April 24, 2025 by Ryan Lotsberg

The Los Angeles Kings dismantled the Edmonton Oilers by a score of 6-2 in Game 2 of their first round series on Wednesday night.

The Kings took the lead on an early powerplay goal from Brandt Clarke. Another powerplay marker just after the halfway point of the game put the Kings up 3-0. The Oilers would claw their way back to 3-2, but that one-goal deficit would be expanded back to two a couple short minutes later. The Kings pulled away after that.

Call Outs

Darnell Nurse was on the ice for four of the six Kings goals in this game. I’m only attributing real fault to him on one of them, but it was a brutal play. The puck came up to the left half wall, and Leon Draisaitl laid a big hit on Vladislav Gavrikov. Nurse was shadowing Alex Laferriere. Both Nurse and Laferriere drifted above Draisaitl and Gavrikov, but the puck ended up a little lower in the zone. Quinton Byfield scooped up the loose puck, walked in, and scored. Nurse was caught sleeping on that play. He was too focused on Laferriere and he failed to recognize the real danger.

Nurse slid on his stomach in an attempt to break up a two-on-one on the Kings’ first goal. I realize Oilers fans HATE it when he does that, but it’s a commonly taught strategy because you force the opponent to either pass it over top of you or to find a small hole to slide it through. It didn’t work out for Nurse on that play. There were two other mistakes that happened before NUrse found himself defending a two-on-one there. First, Jake Walman looked like a pylon as Warren Foegele walked around him with ease just inside the blue line. That play made me think Walman is not close to 100% healthy because I believe he’s a better skater than that. Secondly, Mattias Janmark decided to just stop back-checking once the goal scorer reached the hash marks. Janmark could’ve broken the play up with one or two more strides, but he didn’t read the play well enough and didn’t want to get caught out of position. Well, he did get caught out of position, and it resulted in a goal.

Walman was also unable to tie up Andrei Kuzmenko on the 3-0 goal. Both he and Nurse were puck watching within the general vicinity of Kuzmenko, but Kuzmenko was Walman’s check on that play.

Nurse had two Kings on his side of the zone below the faceoff dot on the 5-2 goal. The puck swung over to Kevin Fiala just below the dot. Nurse also had Kuzmenko parked in front of Stuart Skinner. Nurse went down to one knee in that passing lane and reached out towards Fiala with his stick rather than charging him more aggressively. Fiala fed it across the slot to Anze Kopitar for the 5-2 goal. I put that pass getting through more on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who was the low forward responsible for cutting off cross-seam passes like that. He drifted a bit too far towards Fiala on that play, which opened up the passing lane to Kopitar.

I didn’t love how Evan Bouchard played two two-on-one situations. He was the last man back on the Byfield goal after Nurse abandoned ship. Defenders are taught to take the pass and let the goalie take the shooter on two-on-ones, but when a player is allowed to walk as close to the net as Byfield did on that play, you have to try to attack him at some point. Bouchard did nothing on that play. He wasn’t even really covering the pass. He was in no man’s land. Bouchard played the 6-2 goal in similar fashion. Adrian Kempe made a perfect shot, but Bouchard’s strategy was to just let Kempe stroll all the way to the net.

Viktor Arvidsson scored a huge goal to get the Oilers within a goal, but then he made a critical mistake a couple minutes later. He almost ran into Brett Kulak while carrying the puck in his own end, then he fanned on an attempted pass to Ty Emberson. The puck slid to the corner, and both Arvidsson and Kulak followed it there. The slot was left wide open, and Kempe made no mistake from just beneath the circle. It was a momentum sapping goal that came as a result of a sloppy mistake.

The penalty kill allowed three goals on five opportunities. That simply isn’t good enough to win a hockey game.

Obviously the goaltending will come into question when a team allows six goals for the second consecutive game. As described above, the defence left the goalies out to dry in Game 2 much like they did in Game 1. However, goaltending cannot be absolved of any blame either. There were three goals on which Oilers goalies were beaten cleanly by shooters below the dots in goalie vs shooter situations. All three were amazing finishes by Byfield and Kempe, but is it too much to ask for one save out of those three situations?

There were three goals surrendered by the penalty kill in this game. Your goalie has to be the best penalty killer if a kill is to be successful. One powerplay goal was a two-on-one finished from inside the crease, one was a play where the puck bounced out front from the boards behind the net, and one was a one-timer off a royal road pass. I’m inclined to argue that the defence let the goalies down on the PK, but again, is one save out of those three situations too much to ask for?

Stuart Skinner has been the worst statistical goalie in these playoffs thus far. He’s not getting any help, but he hasn’t been good either. Both things are true, and that should be expected in the analysis when a team gives up twelve goals in two games.

Finally, I don’t understand why Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch pulled Skinner in favour of Calvin Pickard when he did. Kopitar scored the fifth Kings goal at 9:07 of the third period. Pickard entered the game at the 10:30 mark, which was 1:23 later. Perhaps it was to save Skinner from the inevitable crowd taunting and embarrassment of the skate of shame immediately after the goal, but if a pull was to happen, it should’ve happened after the third goal. The way Knoblauch did it did harm to both goalies. Skinner got lit up for five and got pulled, then Pickard got thrown in with 9:30 left and allowed a goal less than two minutes later. Now both goalies have reason to have shaken confidence.

Standouts

Given the length of the Call Outs section for Game 2, there really wasn’t much to get excited about in this one. Leon Draisaitl extended his playoff point streak against the Kings to sixteen games, which is approaching a record for one player against any opponent in NHL history. He got the Oilers on the board and went 57% in the circle.

Shout Outs

Evander Kane played his first game in 317 days in Game 2. He recorded one shot on goal and four hits in 14:46 of action. It wasn’t a remarkable debut, but it was better than I had anticipated it being.

John Klingberg got an assist in his first game back after missing eleven games with an infection in his broken foot that caused him to miss some time previously.

Wrap

The Oilers are in a world of hurt right now. They can’t get out of their own way defensively, they can’t get a save when they need one, and they have only been an offensive threat in one out of six periods in the series thus far. Walman and Trent Frederic are not skating like they are healthy.

We know this Oilers team is incredible at its best, but they are FAR from their peak form right now. The 2-0 score in the series is a combination of the Oilers playing poorly and the Kings playing well. It’s fair to criticize the Oilers’ play thus far, but let’s give the Kings some credit here as well. They played two great games at home.

Now the series shifts to Rogers Place. The Kings had the best home record in the league this season, but they were merely average on the road. Being at home doesn’t guarantee anything, but the crowd at Rogers Place will certainly help the cause. It hasn’t been a good start to the series for the Oilers, but you’re never in trouble until you lose at home. The Oilers will be right back in the series if they can take care of business at home. That’s a big IF based on the way they played in Games 1 and 2 though.

Game 3 goes on Friday night at Rogers Place.

Related: Call Outs, Standouts, and Shout Outs: Kings escape collapse in Game 1 thriller