Oilers "pissed off" following dismal defensive display in Game 2 loss to Kings

LOS ANGELES – “Pissed off.” “Not good enough.” “Gift-wrapping opportunities.”

Those were the messages coming out of the Edmonton Oilers’ locker room following a subpar Game 2 response, where the Kings again dominated the special teams battle in a 6-2 victory on Wednesday at Crypto.com Arena.

Los Angeles has scored six goals in back-to-back games to open up this first-round series with a 2-0 lead heading north of the border for Game 3 on Friday in Edmonton.

“Pissed off now, going down two, and as we should be,” Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “We haven’t played to the standard or level that we’re capable of playing at, to a man, to a group. It’s a pissed off group. We gotta go home and take care of business on home ice.”

After not scoring one power play goal in five-game first-round loss to Edmonton last season, the Kings now have five power play goals on nine extra-man opportunities. The Oilers are scoreless on five power plays after clicking at a 45% rate in last season’s series.

“It’s just the details to our game, whether it's sticks, finding lanes,” Nurse said of the penalty kill. “We haven’t been good enough on the kill, and that’s to a man. Each of us knows individually, gotta start with myself and be better on it.”

On Edmonton’s five power plays, the Oilers have generated just six shots, including only two shots on three chances in Game 2.

“They're just winning that battle right now,” Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said. “That’s really all it is. They're beating us in that department. We gotta fix some things and be better.”

And that’s just on the special teams, where things are extra magnified in the postseason, and even more so when the disparity is what it is between the Kings and Oilers.

On the other seven Los Angeles goals, the Edmonton defense has been porous.

In Game 1, the Kings had 15 medium-danger and one high-danger chance against Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner. In Game 2, Skinner saw 10 medium-danger and four high-danger chances. On the other side in Game 2, Darcy Kuemper saw just five medium-danger chances and one high-danger chance.

“I don't necessarily see LA making plays to beat us,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “I see just mistakes, gift-wrapping opportunities. That's different because if they make a heck of a play and they score goals, you tip your hat and say, there's not much we can do. But I don't think I've seen very much of that. I think it's been mostly gaffes that cost us.”

Edmonton lost a board battle on Quinton Byfield’s second period goal, where Byfield took the puck untouched to the net off the wall for the easy snipe. 

Adrian Kempe’s first third-period goal came off a giveaway by Viktor Arvidsson next to his own net that Anze Kopitar scooped up and dropped to Kempe. Kempe’s second goal was a two-on-one shot, the first shot on Calvin Pickard after relieving Skinner late.

Skinner is always a lightning rod as the Oilers last line of defense, and while he’s earned some criticism in his career, Edmonton isn’t doing a lot to help him through two games.

“I think a lot of them are self-inflicted–turnovers, run out of a position, whatever it is,” Oilers forward Corey Perry said. “What do you want him to do? …Like, it's not his fault. He’s made some good saves, playing hard and battling for us. It's the play in front of him we’ve got to tighten up.”

For all the doom a 2-0 series deficit presents, the Oilers have been here before. Just in their last playoff series, the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, Edmonton was down 3-0 in the series before rallying to force Game 7.

“They protected home ice,” Perry said with a shrug. “I mean, that's what you're supposed to do is protect home ice, and we came here to steal a game, didn't happen. But we go home and we protect our ice and go from there.”

The Oilers will get their opportunities to level the series with two games in front of their own hockey-mad crowd in the northern plains, and even with that shred of earned resilience in their back pocket, they recognize the urgency of their situation.

“We’ve got a hunger to win, as well, but we’ve got to ramp it up,” Draisaitl said. “We gotta dig in. We gotta start playing here. Obviously, it hasn't been good enough, and there's hunger on their side of course, you can sense that, but it's not anything that we're not able to match.

“We just have to find it,and we got to find it quick.”