Kings of Convenience We Meet Again

The Kings flew back to Edmonton on Monday afternoon in the same position they were in when they left the metropolis last week: dead even in their all-time-of-seven playoff with the Oilers.

But only about everything else about the first-round series has changed. With Sunday'due south feisty four-0 win in Game 4 at Crypto.com Arena, the Kings not simply matched the Oilers with two wins, they also wrested dorsum control in a series they were on the verge of getting diddled out of.

What they didn't exercise, coach Todd McLellan said, was modify the momentum. At this time of year, he said, that tin can flip with every shot, every check and every save, leaving the teams to showtime from scratch once again in Game 5 on Tuesday.

"No momentum," McLellan said. "Information technology starts again every nighttime. If momentum carried over, we'd have been drilled [Dominicus]."

Indeed. The Oilers scored 14 times to win by six goals in both the second and third games of the series, handing the Kings their most lopsided playoff losses in 32 years. Defensemen Mikey Anderson said the players took that personally.

"You look at the series now, it'south back to all square," he said. "So we try and forget well-nigh the two games nosotros lost and plough our attention to the next one."

But the serial can't cease with the next one; Sunday's win assured the Kings of at to the lowest degree ane more home game Th. What that game will mean, McLellan said, will be adamant past what his young team has learned thus far in the series.

"Our squad still has to improve. The big question I'm going to ask our guys is have we learned our lesson?" he said. "We win Game 1 and we practise nothing in Games 2 or iii that fifty-fifty looks remotely close.

"Accept we learned anything throughout the series? We'll find out it."

Kings forrard Carl Grundstrom falls over Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse as he scores during the third flow Sunday.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Ane affair that was reaffirmed Lord's day is the fact that Jonathan Quick is a pretty adept goalie. Quick was pulled midway through Game 3 later on giving upward x goals in less than five periods, but he rebounded in Game 4, stopping 31 shots to pitch his tenth playoff shutout, the about by an American, and his first since 2014, when he helped the Kings win their second Stanley Cup in three years.

Dominicus'south win was the team'south first in a abode playoff game since that Stanley Cup Last, which was besides the last postseason series the Kings won. Quick is one of only four holdovers from that team and McLellan said the tone those veterans set up will be important if the Kings promise to win this series.

"[They] should be absorbing every single minute of the ups and downs in this series and look around at how certain people handle it," he said of the other players observing the veterans. "They're all carrying themselves a sure style. At that place's a relaxation factor that comes into play when we need information technology. There'due south an intensity factor that goes up when we need it. And information technology's not manufactured by the coaching staff.

"The final time I saw that I was in Detroit as an assistant coach."

That team likewise won the Stanley Cup.

Whether the Kings are on that level is to be determined, but they certainly did a lot of things well in Game four, with Trevor Moore and Troy Stecher staking the squad to a two-0 lead with first-period goals. Carl Grundstrom got the final 2 late in the third flow, the terminal into an empty cyberspace.

The special teams, which have struggled in the series, also contributed, killing all 3 Edmonton power plays, marker the first fourth dimension the Kings take been perfect on the penalty kill since the penultimate game of the regular flavor.

"We played the game [that] got us to the playoffs," Quick said. "We play that fashion, we will exist successful. We played a lot of good games."

Did it give them momentum? No, simply reassurance — and maybe a little conviction going back on the road, where they have the second-best road record in the Western Briefing. Among all NHL teams only the Washington Capitals lost fewer road games than the Kings this flavour.

McLellan, nevertheless, isn't looking past Tuesday. At this time of yr, he said, information technology'due south one game at a time.

"We've but got to win one. It'south all nosotros have to do," he said. "Our math doesn't become past one."

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Source: https://www.latimes.com/sports/hockey/story/2022-05-09/los-angeles-kings-edmonton-oilers-game-5-momentum

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