Kings lament special teams play as season ends

Los Angeles Kings interim coach Jim Hiller didn’t offer any in-depth, detailed breakdown for why his team was eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night.

“It’s a pretty simple write-up on this one: You saw one team execute and one team not on special teams,” Hiller said after the Kings’ 4-3 loss in Game 5 that marked the third straight season Edmonton sent Los Angeles packing in the opening round. “That was the difference. If we had performed well, we’d still be playing.”

The Oilers scored nine times on 20 power-play opportunities.

“Special teams hurt us a lot in this series,” Kings center Anze Kopitar said. “There were parts of the games where we were good, but you have to do it more often.”

The Oilers’ power play was so potent that it would score at even strength, too: Twice in Game 5 the Oilers scored in the immediate aftermath of a successful Kings penalty kill. Leon Draisaitl scored four seconds after Pierre-Luc Dubois left the penalty box to give Edmonton a 3-2 lead in the second period. Zach Hyman scored the eventual winning goal three seconds after Drew Doughty‘s penalty expired near the end of the second.

Draisaitl also scored on the power play, as the puck traveled over the line inside of Kings goalie David Rittich‘s glove. Edmonton scored at least one power-play goal in each game against the Kings and in 15 of its past 17 playoff games overall.

“Yes, they have an amazing power play. They threw a lot of things against us,” Doughty said. “But I think a lot of those goals were preventable. With a better PK, I think the series could have been … we would have taken it deeper, for sure.”

Oilers star Connor McDavid, who had two assists in the win, said their power play wasn’t even the best part of their special teams against Los Angeles.

“The penalty kill not giving up a goal, that’s really impressive,” McDavid said. “I think of the penalty kill in the third period of Game 4. Everybody on the kill was moving their feet, doing their job and sacrificing their bodies, which is not the most fun thing to do.”

The Oilers were shorthanded 12 times and didn’t allow a Los Angeles power-play goal.

“When you evaluate the series, it was our inability to score on the power play and their ability to score on the power play,” Hiller said.

The defeat marked the first time a team had been eliminated by the same opponent in three straight playoff seasons since the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Minnesota Wild from 2013 to 2015.

“Definitely a disappointing feeling for the third year in a row. Just sucks right now,” Kopitar said. “Obviously not a great feeling getting the worst of it [against Edmonton] three years in a row.”

The Oilers will play the winner of the Vancouver Canucks‘ series against the Nashville Predators, which Vancouver leads 3-2 heading into Game 6 in Nashville.