The Kings secure home-ice advantage in the first round against the Oilers with a combined 21-save shutout from Kuemper & Rittich on Monday evening in a penalty-filled affair at Rogers Place
EDMONTON, AB – Next time we’re on home ice, expect a much different team and more determined effort.
The Edmonton Oilers were blanked 5-0 by the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night at Rogers Place in their final home game of the regular season, conceding second place in the Pacific Division and home-ice advantage to their rivals for their first-round meeting in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Goaltenders Darcy Kuemper and David Rittich combined to make 21 saves for the Kings’ shutout, while their power play scored twice on eight opportunities through Quinton Byfield and Kevin Fiala in a penalty-filled evening that saw the Blue & Orange take 53 penalty minutes, including a five-minute major and a game misconduct served to defenceman Darnell Nurse for cross-checking in the second period.
Edmonton’s power play went 0-for-6 in the defeat.
Former Oilers winger Warren Foegele opened the scoring early in the first period and finished the night with a goal and assist as one of five Kings to record multiple points to help their team secure home-ice advantage against the Oilers for their fourth consecutive meeting in the first round of the postseason.
“It’s a good team over there and a good team in here. It’s going to be a good series,” Connor Brown said. “It’s exciting. That’s what it comes down to. Obviously a bit of a frustrating one tonight, but come next week, it’s going to be exciting. We have a high sense of belief in this group. We think we can do something special, so it’ll be a fun one.”
Playing the second half of a home and away back-to-back, the Oilers competed with an injury-riddled lineup that included absences from forwards Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Evander Kane, Trent Frederic and defencemen Mattias Ekholm, Jake Walman, Troy Stecher and John Klingberg.
“We played last night. There was travel and you can use all excuses, but it’s the NHL and they’re a good team over there,” Perry added. “But lately, we’ve been doing a lot of good things without the big boys, and that’s a good sign.”
Winger Quinn Hutson recorded 14:27 of time on ice over 21 shifts in his NHL debut after signing a two-year entry-level contract with the Oilers on Monday morning – just two days removed from playing in the final of the NCAA’s Frozen Four with the Boston University Terriers on Saturday.
The Oilers will look to finish their regular season on a high note on Wednesday night against the San Jose Sharks at the SAP Center.
The Oilers are blanked 5-0 by the Kings at Rogers Place on Monday
Edmonton’s hopes of securing home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs took a massive hit in the opening 20 minutes after Los Angeles put three past them to stake themselves to a 3-0 lead at the first intermission, with former Oilers winger Warren Foegele getting in on the action.
Foegele got things going 2:55 into the opening frame when he put away the rebound from Phillip Danault’s point shot that bounced off the back boards behind Calvin Pickard’s net following the expiry of Evan Bouchard’s early hooking penalty on Andrei Kuzmenko.
The former member of the Blue & Orange notched his 23rd goal of the season and would pick up an assist later in the period on a goal from Vladislav Gavrikov for his 22nd assist and 44th point – all career highs for the winger who spent three seasons in Edmonton from 2021-24 and recorded a goal and two assists against them back on Dec. 28 in a 4-3 overtime victory for the Kings.
“Overall, it was a very similar lineup that we had in Winnipeg minus McDavid, which obviously is going to change the game a lot,” Knoblauch said. “But I think overall, we didn’t execute and play as well as we did the night before.
“LA brought a lot more to the table than Winnipeg did the night before. [The Jets] were playing back-to-back. Now we’re playing a back-to-back and we got behind early. They score about three power play goals. I know one was after it expired, but pretty much a power-play goal and that was just too much for our group to overcome.”
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was back in the lineup from a two-game absence due to illness and nearly followed suit with Foegele by having his wide-open attempt from just inside the circle stopped by his former Red Deer Rebels teammate Darcy Kuemper right as Edmonton’s opening power play ended.
Connor speaks to the media following the Oilers loss to the Kings
The Oilers and Kings would both receive four opportunities on the man advantage in the opening frame, with the Oilers failing to score on any of their chances while the Kings were able to convert one of their looks through Quinton Byfield near the midway mark of the period.
Byfield was unmarked between the hashmarks to put a deflection on Adrian Kempe’s point shot that beat Pickard under the left arm to make it 2-0 for the Kings. Kevin Fiala recorded the secondary helper after making the backwards pass from inside the left circle that found Kempe at the top of the zone.
“Kempe up at top is very dynamic. It changes the look of that power play quite a bit,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. “At the Trade Deadline, getting Kuzmenko has been a nice addition to that power play. It looks a lot different. A different setup than it has been in the past, so we’ll have to adjust going forward. Hopefully, when we’re adjusting, we can adjust with our go-to penalty killers and we’ve got everybody.”
With these two teams locked into their fourth consecutive first-round meeting in the playoffs, there was always going to be some animosity, and the contest started to get chippy before the 10-minute mark.
Connor Brown took a roughing penalty on Danault at the other end of the ice after the Kings’ centre delivered him a hard check against the boards in Edmonton’s zone 10 seconds earlier, and that kicked off a physical final half of the opening period that saw the Kings take three more penalties.
Vasily Podkolzin returned the favour by laying a heavy hit on Drew Doughty not long after, but the Kings were ultimately able to stretch their lead to 3-0 with 1:15 left on the clock in the first period on a quick counter-attack that was finished by Gavrikov with a snap shot past Pickard off the rush.
“I don’t think we were running around. We had a couple scrums, but I don’t think it was anything more than a regular game,” Knoblauch said. “Obviously there’s some extra tension just with the likelihood of us playing each other going into this game, but I didn’t see a lot more than a typical game.”
Watch the recap of Monday’s matchup between the Oilers & Kings
After the officials handed out eight penalties in the opening 20 minutes, the Oilers and Kings became committed to outperforming that number, combining for 45 minutes of infractions during the middle frame with Edmonton being the primary aggressor by taking two misconducts and a game misconduct.
“It was a rough one, but I think the refs did a good job keeping everything under control and they didn’t really let anything go,” Connor Brown said. “But it’s a tough one to diagnose here.”
Fiala blasted a one-timer past Pickard from the left face-off dot on the power play just nine seconds into a roughing penalty that was assessed to Max Jones past the seven-and-a-half minute mark, making it 4-0 for the Kings before things started to get out of control less than a minute later.
Podkolzin played with a physical edge all night, and after he gave defenceman Brandt Clarke a shove in front of the Kings’ goal before he was tripped by Kuemper for a penalty, Clarke took offence and came at him for revenge after the whistle blew, leading to a large scrum in the corner that saw the Russian forward take a double minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.
Corey addresses the media after Monday’s defeat to the Kings
After the dust settled, the Oilers ended up with the power play, but they weren’t able to find the goal they needed to get themselves back in the game. Edmonton would end the period and the night 0-for-6 on the man advantage, but their penalty kill was busy killing off six of eight penalties on Monday.
Corey Perry wasn’t happy with the officials about a slashing penalty that was given to teammate Jeff Skinner later in the period that resulted in the veteran getting an extra penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, putting the Oilers down five-on-three for a full two minutes that penalty kill was able to hold off and ending Perry’s second period early with a further 10-minute misconduct.
“I mean, there’s eight power plays for them or whatever and it’s six for us,” Perry said. “You can’t really do much about that.”
Before the intermission, Darnell Nurse had his night come to an end when he was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for delivering a cross-check into the back of Byfield on the ice after he was taken down in front of the net by the Oilers defenceman.
Edmonton would finish the game with 11 forwards and five defencemen, but managed to keep it 4-0 at the intermission by killing off Nurse’s major penalty
Kris addresses the media following Monday’s defeat to the Kings
In a much cleaner period with no penalties going either way, the Kings were able to make it 5-0 when a missed drop pass from Jeff Skinner meant for Max Jones resulted in an odd-man rush the other direction that was put away by Adrian Kempe at 11:47 of the third period.
Before the ensuing faceoff, Los Angeles would take advantage of the scoreline by replacing Kuemper between the pipes with David Rittich for the final half of the period in order to protect their starting goaltender. Rittich would make five more saves for the combined shutout with Kuemper that secured home-ice advantage for the Kings by way of finishing second in the Pacific.
After rising to the occasion in Winnipeg the night before against the Presidents’ Trophy winning Jets, the Oilers would be held back by eight penalties while still missing a plethora of important players from their lineup as they try to get 100 percent healthy before the playoffs.
The silver lining for the Oilers is that they managed to finish a game with no further injuries after Troy Stecher was added to that list in the second period of Sunday’s win over the Jets. McDavid was held out against the Kings due to precautionary reasons with the team playing three games in four nights.
“Yes, we did. It was a good night,” Knoblauch said. “We haven’t had a good night for a while, so anytime you lose like that and you’re still are happy about things [is a positive]. Things haven’t been going well in the injury department, but tonight, everything’s good.”
Knoblauch implied post-game that it’s unlikely either one of McDavid, Draisaitl or Hyman – or any of their injured players for that matter – will return for Edmonton’s regular-season finale against the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday.
“We’ll re-evaluate,” he said. “The game doesn’t mean anything, so whether Leon plays, Connor plays or Hyman plays, those are a lot of question marks and it’s probably not necessary that they do. I think they’re game ready and will be ready for the playoffs, so it’s a possibility they play, but I’m not sure what we benefit with them playing.”
