Oilers showed no quit in wild Game 4 victory

The Edmonton Oilers may not be the better team in their first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series against the LA Kings, but they aren’t showing any quit after tying the series 2-2 on Sunday night. 

After Leon Draisaitl scored his first career playoff overtime goal to seal a 4-3 comeback victory in Game 4, the Oilers head back down to LA and Crypto.com Arena with a rekindled confidence. 

On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss the comeback effort the Oilers have been putting in through a challenging series. 

Yaremchuk: No series has had more roller coasters and ups and downs than the Edmonton Oilers and LA Kings. All of a sudden, this series is tied up at 2-2 thanks to back-to-back third-period comebacks by Edmonton.

Let’s talk about last night. It was down to the bitter end, 30 seconds to go, and Evan Bouchard evens the game up. What have you made of this effort from the Oilers to push back?

Seravalli: That part is impressive, to not quit and to also rely on a couple of the best players in the world, and by the way, pretty good series for Evan Bouchard as well. I know a lot of people have been down on him, but the Oilers have no business having this series tied without him.

It’s the LA Kings that have opened the door and let them back in by the challenge on Friday night, and by the way that the third period played out on Sunday night. You could, in a best-case scenario, make the case that the Oilers have controlled 20 percent of the play, 20 percent in the entire series. 

In an alternate universe, you could make the play that the Oilers should have been swept out of the first round on Sunday night. Honestly, they’ve played that poorly. They’ve given the Kings so many opportunities. They have been one of the least impressive teams so far in the playoffs, and yet, here they are on level ground with more all-world performance and a four-point game from Leon Draisaitl.

Just every aspect of it makes your head explode, and I can’t even imagine what Kris Knoblauch is feeling now, having to answer another goaltending question for another day, but also at the same time, having that power that you can harness in the palm of your hand with McDavid, Draisaitl, Bouchard and others. It’s been pretty special to watch.

You can catch the rest of the segment and the full episode here…