The Kings had yet another tough game, this time at the hands of the upstart Oilers. L.A. played two strong periods and again entered the 3rd period with the lead. And again they faltered only to lose the game in overtime.
Officiating was a big part of the post game story as Darryl Sutter was upset with the officials and will likely receive a fine from the league for his actions.
There were 21 penalties called and a total of 29 minutes in power play time. Also, a controversial late game goal was overturned by the officials and the Edmonton crowd reacted by littering the ice with garbage.
Soon after, with :10.6 left on clock, Jarrett Stoll was cleanly beaten on a defensive zone face off against Eric Belanger. This lead to a long shot and rebound. Nail Yakupov reacted by swatting in a goal with :04 left, followed by one of the more exuberant goal celebrations you’ll see in the NHL. Sam Gagner would add a PP goal in OT to win it.
For their part, Edmonton took advantage of their opportunities. In 15:52 of power play time, the Oil registered 20 shots. More than they managed at even strength (16). Both of their goals came as a result of having an extra skater (one with the goaltender pulled).
On the other hand, the Kings power play stalled out for the third straight game and are 0-18 on the year. Their penalty kill also looks a bit out of sorts, which is where the losses of Matt Greene and Willie Mitchell are hurting them the most.
They’ll move on to Phoenix on Saturday still looking for their first win of the season.
Now for the numbers:
UPDATE: I discovered via twitter that I had some of the individual attempt numbers tabulated incorrectly. This is now fixed. Sorry for the confusion. Also FYI, these numbers do not include 6v5.
Positives
- The Kings played a strong game at even strength. They both out-chanced and out-attempted the Oilers by significant margin.
- The Richards line was the strongest for the Kings. New linemate Kyle Clifford set-up Jeff Carter for the Kings sole goal of the game. Together they consistently out-chanced and out-attempted their opponents which more often than not were Eberle, Hall, and Nugent-Hopkins.
- Slava Voynov saw a lot of EV ice time. He did well both in driving play (+6) and creating chances (+3).
Negatives
It’s still early in the season and certainly no time to panic, but the Kings are not exactly operating like a well oiled machine. What changes would you make, if any, as the team heads to Phoenix?