The first night of the NHL playoffs a la 2022 was marked with high-scoring knockout games. 5-0, 5-1, 4-0. If you could have picked which one would the the mighty Oilers versus the much-injured Kings, you would have taken the first of those. Edmonton’s favor. Well, it didn’t turn out that way, and that’s to the good. The teams played a 4-3 game. Not a boring old somebody’s-got-to-win 4-3. A seesaw goalie exhibition, power play filled, thriller.
No mistake—Jonathan Quick won this first game of the Kings’ playoff series versus the Oilers. Sure, the team had to score four goals. But every time they got one (after an initial two-goal lead), the Oilers pressed. Then got the game even. Then pressed again and should have gone ahead. But, well, Quick.
Not that the guy on the other end, Mike Smith, wasn’t excellent, too, though a gaffe in period three ultimately led to the fourth LA goal in a 4-3 road victory. It was a game that the eye test might have said the Oilers should have won. They were explosive and threatening in many sections of the game. But then again, so were the Kings, and the minute you took your eye off the screen, someone scored. Or didn’t, but even that was thrilling for the way the saves were made.
Goaltenders’ duel? Of sorts. Quick was the more visible, the more spectacular, and ultimately the more steady keeper. Here are some highlights, plucked in order of appearance. They are only a sampling:
Alex Edler rushed the puck up ice and nearly scored nine seconds into the first period. The Kings built on this to gain an early lead in shots, 7-0. Then Ryan McLeod somehow burst in on Quick, took a backhand, and saw it saved.
The Moore-Danault-Iafallo line was dominant early. Durzi rushed the puck to the net from his position on defense and Moore stayed back to cover. Then Moore rushed the puck and got it in deep. It was a trick that the Oilers used a lot too, forcing the Kings to go backwards.
Edler took a shot-pass and Kempe tipped it. Smith made the save. Then Kopitar put one to Kempe for a one-timer. Save.
In the first period, the Kings got goals from Moore and Iafallo, and were cruising to a 2-0 lead to end the period. But McDavid. What? He scored on a rush all the way from the top of the dots in his end. He beat four Kings players, including getting two of them to tie each other up.
It looked like a goal that said, “No more” to the opponents. It didn’t turn out that way.
The second period opened with two Draisaitl chances on the power play, the first saved with Quick’s chest, the second with a dive across the crease.
The Oilers tied the game 2-2 on a Duncan Keith vision play. He spotted Yamamoto down near the crease and sent a shot-pass to him for a redirect. But the Kings got it back about a minute later. Kempe passed the puck over to Brendan Lemieux on a rush. He whipped a shot low under Smith. 3-2.
The Oilers tied it once more on the power play after one defender, Danault, broke his stick. The puck went toward the right corner, two Kings chasing it. It went to Draisaitl on the other side of the ice, and he had plenty of time to pick the top far corner with a perfect shot. This was almost dead-on halfway through the second period.
The game would remain that way until about five minutes were left, but not without more thrilling moments. Eight seconds into the third period, McDavid burst in on goal. To stop him, Quick had to do what can only be called a backwards splits dive. McDavid couldn’t get the puck past his right foot and into the net.
Shortly later, the Oilers were down a player on a penalty. Yamamoto had a shorthanded chance. Quick did a splits save. McDavid put a one-timer over to Yamamoto, but Quick moved out and made a high glove save.
Then the gaffe by Smith. He tried to throw a puck up the middle, and it went right to Iafallo. He shot to the open net, but Smith had scrambled back and flung himself right to left to make a save on what was essentially an empty-net goal. Play continued in that zone, and Durzi eventually threw a puck on net that grazed off of Danault and in. 4-3.
The Oilers, as one does, pressed the matter after this. Nurse took a shot coming down the slot. Quick made yet another great save. More chances and plays eventuated with the goalie pulled for Edmonton. Quick was steady on every one, often out to challenge, never staying back. So he got the win, in this his 86th consecutive playoff start for the team.
Can he, can they, do it again? Coach McLellan said so afterwards, albeit not in so many words: “Made some mistakes. Went to the penalty box way too much for anybody’s liking, especially against that type of power play, but for the most part we were able to check and we got excellent goaltending, as we expected.”
“We’re opportunistic. That’s our identity, and that’s how we played, a carbon copy of how we’ve done it [over the past several months].”
McLellan indicated that the one thing that needs to change in the Kings’ game is that they must take fewer penalties in the next game. They took five penalties and were shorthanded four times, twice scored upon.
Notes
McLellan was asked why Lemieux had not played again after his goal, and McLellan dismissed it as nothing he had done. The team simply was down to three lines given that McDavid and Draisaitl were playing every second shift. This was facilitated in part due to the use of 11 forwards and seven defense by the Oilers.
The series resumes in Edmonton on Wednesday.
Brian Kennedy is a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
