The Los Angeles Kings find themselves trailing in their first round series once again, falling 6-1 at home to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 last night.
The Kings did manage to kill off an early penalty, which was a good start, before a power play opportunity of their own where they couldn’t capitalize. Things were all downhill from there though, starting when Drew Doughty’s exit pass got picked off, and Mattias Ekholm put the puck to Zach Hyman in-close, who was able to beat Cam Talbot about seven minutes into the game. A few odd-man rush chances for the Oilers followed where they had chances to extend the lead, but after they couldn’t convert, Los Angeles had a second power play opportunity to even things up, but couldn’t make use of it.
That opened the door for the Oilers again, and with a little under five minutes to go, Cam Talbot lost Evander Kane’s pass from behind the net out front, and before he could fully react, Leon Draisaitl was able to beat him from a bad angle. Then with Edmonton on a power play with a minute and a half remaining in the period, Connor McDavid took the puck to the net and got a couple of whacks in-close, before eventually beating Talbot to make it 3-0.
So after the Kings were outshot 16-8 in the frame, the late goals in particular left them in a huge hole.
Los Angeles did get a bit of life early in the second period, where after a big hit from Alex Laferriere on Vincent Desharnais, Quinton Byfield found Drew Doughty with a great cross-ice pass, and Doughty was able to score on the open cage, cutting the lead to 3-1.
Only two minutes later though, once the Kings failed to clear the zone, Evander Kane tipped in a point shot from Cody Ceci, quickly killing any push from Los Angeles. While it was a better frame for the Kings overall and they did end up with another power play chance afterwards, they failed to make any meaningful progress to chip away at the lead, remaining down 4-1 through 40 minutes.
Then early in the third period, Andreas Englund threw a huge hit on Evander Kane, and after a massive scrum that followed, the Oilers ended up on a 5-on-3. That proved costly for Los Angeles, with Connor McDavid finding Hyman for a tip in front, putting the game pretty much out of reach. More frustration for the Kings followed, and with Edmonton on yet another 5-on-3 later, Leon Draisatil added another power play goal for good measure, as the Oilers crushed Los Angeles to take back the series lead.
This was undoubtedly the worst outing of the series for the Kings, without much to build off. Any momentum they had was often quickly thwarted, and they probably didn’t have much of a shot of recovering from the early deficit.
At the end of the day, the Kings have yet to be able to find a way to limit Edmonton’s offense, allowing 17 goal over the three games. This time around though, a couple of the even strength goals were a result of the Kings’ own doing, with turnovers costing them on the first Hyman goal, and the Kane goal. You can say Cam Talbot could’ve been better, giving up a couple goals that were fairly stoppable, but the Kings probably didn’t have much of a shot even if Talbot was at his best.
Of course, the Oilers’ power play has been a nightmare for the Kings as well. For as good as Los Angeles’ penalty kill may have been in the regular season, Edmonton’s power play has steamrolled the Kings. With a 3-for-7 ratio last night, the Oilers have gone 7-for-14 throughout the series, operating at a 50 percent success rate. If the Kings can’t figure out how to at least slow down Edmonton’s power play, and stay more disciplined, their chances are next to none.
On the flip side though, after managing nine goals over the first two games, the Kings failed to get a ton going last night offensively. While special teams continues to be a story, the Kings also went 0-for-5 on their power play chances, and didn’t get nearly enough going at even strength to offset that.
So we'll see if they can recover to make it a series – the Kings are back in action tomorrow, hoping to draw even again in Game 4.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM THE PLAYOFFS
- Previewing Round 1: Kings vs. Oilers
- Kings unable to contain Oilers’ offense, open playoffs with 7-4 loss
- Kempe and Kopitar shine for Kings in Game 2 OT win over Oilers
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