Kings can’t afford to keep letting the Oilers back into games
It has been a wildly entertaining series between the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings. Even though this is the fourth consecutive season these two teams have met in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it seems like this go-around is the most exciting battle so far.
While the Kings won the first two games of the series on home ice, they’ve allowed the Oilers to come back in each of the two games in Edmonton. After the Oilers roared back with four unanswered goals to win Game 3, Los Angeles squandered a 3-1 lead in Game 4 on Sunday night, losing in overtime thanks to Leon Draisaitl’s third goal of the series.
If you look at the overall numbers, the Kings should probably be leading this series, if not having already won it. However, thanks to their play tailing off as games wear on, Edmonton is just two wins away from knocking L.A. out in the opening round once again.
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk explain why the Kings’ inconsistent play is hurting them.
Frank Seravalli: The Oilers have no business having this series being tied. It’s the L.A. Kings that have opened the door and let them back in. By the challenge on Friday night, by the way that the third period played out on Sunday night. I mean, you could, in a best-case scenario, make the case that the Oilers have controlled 20% of the play 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.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Back-to-back games where through 40 minutes, [the Kings] just look like the better team by such a wide margin. The Oilers can string together two good shifts back-to-back through two periods last night, and again, through a second straight game, they get a win. Jim Hiller was asked about closing out games and he does the whole ‘Next question. I’m not talking about it.’ If I was a Kings fan, it’d be driving me nuts. How can you say ‘Next question? No comment,’ when you just blew back-to-back games?
Frank: I would say that that was the wrong response. The Kings looked rattled right now. Let me spin a third alternate universe toward you. The Oilers could be up 3-1 in this series. Honestly, think about how Game 1 played out. They scratched all the way back, get to level ground, and then blow it in regulation. They could be the team that’s leading the series, even though they’ve played so poorly.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…