The LA Kings suffered their most lopsided defeat of the season, as they fell to the Edmonton Oilers by an 8-1 final on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.
The Oilers opened the scoring 7:25 into the game as the Kings continued yesterday’s theme of allowing goals in transition. Edmonton attacked 3-on-2, moving into the offensive zone with possession. Passes from Jack Roslovic and Matt Savoie were well executed as defenseman Ty Emberson took the final feed in the right-hand circle and buried a shot high on the glove side for his second goal of the season and an early 1-0 advantage.
Less than 60 seconds later, Edmonton doubled its advantage by once again capitalizing in transition. The Oilers gained the offensive zone with possession, as forward Andrew Mangiapane gained the zone and fed forward Vasily Podkolzin attacking down the left wing. Podkolzin worked his way into the left-hand circle and fired from a sharp angle, past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper and in for the 2-0 lead.
Just over 12 minutes into the opening period, the Kings pulled a goal back, with a simple formula. After Edmonton was unable to clear the puck up the boards, defenseman Joel Edmundson held the zone at the left point and shot the puck towards the net, with forward Warren Foegele getting a deflection on the way through, sending it past Oilers goaltender Connor Ingram to pull the Kings back within 2-1.
Edmonton added two goals goals in less than two minutes early in the second period to blow open the game at 4-1.
First, the Oilers scored again off the rush, as defenseman Jake Walman worked his way into the left-hand circle and snapped a shot past Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper on the glove side, his sixth tally of the season. Forward Connor McDavid then made it 4-1 as he drew Kuemper out of the net, wrapped around the back of the goal shot top shelf from the far side, as the visitors pulled ahead by three.
After the fourth goal, the Kings made a goaltending change, with goaltender Anton Forsberg replacing Kuemper.
Edmonton made it 5-1 with a power-play goal before the halfway mark of the middle stanza. Skating on their first man advantage of the night, Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl fired a shot off the endboards, wide of the net, but the puck kicked back into the slot, where forward Zach Hyman whacked it past Forsberg, into the back of the net, to extend the lead to four goals.
The Oilers added three more goals in the third period, bringing us to the final score of 8-1. Draisaitl had a hand in all three goals, including the sixth of the evening for his team, a power-play goal 31 seconds into the third period, to put the visitors up by five. Draisaitl then collected primary assists on a pair of goals by defenseman Jake Walman, closing out the most lopsided defeat of the season.
Hear from Anze Kopitar, Mikey Anderson and Jim Hiller after tonight's defeat.
