Brown HatTricked Oilers Out of a Win

Once again I did not expect to win this game. The Oilers aren’t that much better than us, but they do have McDavid and given the Kings defensive woes as of late, I highly doubted we could contain him. Yet they had their best first five minutes of hockey all season (Jim Fox concurs.) The puck was solidly in the Kings offensive zone, they were getting good looks and one came so close I still don’t know how it didn’t go in. Clifford redirected a Martinez pass onto the goal line and Toffoli *almost* poked it in, but beat by goaltender Talbot by a second. Spectacular save. Then a power play reminded us that’s still an area of Kings hockey they need to work on. Only one shot on goal, and while the shot differential was substantially in favor of the Kings, the power play had little to do with it. Somehow, miraculously, though perhaps actually earned this game, they then scored the first goal. It was a textbook Kopitar to Brown play, across the crease where Brown lives and he snapped it home. The kind of hockey I’ve desperately missed from these two. Of course, it didn’t last long, only about five minutes before Kopitar went to the box for the second time in as many games, and 27 seconds later McDavid had the puck in the back of the net. 6 penalties converted on in the last 7. Things continued downhill from there. Carter got another penalty almost immediately, which thankfully the Kings managed to actually kill off, but the momentum was fully in the Oilers swing. And spoiler alert: McDavid is fast. Really, really fast. He outskated literally all 5 Kings on the ice in a show that made us look like amateurs.

The first two minutes of the second were all Oilers. So much so that I wondered how Peterson wasn’t being lit up and oh yeah. There it was. 2:16 in Chaisson got his second of the game, a move that seemed to knock the wind out of the Kings sails for a couple of minutes. But instead of falling apart, enter the tag team of Kopitar and Brown again in an almost identical move to tie up the game at 4:13, a power play goal they made look just as easy as McDavid and Chaisson did. Edmonton had 3 penalties in the second, but alas this was the only one worth mentioning. The second, halfway through the game, generated nothing, though it was clear Brown was hungry for his hat-trick and Kopitar was hungry to get it for him, to the detriment of his shooting but we *all* wanted a Brown hatty. They came close several times, so close once if not for the blasted crossbar they would have had it. With 1:56 remaining the Oilers third penalty was called and 33 seconds later actually began – the Kings tried but couldn’t convert on the delayed call. For some reason, the trying stopped there though because instead of getting Brown his third or fans their McFlurry, they almost let up a short-handed goal. Or several. Close out a period boys geez!

Oh, what a difference one period can make. While the third was no more convincing than the other two, the Kings scored 3 goals in it. (Spoiler alert: 2 were empty nets.) The first came from Kopitar, who needs to do that more often (a sentence I’m convinced I’ve written more than once this week but can’t be sure.) He has such skilled hands, so when Forbert’s stretch pass found him in undefended in the Oilers zone, it’s easy to see why we pay him $10 million a year. Picked the perfect spot and almost slid the puck under Talbot’s pads. Sure we wanted Brown’s hat trick but we’ll take any kind of lead we can get! (And don’t worry, that hat trick would be coming.) The Oilers didn’t take that lying down, which gave me some pause as to Peterson – when is Quick coming back again? It’s not that Peterson isn’t good, he is, it’s just that he makes me nervous on rebound control. It’s the kind of thing I wouldn’t be concerned about were he a little more seasoned and had a better idea of where the puck was at all times – he just seems tentative and scrambling more than I’d like. But I digress. He did what he needed to and for once had a defense to help him out. Mostly – with 8:11 remaining Toffoli helped him not at all when he hooked Caggiula thus putting the Kings once again on the man disadvantage, something that’s been questionable of late (which is putting it nicely.) With a potential 5-on-3 for 1:44 not going to lie I panicked. By some miracle the refs reversed their call, leaving just the standard penalty kill, but it seemed so much easier given the prospect of 5-on-3. Brown and Kopitar were so desperate to get Brown his third they went far too deep on the shorthanded bid and almost cost the Kings, but Brown can hustle and got back in time to defend. The Oilers final nail in the coffin was really gifted to the Kings – McDavid interfered with Toffoli with 1:44 remaining, meaning either he’d spend the rest of the period in the box, giving the Kings a much better chance to keep that lead, or they’d get the lead and then it’d be 2 goals so who cares if McDavid is back for such a short period of time? Talbot was pulled to make it 5-on-5, which actually seemed to be going a little too well for them until Doughty knuckled the puck away to Carter, who selflessly saw Brown on his wing and gave him the chance for the hat trick. Raining hats, a 4-2 lead, a Kings win secured! The icing on the cake was when Luff, unassisted, got another empty netter to get his 4th in 4 games, the longest streak of any Kings this season and the longest by a Kings rookie since 1987. Please let this not be a fluke, and instead of a portent of Kings games to come!