Lesson Learned
Through the first two periods of Games 1 and 2 the LA Kings outscored the Edmonton Oilers 7-2. Of course, everyone knows how things unraveled in rather spectacular form in Game 1 with the Oilers scoring four times and briefly tying the game 5-5 before Phil Danault’s knuckle-puck saved the day for the Kings in a 6-5 win. So, yes, there might have been some angst when former King Victor Arvidsson deflected home a Brett Kulak point shot to make the score 3-2 with 15:55 left in the third. Uh oh. Right? Not this time. The Kings didn’t waver in the face of an expected Oiler Push. They did not pull back but rather continued to push the injury-depleted Oiler lineup for mistakes. Sure enough, 2:41 later, Kings captain Anze Kopitar took advantage of an Arvidsson miscue in the Oiler zone and found Adrian Kempe alone who beat Stuart Skinner to make it 4-2. Less than three minutes later, after an undisciplined Adam Henrique penalty, Kopitar made it 5-2 on the power play and after the Oilers replaced Skinner with Calvin Pickard, Kempe beat Pickard with the first shot he faced to make it 6-2. No last-ditch heart-stopping comeback. No Connor McDavid near-heroics. Just a plain old-fashioned butt-kicking. “Yeah, I just thought we were more composed,” said former Oiler Warren Foegele who, on a night when so many Kings players were exemplary, might have been the team’s best forward. “I know they scored that one there and, you know, took a deep breath on the bench and then we come out and score one to get the lead again,” Foegele added. “We kind of let them dictate the third period last time. And luckily, we got to learn from that mistake,” added Brandt Clarke who scored his first-ever NHL playoff goal in the first period of Game 2. “It didn't cost us too big. And we remembered that for tonight and it went well. And, yeah, we were happy to shut them down and just build confidence and ready for Game 3.”
Special Teams Redux
Once is, well, once. Singular. Twice? Is it too soon to call what is unfolding on the special teams front in this series a trend? Semantics perhaps but for the second game in a row the Los Angeles Kings flipped the historic script when it comes to the Edmonton Oilers and the critical special teams battle. After scoring twice in Game 1 with the man advantage the Kings followed a similar pattern by scoring the first goal of the game on the man advantage after Evander Kane, playing in his first game for the Edmonton Oilers all season, was whistled for cross-checking. Clarke converted a wonderful Foegele pass to give the Kings another first-period lead. In the second period the Kings extended their lead to 3-0 over the Oilers when Andrei Kuzmenko scored his second power play goal of the series redirecting an Adrian Kempe shot off the end boards past Edmonton netminder Stuart Skinner. The Kings completed a 3-for-5 night on the power play when Anze Kopitar finished off a lovely three-way passing play with Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe. On the other side of the ledger once again the Kings rose to the occasion in shutting down the potent Edmonton power play denying them on all three attempts they had in Game 2 after killing off both Edmonton power plays in Game 1. If there is quibbling to do in discussing this issue it’s the nature of the penalties the Kings took in Game 2. Fiala took an offensive zone penalty for high sticking right after the Kings opened the scoring. Later, Kempe was whistled for an obvious interference during a Kings power play. You know what they say about tempting fate? It goes like this; don’t do it. Kempe, who had two goals and two assists on the night, said confidence is a key part of the power play’s success. That and the presence of Andrei Kuzmenko who came over at the trade deadline and followed up a three-point night in his first-ever playoff game in Game 1 with a goal and an assist in Game 2. “Kuzy’s been great,” Kempe said. “He’s been a big factor to why the power play’s been a lot better, too.”
