GAME RECAP: Kings 3, Oilers 1

EDMONTON, AB - On the night the Oilers debuted their Reverse Retro jerseys, it was Trevor Moore and the Kings who had the vintage performance.
The winger scored all three Los Angeles goals on the evening as the Kings downed the Oilers 3-1 at Rogers Place on Wednesday night. His linemate Viktor Arvidsson set Moore up on all three tallies for the three-point evening of his own.
Kings goaltender Cal Petersen turned aside 22-of-23 Oilers shots, while Stuart Skinner continued his strong start to the season by allowing only two goals on 32 shots. Zach Hyman scored the only goal for the Oilers on the evening, picking up his eighth of the year in the second period.
The loss ended a pair of 10-plus game point streaks by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who were held pointless on the night. The Oilers will have a few days to prepare for the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday before heading to New York for a three-game road trip.

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GET THE PARTY STARTED

The Oilers run of slow starts and bad bounces that have plagued their search for consistency early in the season continued against Los Angeles.
The Kings were able to open the scoring courtesy of some hard work and some hope by Phillip Danault. With one hand on his stick, the puck was shovelled from the corner by Danault before it bounced out to the blueline and eventually settled on to a tee for Moore. The Kings forward used the space provided by the fortuitous redirection to wind up and walk into a slapshot, blasting the puck through a partially screened Skinner for the game's first goal.
The play was part of a 7-1 shot advantage by the Kings in the first 10 minutes of the contest.
For Moore, the goal was his third of the season and his 13th point for the 27-year-old that finally had his breakout campaign last year with the Kings -- setting a career high in goals (17), assists (31) and points (48).

MR. BRIGHTSIDE

The Oilers aggressive forecheck paid dividends late in the second. After both Draisaitl and McDavid made their presence known physically on Doughty and Anderson, Blake Lizotte tossed an errant pass into the danger zone, which was intercepted by Ryan Murray. A quick feed to Zach Hyman and a backhander later, the puck found its way behind Petersen to tie the game at 1-1 with 6:13 remaining in the second.
The goal was Hyman's eight of the season and his 18th point on the year. The 30-year-old has been a massive addition to the Blue & Orange, continuing to build off his career year last season where he set highs in most offensive categories with a 27-27-54 line. With his goal, Hyman has recorded a point in 11 of his last 14 games.

HOT 'N HERE

As you would expect between two teams with their recent playoff history, there was a certain level of physicality throughout the contest.
Most notably in the first period, Drew Doughty tried to catch Hyman along the boards, which the Oilers winger was mostly able to sidestep. Hyman was able to find his revenge very shortly after, levelling the Kings defender with a heavy check deep in the Los Angeles zone.
Tempers really began to flare between the playoff foes from last season four minutes into the second period.
Thing really began to pop off when Connor McDavid collected puck in the neutral zone and turned towards the Kings goal. Alex Edler came in and caught the Oiler Captain with his knee, spilling McDavid to the ice. Darnell Nurse took umbrage to the play and came rushing in to the NHL's leading scorer's defence, rag-dolling the Swedish defender before the referees stepped in.
The Oilers outhit the Kings 12-7 in the middle frame and 39-27 overall.

WELCOME TO THE BLOCK PARADE

Despite the Kings jumping out to an early 13-6 shot advantage in the first period, the run of play was markedly even, if not tilted in the Oilers favour early on. Los Angeles was exceptional at closing in around their goaltender Cal Petersen, blocking 16 shots in the first 20 minutes to the Oilers three.
Throughout the contest, it seemed as if every time an Oiler was ready to rip a puck on Petersen, another skater in a Black and White jersey was throwing themselves in the middle of the shooting lane. The Kings goaltender only had to make 22 saves on the night, while his defenders turned aside an additional 29 Oilers attempts on the evening.

