LOS ANGELES — The inevitable took a bit of a circuitous route in this final week and Thursday night itself provided some roller-coaster-level twists and turns, but it arrived as the NHL regular season wrapped up at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Kings–Oilers, Part III. Game 1 on Monday in Edmonton. Was there really any other conclusion?
“You don’t think about it too much during the year, but once it comes down to crunchtime and the way that the picture was kind of shaping up, yeah, it looked like it was Edmonton,” Kings captain Anze Kopitar said following a come-from-behind 5-4 overtime win over Chicago.
The team they’ve twice failed to vanquish is standing in front of them once again. Two years ago, Los Angeles was a surprise upstart that got to Game 7 at Rogers Place. The response to that was trading for Kevin Fiala. Last year ended with the Oilers celebrating after Game 6 in L.A. The response to that was re-signing Vladislav Gavrikov, adding Cam Talbot, and then the big roster-altering swap for Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Will this third time be any different? It’s not as if the Oilers have stood pat. They’ve upgraded their lineup around Connor McDavid to get him to the promised land. They’re not just thinking about getting past the first round after losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champions the last two postseasons.
In other words, they’ll be a serious obstacle for the Kings. And it could be more of the same, which isn’t going to play well when you’ve made major moves to sit at the salary cap and tailor a roster over time for this moment. But if nothing else, motivation will be on their side. Summoning that shouldn’t be a problem.
“We definitely want to beat them now,” Quinton Byfield said. “I think we owe them. They’re a really good team. They added a lot of great pieces at the deadline. They’re going to be a tough out for sure. But they’re a team that we really want to beat.”
Had to make Game 82 spicy. #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/ModailNMX3
— x – LA Kings (@LAKings) April 19, 2024
For a while during a wild third period Thursday, it wasn’t certain who Los Angeles would face. Had Vegas taken care of Anaheim at home, it would have held the No. 3 position in the Pacific Division and set up a rematch of last year’s second-round series with the Oilers. It would have left the Kings in the second wild-card spot, a position they put themselves in after a passionless home loss to Minnesota on Monday.
Except the Ducks rose up and defeated the Golden Knights. The Kings snapped out of their doldrums with a three-goal uprising in the second period against the lowly Blackhawks. All seemed to be set. And then Tyler Johnson scored 88 seconds into the third. And then Joey Anderson scored. And then Ryan Donato scored. A 3-1 lead for L.A. turned into a 4-3 deficit in just five minutes.
Suddenly, the Kings had Dallas as their Game 1 opponent. If you think the Oilers are a hurdle, how about facing the top team in the Western Conference during this season? The Stars swept the season series by counts of 5-1, 4-1 and 4-1.
Neither option was good. Dallas would have just been different for an opening-round tussle. But fate was being playful. Trailing the second-worst team in the NHL and heading for a disquieting defeat, the Kings got a reprieve when Chicago’s Philipp Kurashev put the puck over the glass. Talbot was pulled for a sixth attacker on the resulting power play and Viktor Arvidsson cemented the annual Los Angeles-Edmonton playoff matchup with a goal that tied the score.
The Kings got the point that secured third place in the Pacific and then needed only six seconds to add another as Adrian Kempe, who continues to show how indispensable he’s become as a player, went on a solo mission to beat Blackhawks goalie Arvid Soderblom.
“brb gonna end this”
– Adrian Kempe probably pic.twitter.com/aZ5xSUtsJ4
— x – LA Kings (@LAKings) April 19, 2024
“It’s always nice to end on a high note,” Kopitar said. “Sometimes you do have the ups and the downs within the game, not just within the season. Thought we bounced back pretty well. Got this one out of the way and now it’s looking ahead and getting ready for a good series.”
The final stats will show how the Kings dominated play as they should have against an inferior team. But that stretch of the third period was inexcusable. And if they have any chance of taking down the Oilers this time, they can’t afford to have occurrences like that.
“We got it done,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “I thought their goalie played very well. It ended up being close because we gave them some chances in the third period. Didn’t think it should have been a close game, but we had to gather ourselves and score some big goals.
“There was probably a number of teams over the last 10 days or so that probably were in the playoffs (and) weren’t completely happy with the way they played out the string. We’re just going to wipe that clean and we’re going to start fresh up in Edmonton.”
They’ll have to raise their game significantly. One good sign was Byfield snapping out of a late-season slump. This year has been Byfield’s big come-up as he became an impact player in his third full season for the Kings, who have been patient as he developed. But the 21-year-old had been stuck on 19 goals for the last 19 games.
That changed when he tipped in a pass from Phillip Danault on the power play for his milestone 20th, a figure he could hit a few times as his career unfolds. And then he provided the feed to Arvidsson for the tying score. Byfield had his struggles against the Oilers in last season’s series. He’ll now be counted on to do much more.
“If he plays like he did tonight, he’s going to have a say in the series for sure,” Kopitar said. “He’s been good all season. Yes, he’s had some down (moments) last few games. He knows it. He knows what it takes. He’s been in a hard series last year. Played a lot of minutes. Seen the top matchups.
“He knows, and I think this was a good indicator for him to see how he needs to play.”
Almost a year ago, the Kings had the Oilers on the ropes in Game 4 and couldn’t land the kind of blow that would knock them out. It has sat with them ever since. And that was already on their minds as a topsy-turvy uncertain third period played out. The inevitable eventually won out.
Kings-Oilers. Again.
“It’s hard not to think about the whole picture, I guess,” Kopitar said. “We kind of knew what the score was going out for the third period and all that stuff. Didn’t plan on going down one goal, but I guess we got the job done in the end. We’re going back to Edmonton.”
(Photo of Adrian Kempe moving in for his overtime shot: Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)
