LOS ANGELES — Up 4-0 in a home playoff game, the Kings were confident. But only one Oilers player could’ve actually made the game interesting. His name is Connor McDavid.
Game 1 of the first round embodied the “new season” trope that comes with the transition from the regular season to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. LA turned a new leaf on the power play early on, as Andrei Kuzmenko cashed in on the left post under three minutes into the game. The Kings won 6-5 in the back-and-forth instant classic.
Kuzmenko couldn’t have asked for a better playoff debut, as he tallied two assists in addition to his goal. Quinton Byfield, Adrian Kempe and Phillip Danault all scored to make it 4-0, before Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl scored with six seconds left in the second frame to put the Oilers on the board.
The Oilers had only six shots at the midway point of the game. But the third period was different, as McDavid took over. Creating plays on his own, he constantly set up teammates. Mattias Janmark, Corey Perry and Zach Hyman all lit the lamp as the Oilers creeped back to within one, before McDavid scored a goal of his own, using his indomitable speed and puck-moving ability to tie the game with 1:28 left.
The Kings would respond, and win, as Danault’s prayer shot with 42 seconds remaining made it 6-5.
“I don’t think we took the foot off the gas, but that’s a high-powered offensive team over there,” said Anze Kopitar. “Obviously being up 4-1 going into the third period, we want to lock it down and not make it interesting.”
“Skinner” taunts from the Kings faithful constantly rained down at Crypto.com Arena as LA overpowered Edmonton’s netminder throughout the game. Still, McDavid’s ability to take over and perform swung the momentum entirely. Stuart Skinner saved 24 of 30 shots, while Darcy Kuemper stopped 25 of 30.
“We made a couple of mistakes and [the Oilers] made a couple of really good plays,” said head coach Jim Hiller.
The Kings went 2-for-5 on power plays, but squandered a late 5-on-3 chance and failed to score on the empty net to essentially end the game.
“We were up 4-0 and obviously we’ve got to do a better job of closing that game out, but a win’s a win and we’ll take that. We’ll enjoy it and we’ll move on to tomorrow,” Byfield said. “No lead is safe in the playoffs. We’ve got to learn from that and learn to defend it a little better.”
Talk of Troy reporter Kasey Kazliner was at the playoff opener and analyzed it on Skate of Thrones, TOT’s LA Kings podcast.