FINAL – Kings 1, Oilers 8 – Kopitar, Anderson, Hiller

The LA Kings suffered their most lopsided defeat of the season, as they fell to the Edmonton Oilers by an 8-1 final on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Oilers opened the scoring 7:25 into the game as the Kings continued yesterday’s theme of allowing goals in transition. Edmonton attacked 3-on-2, moving into the offensive zone with possession. Passes from Jack Roslovic and Matt Savoie were well executed as defenseman Ty Emberson took the final feed in the right-hand circle and buried a shot high on the glove side for his second goal of the season and an early 1-0 advantage.

Less than 60 seconds later, Edmonton doubled its advantage by once again capitalizing in transition. The Oilers gained the offensive zone with possession, as forward Andrew Mangiapane gained the zone and fed forward Vasily Podkolzin attacking down the left wing. Podkolzin worked his way into the left-hand circle and fired from a sharp angle, past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper and in for the 2-0 lead.

Just over 12 minutes into the opening period, the Kings pulled a goal back, with a simple formula. After Edmonton was unable to clear the puck up the boards, defenseman Joel Edmundson held the zone at the left point and shot the puck towards the net, with forward Warren Foegele getting a deflection on the way through, sending it past Oilers goaltender Connor Ingram to pull the Kings back within 2-1.

Edmonton added two goals goals in less than two minutes early in the second period to blow open the game at 4-1.

First, the Oilers scored again off the rush, as defenseman Jake Walman worked his way into the left-hand circle and snapped a shot past Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper on the glove side, his sixth tally of the season. Forward Connor McDavid then made it 4-1 as he drew Kuemper out of the net, wrapped around the back of the goal shot top shelf from the far side, as the visitors pulled ahead by three.

After the fourth goal, the Kings made a goaltending change, with goaltender Anton Forsberg replacing Kuemper.

Edmonton made it 5-1 with a power-play goal before the halfway mark of the middle stanza. Skating on their first man advantage of the night, Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl fired a shot off the endboards, wide of the net, but the puck kicked back into the slot, where forward Zach Hyman whacked it past Forsberg, into the back of the net, to extend the lead to four goals.

The Oilers added three more goals in the third period, bringing us to the final score of 8-1. Draisaitl had a hand in all three goals, including the sixth of the evening for his team, a power-play goal 31 seconds into the third period, to put the visitors up by five. Draisaitl then collected primary assists on a pair of goals by defenseman Jake Walman, closing out the most lopsided defeat of the season.

Hear from forward Anze Kopitar, defenseman Mikey Anderson and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s defeat.

Anze Kopitar

Mikey Anderson
On if he feels as if the Kings have quit on the coaching staff
I think everyone in here, we’re a group. Everyone’s trying to pull our weight. Obviously, we come out of a break, feeling fresh and as a group of players in here, we didn’t do enough to get points. Obviously, everyone’s got a piece of the puzzle, but I don’t think guys have quit on anybody. It’s a group in here. It may not always seem like it from the outside but we’ve got a good group of guys here, guys that want to be here. A game like today, just unfortunate. Comes down to us, though. We’ve got to be better in division games that are really important right now.

On where he feels the biggest breakdowns were defensively over these two games
Yeah, I think it’s a mix of everything. You see some of the goals today come off the rush. I don’t know what we gave up, three or four shorthanded goals, they’re coming from all over. That’s something we needed, we’re good at, we need to be good at. Unfortunately,we haven’t been for the last two.

On why the optimism coming out of the break hasn’t translated into these games
I think everyone came back, everyone was energetic, you’re ready excited to play. Everyone’s in the same boat, you’ve got to try and get your engine going. For whatever reason, we just haven’t been as sharp as the teams we’re playing. That’s the result we’re getting.

On what needs to change over these final 24 games to salvage the season
These two games were really important with division teams. You get on a stretch, everyone can catch fire. I know we have a group in here that can do it. It’s just showing up. We need to give that effort every game, find a way to get points. Now we’ve got, you said 24 games, we’ve got to win who knows how many of them? It doesn’t matter how they come. We just lost these two, so it’s just two games we can’t lose later on.

Jim Hiller
On if he is concerned with his job status following tonight’s defeat
My focus is trying to win on Saturday. We sign up for this job. I think you’re probably always concerned when you’ve got a job in the coaching world, so that’s just something that’s always tucked away. But, what overrides all that is trying to get your team to win games.

On his biggest concern after a defeat like this
Well, we got smacked tonight. Tonight was a smacking, there’s no denying that. So, my greatest concern is, how can we pick ourselves back up and have energy and come in a positive frame of mind and win on Saturday. There’s some stuff underneath that and behind that, that we’ll have to do, but that’s my biggest concern is to make sure the group is ready and energized. Listen, we didn’t feel good tonight. I don’t feel good standing here. Those players don’t feel good today. We’ve got a job to do come Saturday and we’ve got to go win a game and get this thing turned the other way. My concern and my energy will be trying to get them in the frame of mind to do that.

On the team’s biggest strength being defending and giving up 14 goals in 2 games
This one got ugly. This one got really ugly. I thought we battled back in first period, despite the two early goals. We had some energy, we had some opportunity. To me, the real turning point was not being able to get one on that power play. That, to me, was an important part of the game and then it just got away from us after that and we didn’t……well, you saw it.

On his belief in turning the season around over the final 24 games
Got a couple injuries that probably slowed us a little bit but I believe in our team. I really do. I have said this since maybe six, seven games of the season, when people are asking, we are going to get on a run and win six or seven, eight games in a row. I know it. I know our team is good enough to do that. It’s been an odd year for whatever reasons that way. I’m positive and optimistic that’s still going to happen.

On if he has any updates on Drew Doughty or Joel Armia and if anything came back with those players from the Olympics
No, and I can’t update you. I know they’re just in the back, and [Head Athletic Trainer Chris Kingsley was talking to Ken] no, but there’s a lot of wear and tear on those Olympic players who get over there and play. Then there’s the travel that goes with it too, just the emotions. I think there’s been times when those players have come back and had a harder time staying healthy.

Notes –
– Forward Warren Foegele (1-0=1) scored his seventh goal of the season tonight, marking his eighth point (3-5=8) in 10 career games played against his former team, the Edmonton Oilers.
– Defenseman Joel Edmundson (0-1=1) registered his 15th assist of the season tonight, the second most assists by a Kings blueliner this year behind his defense partner, Brandt Clarke (22 A).
– With tonight’s helper, Edmundson sets a new single-season career high in the category, surpassing the previous personal best (14 A) he established last season.
– Defenseman Drew Doughty played his 1,257th career regular-season NHL game this evening, breaking a three-way tie with Duncan Keith (1,256 GP) and Craig Ludwig (1,256 GP) for sole possession of the 29th most games played by a defenseman in NHL history.

The Kings have a scheduled day off tomorrow, following the back-to-back. The team will return to the ice on Saturday, as they host the Calgary Flames at 4 PM.