Darcy’s Place
If there has been one constant for the Los Angeles Kings this season it has been netminder Darcy Kuemper. In fact, it’s become sort an ongoing bit with some of the local reporters asking head coach Jim Hiller about whether Kuemper is the team’s MVP – local media voted that he was just that – but Hiller always deferred saying he was the team’s backbone. Again, semantics. Go back to the third period of Game 1 and it’s fair to say it was not a standard Kings period of hockey for anyone as the Oilers scored four times on 15 shots to briefly tie the game at 5-5 before Phil Danault’s heroics game the Kings a one-game lead in the series. Fair to say that a return to Kuemper’s high standard of play would be a welcome part of the Game 2 narrative and the veteran netminder did not disappoint. The Oilers tried to create more traffic in front of and around Kuemper and that was evident on two deflection goals, one by Leon Draisaitl in the second and Arvidsson’s early in the third, but Kuemper was locked in on everything else. He ended up stopping 24 of 26 Oiler shots and while he was never under siege – a credit to the Kings’ commitment to team defense, his calmness was noted by his teammates post-game. For me, his stop on Zach Hyman from point blank in the first period and the Kings leading 1-0 stands out as one to remember and an illustration of the Kuemper way.
Brandt Clarke
I spent some time with Brandt Clarke during training camp and spoke with his junior coach, Marty Williamson, and Sean O’Donnell, former Kings defenseman and now part of the Kings’ player development team about Clarke’s skill set and his high-end skill. Two things became abundantly clear, first, Clarke is never going to want for confidence when it comes to his potential, and second the journey to Clarke’s unlocking his considerable skill set wasn’t going to necessarily be a straight line. This season, Clarke’s first as a regular with the Kings, illustrated that perfectly. There were nights in the press box and nights of small bits of ice time. But as the season went along it became clear the coaching staff had grown more trusting of Clarke and Clarke was rewarding that trust with strong play on both sides of the puck. After playing 11:29 in Game 1, his NHL playoff debut, there was Clarke blasting through the offensive zone nearing the end of the Kings’ first power play opportunity of Game 2 and deftly redirecting a precise Foegele pass past Stuart Skinner to give the Kings an early 1-0 lead on the man advantage for the second game in a row. Regardless of whether Clarke will ever be anything but confident in his own abilities, a moment like that can only serve him well as this series moves along. “I like the big moments,” Clarke said after but perhaps more telling was how he described not his excitement at scoring but how he was able to quickly put that emotion behind him and get back to work playing a regular shift with partner Joel Edmundson. “I think I did a good job of just kind of managing that and being happy, being excited, and then kind of going back to neutral state,” said Clarke who saw his ice time grow slightly to 12:16, not inconsequential given the Kings went with seven defenders in Game 2.
Nuclear Option
That’s what reporters who cover the Edmonton Oilers call the dynamic when Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch decides to use Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the same line. Often, it’s after a penalty kill or when the team is behind or late in a period. The two started playing together fairly early in Game 1 and in Game 2 the nuclear option was on display from the opening face-off. Phil Danault, Trevor Moore and Warren Foegele drew the assignment of playing against the deadly duo for the most part along with Mikey Anderson and Drew Doughty on the back end. Their work was exemplary. Draisaitl scored on a deflection but after ringing up four points in Game 1 McDavid was held off the scoresheet entirely. The pair managed just four shots on net in total. The danger, of course, is when you load up a super line like that what is left over for the Oilers to rely on in terms of generating offense? The fact that the Kings were forcing the Oilers to chase the game having opened up multiple goal leads in both games, also opens up some opportunities to take advantage of the McDavid/Draisaitl duo focusing so much more on the offensive side of the game. McDavid was on the ice for three even strength goals against in Game 1, Draisaitl on the ice for one. In Game 2, at the end of a long shift, Draisaitl and McDavid were on the ice when the Kings were able to get a line change and a fresh Quinton Byfield turned an Oiler turnover into the Kings’ second goal and a 2-0 lead early in the second. Foegele said there’s a balance of respecting the two because they are who they are, two of the best players in the world. But respect has to have its limits. “Just try and paly them hard and take away some space if you’re able to,” Anderson added. “I thought we did good a job tonight and try and keep doing that.”