MISERY BUSINESS

The Kings regained their lead late in the second on the powerplay. With McDavid in the box for high-sticking, Arvidsson was able to slide a feed across the Oilers net and onto the stick of Moore, who hammered home his second of the contest. The 27-year-old added a late empty netter to cap off his hat trick in the win.
His second period goal would end up being the winner on the night for Los Angeles, who got a modicum of redemption for their seven-game series defeat to the Oilers last playoffs.
The Kings were able to play their style of game for the majority of the night, mucking up the neutral zone with their 1-3-1 alignment and forcing the Oilers to chase the puck deep in the LA end of the ice. The 23 shots recorded by the Oilers on the evening was the second fewest by the team in a game this season.

PARTING WORDS

Head Coach Jay Woodcroft on Alex Edler's hit on McDavid:
"Yeah, I thought it was a questionable hit. I'm sure they'll take a look at it, past history and all that kind of stuff, but (it was a) questionable hit. We see our captain take a hit like that, a teammate stepped up and took care of things. I thought it was a hard-fought divisional game between two teams that played a playoff series last year, so there's a lot of history there. It was a hard-fought game and we ended up on the wrong side of it."
Woodcroft on the Oilers once again conceding the game's first goal:
"I would say we're not happy with not scoring the first goal. We made a mistake on the goal and it ended up in the back of our net in the first period. That allowed them to kind of sit back and try and dare us into turning pucks over. I thought we did a good job of sticking with things and making a game of it. I think if you go and you look at the shots on net, just the shots on net, I think the chances are pretty comparable. The shots on net in that first, they were what they were, but not scoring first is not something that we set out to do. We got to find a way to fix that."
Woodcroft on if the Oilers saw progress on the things they worked on:
"I thought it was a 2-1 game played between two competitive teams. In the end, we made one more mistake than they did, and we weren't coming out on the right side of stuff because of it. We were unable to generate enough in order to combat being down 2-1 heading into the third period, I thought we had chances, but in the end, we didn't get it done but it was a competitive game. You're asking about the stuff we worked on this week. It was a 2-1 game, and in the end, it's a game of mistakes and we made one more than they did today."

Woodcroft on McDavid willing to be physical:
"I think Connor is a very hard hockey player. He plays the game hard. He doesn't get enough credit for how hard of a player he is and he has a measure of physicality about him. A lot of times that just shows up in 50/50 puck battles that he comes away with the puck, but I've seen him as he's grown into his mid 20's here and he's adding a little physical element to his game. He's not intimidated by anybody."
McDavid on the Kings defensive game:
"Yeah, we know these guys well. That kind of game script is fit right into their game. Obviously, they score early and they kind of just sit back and kind of just hold on. Obviously we would like to get off to a better start."
"That's the game they want to play. We knew that they want to sit back and kind of just be above guys all the time, and it was nothing new. They didn't come out in surprise us or anything. Sometimes, that's just the way the game script goes. It just kind of went exactly how they like it."
McDavid on the Kings blocked shots:
"Kind of from the first minute, it felt like they were getting in front of everything. They did a lot well tonight defensively."
Darnell Nurse on coming in defence of McDavid in the game:
I mean, if I kneed someone like that, I expected the other team to react the same way, so it is what it is. They won tonight, and they got the upper hand.
Nurse on the Kings 29 blocked shots:
"We didn't produce enough zone time and obviously they're a very strong defensive team and sacrificed a lot to get into lanes. For us, we like to get that offensive zone time where we're wearing teams down and getting pucks to the net, and we didn't have enough of that tonight."
Hyman on the hit on McDavid by Edler:
"Yeah, I didn't like the hit. Good on Nursery for jumping in there and sticking up for Connor. One of those plays where he beats a defenceman, and he sticks a knee out and dangerous play. I mentioned it earlier it happened to me, same play, same guy. So obviously not happy with it. Don't know if he's doing intentionally or whatnot, but you just can't do that."
Hyman on if scoring first would make things easier:
"It's easier for sure when you get the lead against a team like that. They got that 1-3-1 where they back it up in the neutral zone ice and they make it difficult for you to enter with the puck. You got to put it behind them and you got to go to work."