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, and Adam Henrique, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl rounded out the scoring for the Oilers. Connor McDavid recorded five assists and defenseman Evan Bouchard had four in the blowout win.
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.
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, especially in the first period.
The Oilers opened the scoring at the 6:52 mark after McDavid made a nice spin move at the top of the faceoff circle and fed a backhand pass to Hyman, who made no mistake to beat Kings goaltender Cam Talbot.
Just 2:44 later, that line was back at it as Hyman found a streaking Henrique, who beat Talbot with a wrist shot over his shoulder for an early 2-0 lead.
The Kings had a great chance to cut the lead in half when Victor Arvidsson picked off an outlet pass from Mattias Ekholm and walked in alone, but Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner didn’t have to make a save, as Arvidsson’s snap shot missed the net.
Just moments later, Hyman would make it 3-0 when he tapped in a nice feed from McDavid who walked out from behind the net and was given time and space to make the pass to Hyman for the tap-in goal.
After Kings forward Phillip Danault took a retaliatory penalty on Hyman for crashing into Talbot, the Oilers made it 4-0 after Drasaitl’s centering pass went in off of Nugent-Hopkins.
The Kings simply had no answer for the Oilers’ juggernaut offense. Through the opening half of the game, the visitors weren’t going anywhere near the dirty areas and they made Skinner’s evening a relatively easy one. Especially in the first half of the game.
The Kings did fight back, but the 4-0 deficit was too much to overcome.
Anderson’s point shot at the 10:56 mark of the second period cut the lead to 4-1, and they looked to score again, just 1:39 later as Trevor Lewis deflected a shot through Skinner, but after review, it was ruled no-goal as the puck deflected off the glove of Lewis.
The Kings did make it 4-2 with 2:04 left in the second period when Kempe’s centering pass went off the skate of Bouchard to give them some life heading into the third period, but it was short-lived.
After Moore took a bad penalty late in the second, Draisaitl made it 5-2 with a power play marker just 1:08 into the third to put the game out of reach.
Edmonton scored its third power-play goal of the game when Hyman completed his hat trick at the 6:17 mark of the third.
The Kings tried to send a message to the Oilers physically, but that backfired and resulted in the visitors taking three bad penalties. Edmonton’s power play cashed in on three of its four man-advantage opportunities.
The Kings finished 0 for 2 on the power play.
Dubois cut the Oilers’ lead to 6-3 with 3:04 remaining to round out the scoring and then Moore made it 6-4 with 1:11 left, but Oilers forward Warren Foegele iced it with an empty-netter with 25 seconds left.
The Oilers had lost the first game of their last seven playoff series and had not won Game 1 of a series on their home ice since 1990.
More to come on this story.
Continue reading...
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, and Adam Henrique, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl rounded out the scoring for the Oilers. Connor McDavid recorded five assists and defenseman Evan Bouchard had four in the blowout win.
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.
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, especially in the first period.
The Oilers opened the scoring at the 6:52 mark after McDavid made a nice spin move at the top of the faceoff circle and fed a backhand pass to Hyman, who made no mistake to beat Kings goaltender Cam Talbot.
Just 2:44 later, that line was back at it as Hyman found a streaking Henrique, who beat Talbot with a wrist shot over his shoulder for an early 2-0 lead.
The Kings had a great chance to cut the lead in half when Victor Arvidsson picked off an outlet pass from Mattias Ekholm and walked in alone, but Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner didn’t have to make a save, as Arvidsson’s snap shot missed the net.
Just moments later, Hyman would make it 3-0 when he tapped in a nice feed from McDavid who walked out from behind the net and was given time and space to make the pass to Hyman for the tap-in goal.
After Kings forward Phillip Danault took a retaliatory penalty on Hyman for crashing into Talbot, the Oilers made it 4-0 after Drasaitl’s centering pass went in off of Nugent-Hopkins.
The Kings simply had no answer for the Oilers’ juggernaut offense. Through the opening half of the game, the visitors weren’t going anywhere near the dirty areas and they made Skinner’s evening a relatively easy one. Especially in the first half of the game.
The Kings did fight back, but the 4-0 deficit was too much to overcome.
Anderson’s point shot at the 10:56 mark of the second period cut the lead to 4-1, and they looked to score again, just 1:39 later as Trevor Lewis deflected a shot through Skinner, but after review, it was ruled no-goal as the puck deflected off the glove of Lewis.
The Kings did make it 4-2 with 2:04 left in the second period when Kempe’s centering pass went off the skate of Bouchard to give them some life heading into the third period, but it was short-lived.
After Moore took a bad penalty late in the second, Draisaitl made it 5-2 with a power play marker just 1:08 into the third to put the game out of reach.
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Edmonton scored its third power-play goal of the game when Hyman completed his hat trick at the 6:17 mark of the third.
The Kings tried to send a message to the Oilers physically, but that backfired and resulted in the visitors taking three bad penalties. Edmonton’s power play cashed in on three of its four man-advantage opportunities.
The Kings finished 0 for 2 on the power play.
Dubois cut the Oilers’ lead to 6-3 with 3:04 remaining to round out the scoring and then Moore made it 6-4 with 1:11 left, but Oilers forward Warren Foegele iced it with an empty-netter with 25 seconds left.
The Oilers had lost the first game of their last seven playoff series and had not won Game 1 of a series on their home ice since 1990.
More to come on this story.
Continue reading...
