Old is new, again
Oilers enter the post-season rekindling a rivalry with Kings
There will no doubt be much mention this week about a 40-year-old storyline.
Yes, something has happened here in the last 21/2 months that might make you wonder if history could repeat itself and there could be another Miracle on Manchester.
I was there. And I wouldn't worry about it.
Forty years ago, the Edmonton Oilers headed into a Stanley Cup playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings with a cockeyed cockiness that suggested they felt they had become God's gift to hockey.
Because of that, the Miracle On Manchester happened on April 10, 1982 in The Forum on Manchester Blvd. in Inglewood, Calif.
The Kings completed the largest comeback in Stanley Cup playoff history, coming back from down 5-0 after two periods to win 6-5 in overtime in Game 3 of the best-offive, first-round series after an upset in Game 1 and another to follow in Game 5.
Despite being blessed with the great gifts of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl it is impossible to discover any evidence of that moment in hockey history repeating.
Despite the way this 2022 team finished the season with a 26-9-3 record under new head coach Jay Woodcroft — the third best record in the NHL (.724) since he was promoted from AHL Bakersfield Feb. 10 — the way things ended up Friday night, that swagger just doesn't exist with this group.
Yes, these Oilers have gone 15 games without a regular season loss at home.
And, yes, Edmonton won their 48th and 49th games of the season, the last one resting McDavid, Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse and Mike Smith to make it 104 points in the standings for the season Friday to finish up against the Vancouver Canucks — the most since their third of five Stanley Cup winning season in 1986-87.
But this is a franchise coming out of an 11-year decade of darkness of having not made the playoffs not a decade in the World Hockey Association. And this is a team that won one (1) playoff game in the last two years and suffered a 2-11-2 record at midseason.
In the spring of 1982, in their third year in the league, the Oilers had 48 wins and 111 points to finish second overall in the standings. Gretzky would win the Hart Trophy for the third straight time.
And the Oilers sat on the bench booing the Kings power play in that game.
So forget the Miracle on Manchester. And forget, too, the Minor Miracle on Manchester in 1989 after Gretzky was sold to Los Angeles by Peter Pocklington.
The Oilers were up 3-1 in that best-of-seven series the first year after Gretzky was sold in August of 1988, and didn't have the stomach for it and lost in seven.
The Oilers handled Los Angeles with no problem in series played in 1985, 1989, 1990 and 1992.
The two teams have not met in a playoff game since.
So forget about history, right?
Not so fast. The history to worry about isn't from 40 years ago, it's much more recent.
Friday in El Segundo, returning from their final regular season game in Vancouver Thursday, the Los Angeles Kings called a press conference to announce the retirement of forward Dustin Brown after 18-seasons effective at the end of this playoff season.
Brown, the captain when the Kings won Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014, along with goaltender Jonathan Quick, Anze Kopitar and the injured Drew Doughty, stuck around through three years of miss-the-playoff struggles and emerged on the other side in this series with the team's highest point total since 2016 to earn the first-round series with Edmonton.
“We took what it meant to be a King to new levels and to new standards,” said Brown of the 44-win, 99-point season under former Oilers coach Todd McLellan.
Brown wanted to announce his impending retirement before the playoffs to be able to proceed with a focus to extend his final season as long as possible.
That storyline ought to be concerning.
If you followed the Kings this season you'll know that not many were expecting a playoff payoff.
But in Quick they have an aging goaltender writing a similar story to that of Mike Smith in Edmonton and some developing talent including defencemen Jordan Spence and Sean Durzi and forward Quinton Byfield making impacts.
They acquired Philip Danault in the off-season to join Kopitar and he responded with a career-high 24 goals as a second-line centre.
The bottom line is that this L.A. team is far from a finished product but they survived a season featuring their share of challenges including injuries to get here.
And if you followed them, you'll have likely got the idea that this group believes they belong in the playoffs and intends, under the no-doubt motivated McLellan to be making many future post-season dates with Edmonton this decade.
These Kings have nothing to lose and everything to learn. And despite Edmonton's 3-1 regular season record against Los Angeles and 22-5 season record against Pacific Division opponents, that should be the worry.
No Miracle On Manchester. But be prepared for a little Fun On Figueroa.
Edmonton in six.