LOS ANGELES — When the Edmonton Oilers reeled off their 16-game winning streak this season, they allowed an average of 1.50 goals per game against over that stretch.
In four games against the Los Angeles Kings this season, Edmonton allowed an average of 2.25 goals against per game.
Through Games 1 and 2 of their series with the Kings, the Oilers have given up eight goals in regulation, and one more in overtime. Sure, they kicked a couple into their own net in Game 1. But the theme for Edmonton, as they roll into L.A. for Games 3 and 4 at Crypto.com Arena, is to get back to being a stingy defensive side that knows three or four goals for will be enough to win.
“When we feel we’re at our best as a team is when we are at our best defensively, and let our offence take over. And it will,” said veteran Oilers depth winger Mattias Janmark. “We can’t get scored on four goals per game (or) it’s going to be a quick exit. We’ve got to find our game, and going on the road can help us there.”
It’s one of hockey’s cherished clichés, that old tale about simplifying your game on the road. About a team coming together and finding itself when unburdened of the noise and expectations at home.
“Personally, it’s great winning at home, it’s fun playing at home. But there’s nothing better than winning on the road in the playoffs,” Janmark said. “Maybe we don’t have to open it up as much, focus on our defensive game. I don’t think we can keep letting in four goals a game. It’s not going to bode well for the future.
“Maybe a 2-1, 3-1, 3-2 game for (Game 3) is what you can hope for.”
Brett Bomb
Was that the hardest shot of Brett Kulak’s life, the one-timer he blew past Kings goalie Cam Talbot to get the Oilers on the board in Game 2?
“I don’t know. I felt good, like I did get all of it for sure,” said the Oilers defenceman, who likened that shot to that perfect drive you get now and again in golf. “When you barely feel the ball hit your club. Same kind of thing, right? You just sweep right through the puck and it just takes off. Let the stick do the work.”
Nobody has seen a radar gun on the shot, but Kulak stepped into a drop pass from Leon Draisaitl and shot a puck that was as hard as any Evan Bouchard shot we’ve seen all season. Kulak had three goals in 82 games this season, and has one in two playoff games thus far
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Friday Night’s Lineups
There aren’t any major injuries, both starting goalies will continue to hold their creases, and we don’t see any line changes from Game 2 when they drop the puck at 8:40 p.m. Edmonton time tonight.
Edmonton has found some scoring from its fourth line, but it’s Draisaitl’s line that was on for the first three Kings goals in Game 2.
“Our line was getting dinged up a bit there. We have to be better,” Draisaitl said after Friday’s morning skate “It’s a good chance to get back to defending the right way and doing it right.”
Here are the Oilers lines:
Henrique – McDavid – Hyman
RNH – Draisaitl – Foegele
Kane – McLeod – Perry
Holloway – Carrick – Janmark
Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Ceci
Kulak – Desharnais
Skinner
It is believed that Kings forward Carl Grundstrom will play sparingly, as he did in Game 2, when he skated for an astonishingly low 25 seconds. He had one shift in the game.
They’ll stick with Quinton Byfield next to Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe, by far the Kings’ top offensive unit. Here’s how L.A. will look tonight:
Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Fiala – Dubois – Laferrière
Grundstrom – Lizotte – Lewis
Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence
Talbot
Breaks Beat The Boys
The Oilers kicked two pucks in their net in Game 1, and watched the Kings score when defenceman Cody Ceci’s stick broke making a routing breakout pass. In Game 2, good fortune turned a bad breakout pass by Kings blueliner Mikey Anderson into a perfect puck for Kopitar, as Byfield negated an icing and deflected the puck to his captain for the game-winner in overtime.
“It’s just like in life, right?” said Oilers winger Warren Foegele. “There are some good bounces that go your way, and then sometimes there are bad bounces that go against you. At the end of day that’s out of your control. What you can control is how hard you work.”
Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse isn’t focusing on a few bad breaks. There are far more important areas to be concerned with, he said.
“First and foremost, we’ve got to just worry about the process of what we’re doing,:” Nurse said. “There was a level to our game (in Game 2) that could have been higher, but … there were a lot of stretches in the game where we did play well.
“The more that you play the game you want to play, the more nights you’ll be on the winning side of things.”
Play well, and the breaks will follow. That’s what experience tells Nurse.
“It seems like that sometimes,:” he agreed. “You always have to create your own breaks. The better you’re playing, those bounces and breaks usually go your way.”
