It was the Connor McDavid and James Neal Show in Edmonton Saturday as the Oilers outlasted the Kings 6-1 in the season opener for Los Angeles.
McDavid zipped and zoomed past the Kings cobbled defensive corps, tallying four points (1G, 3A) and Neal added a pair of goals courtesy of Matt Roy helping the Oilers to post their second straight win to open the season.
The Kings looked faster and fresher coming off a disastrous 2018-19 ramping up the offense with five gals from Dustin Brown, Trevor Lewis, Anze Kopitar, Michael Amadio and Drew Doughty scored for the Kings.
Postgame, three summary quotes summed up the loss:
Captain Anze Kopitar:
”You can’t give up six goals and expect to win the game, that’s not going to happen very often. Obviously scoring five goals, that’s encouraging, but at the same time, we have to clean up on the defensive side of things and make sure that six was just a case of first game of the season.”
Head Coach Todd McLellan:
“There was some really good stuff and then there was some stuff that we obviously need to work on. The five goals for our team is something that we’re happy with. This team struggled to score in the past, but the six isn’t going to cut it. You look at some of the miscues that we had, whether it was off a faceoff or shooting it into our own net, that has to be cleaned up. So we’ll look at the good, and we’ll try and advance that and obviously work on the defensive side of it.”
Drew Doughty:
“I thought we played hard, so I’m happy about that, and I thought we tried to do the systems to the best of our ability. I thought we gave it our all, but in the end we lost the game and we should never lose the game when we’re up 5-4 with however many minutes left, and literally they scored a minute later, so that can’t happen.”
All in all, not what the Kings wanted to start the season in many aspects, but a brighter outlook from the team that looked D.O.A. most of last season.
The Game One Highlights:
(if you want Oilers stuff, go to their recap!)
Edmonton 1. Kings 1.
Dustin Brown opens the season scoring:
Kings 2. Oilers 1.
Lewis Capitalizes on the Clifford Takeaway
Kings 3. Oilers 2.
Kopitar Restores the Lead
Kings 4. Oilers 3.
Michael Amadio? Yes! Michael Amadio!
Kings 5. Oilers 4.
Drew Doughty with the top of the circle power play blast
Up Next: The Kings battle the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.