Goodbye McDavid, Hello Kings Win!

By Emily Redenbach
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Updated: November 15, 2015

It can’t be easy to be an Oilers fan. The team has been at the bottom of the standings for years now. And their first glimpse of hope – the second coming of Wayne Gretzky aka Connor McDavid – sidelined within weeks of his NHL debut with a broken collar-bone. He was the difference in the Kings first game against them this season, and perhaps the difference this game, because the Kings kicked ass! Well, scraped in a win.

Marian Gaborik, who’d been surprisingly quiet in the first 16 games, opened the scoring 1:17 into the game. Gaborik had only two points in the whole season; he had two in the first period. Tanner Pearson – also a little quieter on the scoreboard since Sutter deconstructed That 70’s Line – battled alone the boards behind Oilers goalie Cam Talbot – and managed to get the puck to Gaborik who’d positioned himself strategically on the side of the net, ready to snap the puck home. Quite a thing of beauty.

The next few minutes the Kings couldn’t seem to stop turning over the puck. One such instance almost ended badly, but with a call of ‘no goal’ on the ice the video review couldn’t determine a definitive look the Kings were in the clear. McNabb did his McSmash thing which the Oilers seemed to take offense to, though perhaps they were still smarting from the ‘no goal.’ Quick it seemed to turn on his Jedi powers on the Oilers, denying shots seemingly with his mind.

Gaborik made his second appearance with slightly more than a minute to go, allowing finishing off a sassy Pearson to snap off the rebound after a stunning breakaway. Quite a nice bit of synergy actually; Gaborik from Pearson 1:17 in then Pearson from Gaborik with 1:04 to go.

The second period wasn’t as great. The Oilers made the Kings pay for their sloppy play early on. Brown made his way to the box for high sticking 1:41 into the period. Oilers second hope Leon Draisaitl made his attempt at the net count, scoring over Jonathan Quick as he dove down in an attempt to stop it. Martinez found his way into the box mere moments later for interference, Christian Erhoff lost his stick and the puck couldn’t find its way out of the Kings zone even after the penalty ended.

Things seemed to turn back the Kings way with a play from the rejiggered line with a lot of 7’s in it – do we have a name for them yet? Jeff Carter and Tyler Toffoli played around with the shooting lanes before getting it to Milian Lucic, who made the Oilers pay for his uncovered presence at the front of the net. It only took the Oilers about five minutes to bring themselves back within one goal, letting Teddy Purcell slip the puck passed Quick. Three straight power plays later (and now into the third period) the Kings were in the prime position to give up another goal. They weren’t bearing down on their chances and giving up too many to the Oilers.

The equalizer came with less than five minutes to go. (Goodness it’s not easy to be a Kings fan sometimes either!) Things looked headed to overtime, when the Kings couldn’t covert yet another power play, handed to them with 3:45 to go. No, they waited 8 seconds after the power play to score! Pearson made the initial shot; Talbot left a fat rebound that Nick Shore found straight in front of him. He slapped the puck past most of the Oilers defense, with thanks for Lucic for the nice screen. 1 minute, 39 seconds remained. The crowd was on the edge of their seat: could the Kings pull it off?

Yes, it turns out yes, they could. They remain a-top of the Pacific division, with a 11-6-0 record. They head out on a five game road trip next, and come home just in time for Thanksgiving. #GoKingsGo

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