The Oilers lead the Kings two games to one and will have a chance to stifle the series on Sunday night in Los Angeles.
1. Edmonton’s 8-2 victory in Los Angeles on Friday night extended the series of losses in the playoffs of the Kings to six games. They were swept away in the first round by the Vegas Golden Knights the last time they were in the playoffs in 2018, and before that they lost in five games in the first round of the Sharks and their only victory was on the way. To find the latest victory in the LA playoffs at home, you have to go back to 2014, when Alec Martinez scored a goal that won the Stanley Cup in double overtime to beat the New York Rangers.
2. Winning Game 4 would obviously put the Oilers in a great position to win this series. It’s hard to imagine the Kings coming back and winning three games in a row, two of which will be in Edmonton. Teams that rise 3-1 in a series of seven games have historically won that series 90.8 percent of the time. Teams that rise 3-1 while winning game 4 on the road have won the series 91.3 percent of the time in the past.
Advertising – Continue reading below
3. It was amazing to see Edmonton’s attack explode the way it has in the last two games. The eight goals they scored in Friday’s win are as many as they scored in their entire game of four games for the Winnipeg Jets last spring, and the 14 goals from games 2 and 3 are just one less than they scored in four match against the Chicago Blackhawks in the bubble in 2020
4. STATISTICS came up with some random but interesting information about the Oilers on Friday night … They are the first team in NHL history to lose the first game of a playoff series and then come back and win the next two games in the series with six or more naked.
I think this is largely because you don’t often see teams win by such a huge margin in consecutive playoff games. You can see a shot, but you usually see the team that was hit bounce and play better in the next game. As in 2017, the Oilers were embarrassed by a 7-0 win over the Sharks, then came back and won the next game after extra time. When they beat the Ducks 7-1 that spring, Anaheim won the next game.
Even when you look at the Oilers game diary from the ’80s, you don’t see them clowning a team with six goals several times in a row.
Advertising – Continue reading below
5. The key to this success is the fact that all of Edmonton’s lines are offensively mixed. While Evander Kane led by five goals in three games, the Oilers had nine different players to score so far in this series with the Kings. Last spring, only seven different players scored for the Oilers, and in the bubble in 2020, Connor McDavid and Leon Drysight together scored more than half of Edmonton’s goals.
The difference in the quality of the depth ahead from this year compared to previous years is staggering. There is no longer a need for the Oilers to line up McDavid and Dreissile, because they both have a pair of wings that can adjust the game and score goals. In addition, the lower six of the Oilers was previously a black hole, but this was not the case in this playoff, as the third and fourth lines scored three goals in three games.
6. Mike Smith also deserves praise for the way he came back after making that wrong pass at the end of the third period of Game 1. Smith stopped 74 of 76 hits in Games 2 and 3 for a 0.974 percent save. The percentage of savings in his career in the playoffs is now 0.932.
7. It is clear and not at all surprising that the Kings miss Drew Douthey’s presence on the blue line. Without Dauti, everyone in the LA blue line had to rise and take on a bigger role, which is a significant challenge, given that four of those six defenders are playing in their first series of NHL playoffs this year. .
Sean Dursey and Matt Roy are leaders on the ice in Los Angeles among the defenders in this series and you can see in their main figures how they were abandoned in taking minutes, which are usually fought by Doutie. Durzi had 51.8 expected goals per season and is 45.7 in the playoffs, while Roy’s expected goals have fallen from 54.9 to 40.9 percent.
8. Ange Kopitar noted that this is an experience for his young teammates, as only he, Doutie, Dustin Brown and goalkeeper Jonathan Quick are still around from the Stanley Cup teams of LA …
Advertising – Continue reading below
“Ten years ago – more than that – we went through that 13 years ago,” Kopitar said. “It’s a learning curve. Some of the boys climbed much faster than expected, even in the regular season. This is another slit in their belt. Everyone is learning and learning on the go, which I can assure you is not easy. ”
This version of the Kings entered the playoffs for the first time in 2010 and they lost to the Vancouver Canucks in six games in the first round. They conceded 25 goals in the series, including 13 in consecutive losses in matches 4 and 5, after rising 2-1 in the series.
Add Comment