LOS ANGELES — Suddenly, the black picket fence along the centre line has lost a few teeth, and the Edmonton Oilers are skating the puck from their own end into the offensive zone in total control, time, after time, after time.
For some reason, the stingiest team in the National Hockey League on home ice is now bleeding chances off the rush, can’t control more than one shift in a row, and has completely lost control of their own net front — three tenets of the Los Angeles Kings’ game all season long.
“What’s the explanation?” said Kings head coach Jim Hiller. “They were stronger. They beat us in every area of the game.
“They were just better. In every way.”
The Oilers grabbed this series by the throat Tuesday night in Southern California with a performance so dominant, the only questions left were whether this 3-1 victory was the best game the Oilers have played since Christmas, or must we go all the way back to last spring’s Stanley Cup Final to find a comparable?
Was this the best game they’ve played all season, Zach Hyman?
“For a full 60? I think so,” mused Hyman, who suddenly sits second in the playoffs (behind Marcus Foligno) with 36 hits in five games. “I don’t remember the last time we played as good a game as that.”
It was fair to question if this team, minus injured Viking Mattias Ekholm and with a penalty kill that was hemorrhaging goals in Games 1 and 2, would ever find the level they displayed in this crucial Game 5.
But in hindsight, the roots of this were planted in Sunday’s Game 4 win at home. There, the Oilers emerged for the third period trailing 3-1 and being outshot 28-15.
From that point on, this series hasn’t been the same.
“I felt like we started something in the second part of the third period last game,” said Mattias Janmark, who centred the fourth line and had the game-winner — his second goal of the series. “We found the upper hand and tried to not let go of that. We pretty much executed for 60 minutes.”
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Since the third period of Game 4, Edmonton has outshot L.A. 70-35 and outscored the Kings 6-1.
After pulling away to win their Round 1 matchup in each of the last three years, the Oilers may have broken L.A. with this effort.
Without an out-of-his-mind, hair-on-fire performance by goalie Darcy Kuemper, the score would have been 7-1 or 8-1. The Oilers outshot L.A. 19-4 in a scoreless first period, and actually had to forge a comeback when Andrei Kuzmenko deflected home the game-opening goal on a Kings power play early in Period 2.
“That was a nice reminder of how we can play when we are urgent and desperate,” said Evander Kane, who scored a goal and was a force in the Kings’ slot all night. “We wanted to come up with that same mindset tonight.
“We stayed in the fight. We didn’t get frustrated,” Kane said. “They scored first, and we’re outplaying them, we keep doing what we’re supposed to be doing. And eventually we get rewarded.”
This game defied accepted playoff logic.
At this stage of the season, this deep into a series, only good teams remain. So to see one team deny another even three shifts in a row of game control the way the Oilers did the Kings, the level to which the Oilers commanded this game almost didn’t make sense.
“And we did it for 60 minutes,” added goalie Calvin Pickard. “It was one of those games where you could get away from it, because (the puck) wasn’t going in. But we didn’t stray from our game, and we got rewarded for it in the end.”
It’s only one good game, and we all know that the playoffs are a marathon, not a sprint. But as you watched the Oilers roll four lines, get all the saves that were expected, defend brilliantly and move pucks with precision, you could make out a team that did this into the fourth round a season ago.
Evan Bouchard was brilliant in every aspect of his game Tuesday. John Klingberg moved pucks swiftly. Kane looked like his old self, and the power play — though it went 0-for-2 — was highly dangerous.
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who each had their only point with an assist on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ empty-net goal, tilted the ice from start to finish. The fourth line produced a massive goal, while only two players saw less than 9:30 of ice time, compared to four for the Kings.
When you play the best game of your season on April 29, well, that speaks of a team that might have more in the tank than we thought — even a few days ago.
“Things didn’t come too easily this year,” Janmark said. “I feel like last year we were playing really bad at times and really good at times. This year we haven’t been as bad as we were, but we haven’t reached the level that we think we have in this room.
“I think today, and the overtime last game, is maybe as good as we’ve been.”
Playing their tenth playoff series in the past four post-seasons, the Oilers have earned this. They’ve paid the dues it takes to get to this point, where you know what a proper playoff is supposed to look like. What it feels like, and how it is executed.
And when you get there, and you’re rolling that game out against a Kings team that has not had any of the aforementioned success or experience, you just know:
This game is going to beat those guys.
“There was a feeling in the room that we’re playing like we should and we’re the better team tonight. We’ve got them where we want them,” Janmark said. “They got one on the power play, and I don’t think anyone said anything — we just went back and scored to tie the game.
“And away we went from there.”
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