EDMONTON, Canada — For the fourth time in as a few years, the Kings’ season got here to an finish with a first-round playoff loss to the Edmonton Oilers. The coup de grace got here Thursday in a 6-4 Oilers’ win at a raucous Rogers Place, which has turn out to be a home of horrors for the Kings.
Edmonton acquired targets from (take a deep breath) Adam Henrique, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, Darnell Nurse, Trent Frederic and Connor Brown. For the Kings, Quinton Byfield, Brandt Clarke, Jordan Spence and Anze Kopitar scored.
The Kings haven’t crushed the Oilers within the postseason since 1989, however this yr’s loss stands out as the most painful of the 9 playoff sequence they’ve dropped to Edmonton. The Kings tied franchise bests for wins (48) and factors (105) this season and received a team-record 31 occasions at residence through the common season, ending forward of the Oilers within the Pacific Division standings for the primary time in seven years.
They appeared primed for a future within the postseason however as soon as once more, they couldn’t get by Edmonton. They Kings went out like warriors although, carried out on their shields after a wild end-to-end remaining sport that noticed the groups mix for at the least 10 targets for the third time within the sequence. There have been 51 scores total, a median of 8.5 a sport.
A lot for conservative playoff hockey.
With their backs in opposition to the wall the Kings set the frenetic tempo early, with Byfield scoring 79 seconds into the sport, certainly one of 4 targets in a manic and exhausting first 5 minutes and 55 seconds. Just one potential Stanley Cup elimination sport within the final 60 years has seen the primary 4 targets rating extra shortly.
Byfield’s objective, his third of the sequence, got here on a breakaway that noticed him beat Leon Draisaitl up the slot, deke Edmonton goalie Calvin Pickard to his left, then slip the puck behind him and into the online. It was the second-fastest objective to start an elimination sport in franchise historical past, trailing solely Wayne Gretzky’s rating within the first minute of Recreation 7 versus Edmonton in 1989.
Highlights from the Edmonton Oilers’ 6-4 win over the Kings in Recreation 6.
That ought to have been a great omen since that was the final time the Kings beat the Oilers within the deciding sport of a playoff sequence. It wouldn’t occur once more Thursday.
Edmonton evened issues on Henrique’s deflection in visitors lower than two minutes later however Clarke wanted simply 33 seconds to place the Kings again in entrance on a snap shot from inside the proper circle. That lead was short-lived, too, with Nugent-Hopkins equaling issues for the Oilers on a wrister from the sting of the left circle lower than six minutes into the interval.
Hyman then put the Oilers in entrance for the primary time on a play that started innocently sufficient, with Nugent-Hopkins sending the puck off the boards on a faceoff deep within the Kings finish. The carom discovered Darnell Nurse on the level and he despatched a one-timer on objective that Kings’ goalie Darcy Kuemper had a bead on earlier than Hyman acquired his stick up, redirecting the puck into the again into the again of the online. That gave Edmonton a 3-2 lead with greater than seven minutes nonetheless left within the first interval.
Kings captain Anze Kopitar, left, shakes palms with Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid after the Kings’ 6-4 season ending loss in Recreation 6.
(Curtis Comeau / Icon Sportswire through Getty Photos)
Nurse, given loads of area within the excessive slot, doubled the benefit on a wrist shot that acquired slightly below the crossbar late within the second interval; Frederic made it 5-2 simply 96 seconds in a while a tip-in from the crease on the finish of an Oilers’ breakaway.
However nonetheless the Kings wouldn’t stop, with Spence scoring two minutes earlier than the second intermission to maintain the rating shut. The Kings pulled Kuemper for an additional attacker with 4:18 left and had been rewarded when Kopitar scored with 53.3 seconds to play, however the Kings would get no nearer due to Brown’s empty-net objective, Edmonton’s fourth of the sequence, within the remaining two seconds. That left the Kings to start specializing in subsequent season whereas the Oilers transfer on to play Las Vegas within the second spherical of the playoffs.
Neither the Kings nor the Oilers made issues straightforward for Kuemper, a finalist for the Vezina Trophy. He confronted 121 photographs within the remaining three video games and 207 within the sequence.
