to get out of the first round for the first time since 2014, their last Stanley Cup championship season.
“In a game like that it’s never over, especially with the firepower they have on their side,” Evans said. That should go without saying, considering that Connor McDavid had three assists and the tying goal, while Leon Draisaitl scored Edmonton’s first goal at the very end of the second period and assisted on McDavid’s goal at 18:32 of the third period.
“You just see how quickly things turn around,” Evans said. “Connor McDavid came over to the bench and he was just firing the team up. They were just wired for sound. And I know when that momentum changes because I was on the opposite side of it (in ’82), when we had our comeback and, you know, looked at their bench and their bench was down. At that time our bench was down tonight, and you could just see it.”
This wasn’t quite the same. That 1982 game was a severe change of momentum. This one was more give-and-take – and the Kings had two shots at an empty-net goal that would have sealed it, but both were wide – yet Evans said he still had this running through his mind: “This looks familiar a little bit.”
Sometimes it just takes a break, or a mistake, or a sliver of daylight. Or a giveaway, which led to Trevor Moore’s setup for Danault’s game-winner with 41.1 ticks left on the clock.
“It’s a game of inches in a game of moments,” Evans said. “And the Kings were fortunate enough that they got a moment and they took advantage of it.”
And how did Danault describe his game-winner?
“I got all of it,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience in the interview room. “I think it might have fooled him, I don’t know. Just a great play by him (Moore).”
It’s probably too simplistic to suggest that such a drastic turnaround, in a game the Kings dominated for the better part of two periods by most metrics, would have changed the course of the series. This is the start of a seven-game set, and even though the Kings have the home advantage and a 31-6-4 record during the past regular season in their building, there’s a lot of hockey to play, these teams are quite familiar with (and irritated with) each other, and strange things can happen.
But the Kings have been building toward this. When they signed Danault as a free agent in July of 2021 after he’d spent five seasons with the Montréal Canadiens, it was a sign that the interminable rebuild following the franchise’s Stanley Cup titles in 2012 and ’14 was about to end, and the standards and expectations were about to change.
“Phil’s been, obviously, a great addition, first and foremost, and a huge part of this team,” captain Anze Kopitar said. “He’s playing, A, huge minutes. B, he’s playing on the power play. He’s killing penalties; he’s one of the best penalty-killers in the league in my opinion. He does everything that the team asks him to, you know. He’s the ultimate team guy. And he accepted the role, really.
“When he signed here, he saw the vision of the team at that particular state we were in, and going forward. It took us a few years, but I think now you see the bigger pieces are in place. We gotta keep on growing as a team, as a group, and just learn and take steps forward.”
This is supposed to be the spring that the Kings take a few more of those steps forward. But in the meantime, stay tuned.
“We had a chance, more than one chance, to put the puck in the empty net and end the game in a less dramatic fashion, which is really what we wanted,” head coach Jim Hiller said. “But it’s hockey. We talked about this in the lead-up to this game. That’s why we all love it. You don’t know exactly what’s going to happen when you come to a hockey game, when you turn on the TV, and that’s why it’s so exciting. Guys are out there playing passionately, and different things can happen.
“Tonight was one of those nights where, from an entertainment perspective, you know, you just have to hold your breath and see how it’s going to finish.”
Of course, it’s less entertaining when it’s your livelihood.
jalexander@scng.com
Originally Published:
