Stubborn Kings stun Oilers in Game 1
While the hometown junior Oil Kings playoff motto is a catchy “Chase the Crown” on their hoodies, the Edmonton Oilers goal is a keep-the-picture-small “Erase the Crown” in their first-round Stanley Cup playoff battle with the Los Angeles Kings.
Unfortunately, that picture looked a little crooked Monday as All the Kings’ Men hung a 4-3 loss on the Oilers
Playing their first home playoff game before actual fans in 1,821 days, they stumbled in their first step towards that finish line, with a nervous start, an entertaining middle and a stunning end. A Mike Smith puck-handling error was turned into a Phillip Danault deflection goal with five minutes left. So, they’ve now lost seven straight playoff games over the past three seasons.
Smith, the pre-eminent puck-moving goalie in the game, stopped a dump-in by Alex Iafallo but rather than fire it around the boards, he tried to spring an attack up the middle and Iafallo knocked it down. He hit the post as Smith dove, and with the Oilers in full scramble mode, Danault tipped in a Sean Durzi shot.
“I wanted to make something happen and obviously I tried to do too much there,” said Smith, a butterfly goalie but a stand-up guy. “In a tight game like that you can’t afford to make mistakes like that and it ended up costing us the game. Obviously disappointing but it’s one game and we move on.”
Indeed, they have no choice but to flush it and make sure they win Game 2 Wednesday.
“Can’t do anything about it now. It’s over. It’s a long series, a long way to get to where we want to go. No one would have thought we’d win 16 straight… this is just some adversity early in the series. None that we haven’t dealt with before and I’m sure we’ll deal with it again on this journey,” said Smith, who had won nine straight starts before this loss.
The Oilers began like they had the weight of the world, not just 18,347 full-throated fans on their shoulders — at home, series favourite — as they gave up the first two goals. While they battled back, it didn’t end well before their loud and proud “Let’s Go Oilers” crowd in a pulsating game where they gave up far too much off the rush.
“Lots of emotion and excitement in the building and we just didn’t handle it that well and they got the jump on us,” said Oiler captain Connor McDavid, who brought them back with a dazzling rush goal late in the first and set up Leon Draisaitl for the tying power play marker after another on the PP by Kailer Yamamoto in the second. “We did a great job getting ourselves back into it. I liked our special teams (they killed off four Kings power plays and went two for four on their own PP). We didn’t quit but ultimately it comes down to one bounce.”
The Oilers didn’t feed off the crowd as much as get swallowed by it in the first period, until McDavid’s goal with his hounder Danault on the bench and Blake Lizotte out at centre as the four-time NHL scoring champion roared up ice. “He creates something out of nothing,” said the terrific Danault, who finished plus 3 with a goal and two assists on snipes by Trevor Moore and Iafallo.
With the building rocking, Danault, who signed with the Kings last summer after turning down a long-term deal with the Habs because he wanted to be a second-line centre not a third, was the calm in the eye of the storm.
“For the most part he’s so business-like all the time,” said Moore. “He takes on such tough responsibilities and does it so well. I’m just fortunate to play with a guy like that all the time.”
Smith seconded McDavid the emotion early turned into too much commotion with odd-man chances–the first coming 11 seconds in by defenceman Alex Edler who skated in unmolested on Smith who made stop with his chest.
“The atmosphere in the building was unbelieveable and maybe to a fault we came out and were kind of running all over the place. We got out of our structure a bit because it was so energetic. But the atmosphere? You could barely hear your heart beat,” said Smith.
Same story for the Kings from the time Robert Clark started in on the two anthems while in the seats with the fans who cleared their throats for the Star Spangled Banner, then O Canada. “When they were singing O Canada, that was pretty cool. Got everyone a little fired up I mean if we weren’t already,” said Moore.
The Oilers never led with Moore (shot over Smith’s glove) and Iafallo, off a nice relay from Moore, scoring in the first 17 minutes, then Claude Lemieux’s boy Brendan on one of his two shifts in the second.