Edmonton doesn't fold, eliminates Kings for fourth consecutive season

EDMONTON, Alb. – There was every opportunity to crumble for the Edmonton Oilers.

The Los Angeles Kings controlled nearly every aspect in taking a 2-0 series lead and held third-period leads in each of the first four games. The Oilers tied the series, 2-2, going back to LA.

After a dominant Game 5 where only Darcy Kuemper kept things competitive for the Kings, the Oilers could have slipped at home in Game 6. However, with every ounce that LA pushed back at Rogers Place on Thursday night, Edmonton responded to maintain the upper-hand in this lopsided playoff rivalry.

The Oilers received contributions from up and down the line-up and held off a late Kings charge to capture Game 6, 6-4, and eliminate Los Angeles in a fourth consecutive first-round series, 4-2.

“I think that’s a lot of experience all built into one,” Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “Not just this from this series, but series in the past. This is a resilient group, a group that believes that no matter how far or how much we’re pushed up against the wall, we can find a way to win. It was a testament to that, this series.”

For all the build-up of the supposed depth advantage that the Kings had over the Oilers going into the series, it was Los Angeles that shortened its bench by series end, and in this clinching contest, Leon Draisaitl did not record a point and Connor McDavid registered just one point.

“We got offense from all over the line-up today,” McDavid said. “It’s great. You need that. You need different guys stepping up. I thought (Connor Brown) had his best game as an Oiler. Go down the list, we had guys step up. It wasn’t our best, but found a way tonight. That’s what good teams do.”

Again, Edmonton caused havoc in the crease, crashed Kuemper’s net and simply overall outworked the Kings when it mattered most.

Los Angeles scored just over a minute into the game, as Quinton Byfield made magic on the Kings first shot of the game. Edmonton responded with a pinball shot off Adam Henrique two minutes later.

The Kings grabbed the lead again just 33 seconds later, but the Oilers came back level two minutes later, as the Edmonton power play finally got in gear over the last four games.

From there, it was three straight goals for the Oilers to grab this game by the scruff of the net–a deflection from Zach Hyman, a blast from Darnell Nurse and Trent Frederic storming the netfront on the rush.

Even with a goal in the Kings’ last gasps with the empty net, Connor Brown sealed the game into the empty net to send Los Angeles into its offseason for the fourth straight season.

LA had home-ice advantage for the first time in those four series, but that and the NHL’s best home record did not make the difference in this fourth consecutive defeat.

“Just digging in. Just willed it out,” McDavid said of the series turnaround. “Two of the gutsier wins that I’ve been a part of in Edmonton, Games 3 and 4. Just not being denied. That’s a credit to everybody in this room. Dug ourselves out of tough, tough spots against a stingy, stingy team.”

The Oilers have now won seven of their last eight closeout games, with the one loss coming in Game 7 of last season’s Stanley Cup Final.

Four of those seven closeout wins have come at the expense of the Kings, who have not won a single playoff series since their 2014 Stanley Cup. Los Angeles has posted a 9-24 playoff record with six consecutive series losses.

“They’re all hard, I can tell you that,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “It’s a missed opportunity. It’s very clear… We believe we could have won the series. We believe we should have won the series. We didn’t.”

The Kings went from riding harmonica magic to a potential sweep of their perennial playoff dragon to losing four straight games and staring into the mirror to start an offseason of many questions.

“Previous two seasons, two playoff series, I feel like we weren’t maybe close enough to be as good as they were,” Kings forward Adrian Kempe said. “This series felt like, besides the last home game we had, it felt like we were the better team. We couldn’t close the games out that we should have. So that came back and bit us in hindsight.”

In the opposing locker room, the Edmonton Oilers march on to a second-round match-up with the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas beat Edmonton in their only postseason meeting, a six-game second-round loss in 2023.

“We owe Vegas a good series. We don’t forget what happened two years ago,” McDavid told the Sportsnet broadcast in Canada. “Looking forward to it. Get ready to go for another great series.”

Not every question heading into the postseason has been answered for the Oilers–do they really have the depth to go back to the Stanley Cup Final? Will their banged-up defense hold on long enough? My goodness, is this really the goaltending of a Cup champion?

However, Edmonton steered out of a potentially ignominious nosedive to regain their postseason rhythm–again defeating the Los Angeles Kings like clockwork–and now, try to ride their hot streak and take down the house in Sin City next week.