Peterson Sharp, but McDavid Sharper

Of course Conner McDavid would come back from injury against the Kings. And of course he would earn a star in the game. Because the Oilers weren’t even trying to manage his minutes and he’s really that good. Also the Kings aren’t that much. They do have grit, that’s more fun than last season. But they did not have goals. For most of the first period it didn’t look like either team would have any actually; Peterson was looking sharp and the Kings haven’t done much of that scoring thing lately. Plus the Oilers were playing their backup and you know that’s a recipe for disaster. For 17:22 nothing of note happened. Then the Kings got a power play which lasted precisely 31 seconds before Walker was called for hooking, and sure enough the Oilers got their first on their eventual power play. Sadly I have to report it was Brown’s fault; he had the chance to clear the puck pretty easily, but he mismanaged it and it ended up on McDavid’s stick. The other Kings weren’t in positions to defend effectively because they weren’t communicating well on the change, so once McDavid had the puck and got it to Draisaitl, it was easy for him to net his 36th of the season. (For reference the Kings top two leaders – Carter who’s still injured and Kopitar – in goals have about half that each. Kopitar does have 38 assists this season though.) Not the greatest way to end a period.

The second started well, lots of Kings chances that unfortunately did more to make Smith look good than it did make the Kings look that way. I counted at least three chances in a row that should have gone in. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when Nugent-Hopkins tipped in a shot that almost looked like slow motion down the other end. (For what it’s worth Forbert needs to learn how to stand up at the blue line.) It didn’t get the Kings down though, they kept getting chances. Kempe, Kopitar – chances that needed to go in. For all the work Peterson was doing – and he was doing some fantastic work for the most part – no one else was bailing him out. He even stopped a McDavid breakaway on his own. Impressive. Followed by a series of impressive, dare I say Jedi-esque, saves. But McDavid seemed personally attacked after he didn’t score on that breakaway, and he made it 3-0 with a backhand 16:14 into the period. Not the blackest hole the Kings have dug themselves into in the second period, but pretty significant. They were gifted a power play as it closed that Kopitar was able to capitalize on that closed out the period on a better note, giving them a much better springboard going into the third.

And it only took 49 seconds to score in the third, Brown more than making up for his earlier gaff with a snap that wrung around the net just past the goal line. Phew! 2-3 gave the Kings a much better outlook for the third, giving them momentum and a chance to head to overtime. But false hope it turned out to be. They couldn’t get anything going. It didn’t help that after a huge amount of work on Kempe’s behalf, a persistent and effective forecheck, that Kopitar immediately turned it back over in the offensive zone – I expect better from our captain and highest paid player. An empty net would seal the deal on another disappointing game.