McDavid's superhuman skill gives resilient Oilers confidence despite Game 1 loss

LOS ANGELES – Game 1 looked like it had the cliché Hollywood ending written all over it for the Edmonton Oilers.

The Kings were dominating, 4-0, through nearly two full periods. Edmonton’s all-world star Connor McDavid rescued the team from defeat with four points in the final 21 minutes, including the game-tying goal with less than two minutes to play.

Overtime was on deck. The Oilers, who were one-goal away from one of the most miraculous Stanley Cup Final comebacks of all time last season, were going to steal a comeback win on the road to kick off this potentially redemptive playoff run.

Then… a flutter, a bounce, “puck luck,’ and McDavid’s Oilers took a Game 1 loss on the chin, 6-5, on Monday at Crpyto.com Arena.

“I like that we stayed with it, even though there were a lot of opportunities to quit,” Oilers forward Zach Hyman said. “Five-on-three, guys were blocking shots down two there. Didn't get the call we wanted, had to battle through that and face that adversity and then to come out and tie the game there, we still lost, but I think you could take something positive out of that.”

Both teams were more exasperated than anything else, postgame. The Kings were not overly elated having given up the four-goal lead, and the Oilers not overly dejected having forced the tie after trudging through the opening 40 minutes.

“We’ve seen that many times in the last year,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “They never give up. They’re resilient. They stay composed and focus on what needs to be done. We've seen a lot of adversity over the last two playoffs, and the guys stick with it. We’re a mature group that can handle a lot of adversity. They've seen a lot, and they don't get too rattled when things aren't going well.”

This is a pair of teams that are intimately familiar with each other, with this being the fourth consecutive first-round series between Edmonton and Los Angeles. They both know it’ll take much more than an electrically exhausting Game 1 to turn the tide in this series.

“Sometimes games aren't scripted like you think they're gonna go and you have to find a way to win,” Hyman said. “Obviously, we fell short today,  which sucks. Nobody’s happy about it. We have a history of bouncing back and I'm sure we'll play a lot better in Game 2.”

The takeaways from Game 1 for Edmonton are two-fold.

First, the first 40 minutes showed one difference between the last three series between the Kings and Oilers and this year’s edition: home-ice advantage for Los Angeles.

Not just the crowd or the tone-setting Korean harmonica Star-Spangled banner, but home ice allows the Kings to dictate the line match-ups, which allowed Los Angeles to stifle McDavid and Leon Draisaitl early.

Every single second of the opening frames, the Kings were in tight on both Oilers stars with sticks on their hips and following through on bodychecks with every change of direction. Edmonton produced just six shots in the first period and didnt record a shot through the first half of the second period.

Los Angeles was able to do that more consistently than in years past because of the confidence in their top three centers–Anze Kopitar, Philip Danault and Quinton Byfield–to stay physical and stick with with Edmonton’s dynamic duo.

“At different times this year, we’ve talked about Kopi’s matched-up, Philip’s matched-up, Quinton’s matched-up,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “All those three centers at different times had stretches of two or three weeks of hard-match at home, and I think now we’re comfortable with whichever of those three, particularly, gets Draisaitl or McDavid.”

Secondarily for Edmonton, the final 20-ish minutes show that no matter how long you keep McDavid and Draisaitl down, they just need a sliver of time and space to explode forth into.

After LA’s centers were on McDavid’s hip throughout the opening two periods, McDavid finally spun away from Kopitar to laser a one-time pass across to Draisaitl to get on the board with six seconds left in the second.

After the Kings went back up by three on a five-on-three blast, McDavid again spun low to charge the net to feed Corey Perry, 5-3, and once more with the goalie pulled to find Hyman, 5-4. Finally, McDavid burst forward himself to tie it, 5-5, with under 90 seconds to play.

“We don't quit. We believe in ourselves,” Hyman said. “We have some really, really talented players who will us back in the game, and they obviously did that.”

It’s a comfort to have two of the absolute best players in the world to fall back on in a tight spot, but if the Oilers are going to pull off a fourth-straight series over the Kings, they all know it cannot be the Connor-Leon show for 60 minutes of every game.

“I think everyone’s playing at the same intensity. I'm not sure they can play at the same level as Connor,” Knoblauch said. “Obviously he’s a different skill, talent than most guys in the NHL, not only our team. We’re going to need a team effort. We’re going to need contributions from everybody. Not just Connor. Not just Leon.”

Edmonton took Los Angeles’ best shots, and the Oilers showed off their nuclear weapons. Now both teams settle in for what shapes up to be an equally exhausting and exhilarating marathon sprint.