In the final five weeks of their campaign, the Kings were a statistician’s fantasy, conjuring up streaks, surges, upticks and about-faces seemingly at will.
But now, the only number that matters is four.
In Thursday’s Game 6 at Edmonton, the Kings face the very real prospects of losing a fourth consecutive contest and being burned to the ground for a fourth straight year by the Oilers.
The number 11 may also carry weight, not because it’s emblazoned across captain Anže Kopitar’s back, but because that could very soon be the number of seasons since the Kings last won a playoff round.
“It’s hard right now, everybody’s frustrated, but we’ve got to put it behind us,” said Kopitar after shepherding a group that blew two late leads in Edmonton and then produced an utterly feckless effort in the biggest match of the season.
“We’ve got to go win a game on the road and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”
Winning on the road hasn’t been easy for the Kings, and after a rare regulation loss at home they’ll need to get it done to stay on the ice and off the golf course. In the regular season and playoffs, the Kings have a measly .395 away winning percentage, and they’ll have to snap out of their current malaise in a barn brimming with blue and orange that also houses perhaps the fastest ice in the NHL.
While winning was a great deodorant from the trade deadline up through Game 2, there was still some stink wafting through the dressing room. The Kings’ apparent lack of confidence in their depth and aversion to risk dovetailed into them using a short bench, one so pronounced that Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch’s casual comment about his team’s willingness to trust all its players resonated an inadvertent yet stinging slight to Hiller.
That short bench combined with tactical follies cost the Kings an overtime Game 4 on the heels of a Game 3 defeat that hinged on Hiller’s foolhardy challenge after an unusually long look at the play in question.
Game 5, at home where they’d won a franchise-record and NHL-best 31 games this year, was supposed to provide a respite. Instead, they face-planted in a way they had not since they waddled through a lopsided loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins immediately after an emotional ceremony to honor responders to January’s fires.
“Throughout the whole season, we’ve been playing hard at home,” Kings defenseman Joel Edmundson said. “We love playing in front of these fans. It was a huge game for us, and we came out like that? Yeah, it’s frustrating.”
The Kings also find themselves staring up at the ceiling against a squad that isn’t much for letting opponents off the mat.
Despite not winning the Stanley Cup since 1990, the Oilers have been the West’s most successful team in the past three postseasons. Their six series victories trail only the two-time Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers’ eight in that same span. Florida was also the only team to beat the Oilers once they had three wins in a series, albeit after they dropped the first three games and nearly reverse-swept the Panthers in last year’s Stanley Cup Final.
In their six Western Conference series wins, Edmonton is undefeated after amassing three wins, including in all three series victories over the Kings. It hasn’t mattered if they were up 3-0 or tied 3-3 (or anything in between), or if they trailed, as they did 2-0 to the Kings, since they faced a deficit in five of those six series.
“When we were down two-nothing, everybody pretty much wrote us off. We didn’t look great in the first two games, we didn’t look great in the third game for two periods,” said Oilers winger Zach Hyman, who made his physical presence felt in Game 5. “We just rely on our experience as a group and knowing that if you just don’t go away and you keep believing, you give yourself a chance to win.”
The Kings have maintained an advantage in net, where Vezina Trophy finalist Darcy Kuemper has made a staggering 87 saves across two losses. The Oilers seem to have also found their man in Calvin Pickard, who’s stepped in during the playoffs in lieu of Stuart Skinner once more but may not be leaving the cage any game soon this time.
Yet even Kuemper’s best has not been enough, and it appears increasingly obvious that the Kings needed to win this series quickly to obviate the situation they’re in now.
It’s one that pits them against a pair of all-time greats in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl – they have both caught Adrian Kempe for the postseason scoring lead – as well as a supporting cast that is getting healthier and more confident, renewing designs on yet another closeout.
“When you have a team down, you want to put them away,” said Edmonton winger Evander Kane, who scored an equalizer in Game 5. “You don’t want to give them life, and that’s going to be our mindset going into Game 6.”
Game 6: Kings at Edmonton
What: Western Conference first-round series
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Where: Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta
TV: ESPN, FDSNW
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