Kings look to rein in 'racehorse' Oilers in Game 4 of West First Round
Edmonton outscored Los Angeles 14-2 in Games 2, 3 of series
The Kings trail the best-of-7 series 2-1 following a 6-0 loss in Game 2 on Wednesday and an 8-2 loss in Game 3 on Friday. Game 4 will be at Los Angeles on Sunday (10 p.m. ET; TBS, CBC, TVAS, SN, BSW).
"They're a high-scoring team," Los Angeles forward Blake Lizotte said. "They want to play a racehorse game. Especially look at their players like
[Connor] McDavid
, who can skate, and
[Leon] Draisaitl
and a bunch of other players who can make plays.
"They try their best ... I don't want to say gamble, but they cheat more on the offensive side of the puck, and I think once you get into that racehorse style game, it can be easy to lose mentally our identity of playing smart and making] high-percentage plays. I think Edmonton, they do a good job of kind of coercing you into a racehorse type game, and I think for us, it's important to stick to our identity and not get lost in the momentum of the game or the excitement of the racehorse type style of play."
***[RELATED: [Complete Oilers vs. Kings series coverage]*
The loss in Game 3 on home ice brought a terse, one-answer postgame press conference from Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan, who said nobody on the Kings was any good in that game.
After a short practice on Saturday, McLellan was more analytical but just as direct about the Kings' issues of straying from their strengths in the past two games.
"We needed seven goals in Edmonton (to win in Game 2) and we needed nine last night," McLellan said. "Can anybody remember the last time the L.A. Kings scored seven, nevermind nine? That's not our number. I thought in the first [period of Game 3], 2-0, kind of a kick you know where, because I thought we played a pretty strong first.
"But we can't get away from it. As soon as you start opening up and start chasing goals three, four and five, they get six, seven and eight. So we've got to manage the game better, and we talked about that today, and I believe we can do it."
The Kings were among the best defensive teams in the NHL this season, finishing tied for ninth in goals allowed per game (2.83), and never allowed 14 goals in a two-game stretch.
After observing it for the first time in the past two games of this series, McLellan said he believes the issues mostly are mental when asked if the problems are fixable.
"It depends how much is between the ears," he said. "I can't answer that question, if there's a lot to fix, because we have spent a long time building what we've built, and now that we need it, we have to rely on it, and we haven't been doing that. One, you've got to give the other team credit because when they put you in [a] position where you get away from your game, they're doing a good job. So hats off to them. But we've also got to gather our thoughts and our wits about us.
"I think [we have to] get back to doing what we're doing, and there is no balance there. We either do what we do or don't. We just witnessed what happens when we don't. So there's no balance. It's do it or don't."
Kings captain Anze Kopitar agreed that the challenge will be mental.
"We let it snowball a couple of times now," Kopitar said. "Obviously you don't want to give up … get scored on 14 times in two games. There's some stuff that we can look at that we did pretty good too. So it's not all negative. Bottom line is we're down 2-1 in the series. We don't want to get scored on 14 times, but we'll correct that and get ready for tomorrow."
Although the Kings have prided themselves this season on being a cohesive, responsible unit at 5-on-5, the Oilers have thrown an extra challenge at them with their balanced scoring.
Connor McDavid, who won the Art Ross Trophy as the leading scorer in the NHL for the fourth time with 123 points (44 goals, 79 assists) in 80 games, has scored six points (one goal, five assists) in the series. Leon Draisaitl, who finished fourth in the scoring race with 110 points (55 goals, 55 assists) in 80 games, has scored in each game of the series.
However, the duo has accounted for only four of Edmonton's 17 goals in the series.
"They're getting it from all over," McLellan said. "Their [defense is] able to produce a large amount of points. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (two goals in the series) looks like the player I know he is. So naturally, as we talked about the storyline in Edmonton that Connor and Leon are going to get … when you've got dual Hart Trophy winners on your team and they're the type of players they are, they're going to get all the attention. ... But they have other players that are producing at a high level too. They're a complete team, and we have to be a complete team to beat them. We can't just focus on two players."
Lizotte said the Kings will have that mindset when they look to even up the series in Game 4.
"[I] look at it as a series that's 2-1," he said. "I think any team that's sitting at home right now would be killing for a 2-1 playoff series. For us, it's just important to keep that mindset and emphasize how important the next one is."
