The Los Angeles Kings took Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers to Game 7 in the first round of last year's Stanley Cup Playoffs during a first-round showdown. The two teams met again in the same round in the 2023 edition of the NHL postseason, but this time, the series ended one game shorter — and with the same result.
The Kings looked as though they were going to get the job done when they took a 2-1 lead after three games but failed to win another the rest of the way. It's another painful end to the season for Los Angeles, which now faces a long offseason ahead of them. With that all that said, here are some of the reasons they faltered against the Oilers.
3. The Kings let Edmonton get too many good looks
The Oilers have two 100-point men on the team in Draisaitl and McDavid. Although the Kings appeared to have some measure of success in slowing down McDavid, who scored just one even-strength goal in the entire series, the Oilers still recorded a 5-on-5 54.35 expected goals for percentage to just a 5-on-545.65 expected goals for by Los Angeles.
The Kings didn’t block enough shots, Kings center Phillip Danault said after their Game 6 loss to Edmonton, per Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times. “Maybe we were a bit too passive in this series,” LA defenseman Matt Roy said.
2. Kevin Fiala's absence
To keep in step with a high-powered offense like that of the Oilers, the Kings needed to have all hands on deck as much as possible. Unfortunately for them, they did not have Kevin Fiala for the first two games of the series. Granted that the Kings managed to split Games 1 and 2, stealing a 4-3 overtime win in the series opener before losing Game 2, 4-2, they could have buried Edmonton in a deeper hole heading to Game 3 if only they had Fiala playing from the start.
The Kings were a bit lucky to come away with that win in the series opener, considering that they only posted a 38.18 CF% in 5-on-5 in that contest. In the second game, the Kings improved with a 47.62 5-on-5 CF% but ended up losing. They also went just 0-for-4 on the power play in that game. Fiala could have elevated the attack of the Kings on the man advantage in that contest, considering that he finished the regular season tied with Anze Kopitar and Alex Iafallo for fourth-most power play goals among Kings players.
1. Los Angeles got swallowed by the Oilers' power play
Speaking of power play, the Oilers absolutely owned Los Angeles' penalty kill. The Oilers nearly got everything they wanted when they got a man advantage, as they scored at least a power play goal in each game of the series. All told, the Kings let Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers scored a total of nine power play goals on 16 chances. That's an incredible 56.3 percent success rate on the advantage.
The Oilers finished the regular season No. 1 in the entire NHL with a 32.36 percent success rate on the advantage and completely exposed the suspect penalty kill of the Kings which ranked just 24th in the regular season with just a 75.84 percent effectivity — that's the worst mark by any team that made the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. In other words, the Kings were the perfect punching bag for the Oilers' NHL-best power play attack. Draisaitl and Connor McDavid had three and two power play goals in the series, while Evan Bouchard notched a dizzying output of eight points on the man advantage.
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