Kings Trip Up Oilers 5-2

Unlike the last game in California, this game had plenty of goals. The problem is that most of them were scored by Los Angeles. That’s great for the Kings. For the rest of us, it’s another loss against a supposedly weaker Pacific Division opponent. Oilers needed to make a statement against some of these teams that they’re dropping points against. It’s not happening, at least, not yet. You can argue about Calgary, but the Oilers need to take points from teams like Vegas, Anaheim and LA. Out of those six possible points, the Oilers took one. It’s just not enough.

Sunday’s game against the LA Kings was against a team that had seven total wins on the season. They’ve got a tonne of salary locked up in players that are 30+. Ilya Kovalchuk was a prized free agent for the Kings this past offseason, he’s tied with Drew Doughty leading team with just 14 points. They’[re down to Cal Petersen in net. There are about eighteen different reasons that even with Edmonton’s roster issues, they should have picked up a couple of points.

In other words, it wasn’t a great night. The Oilers kept it to 3-2 until the last minute of the third period before two empty netters inflated the score to 5-2. One of those was Dustin Brown’s third goal of the game.

What’s good?

• Alex Chiasson is good. Chiasson scored both Oiler goals in Sunday’s 5-2 loss to the Kings. He scored Edmonton’s first goal while the club was power play to tie it up at 1-all. Chiasson is all alone in front of Kings netminder Cal petersen until the puck gets there. Chiasson’s been Edmonton’s best free agent signing so far this year, and it’s amplified by the tiny contract Chiasson holds. This is Chiasson’s ninth goal of the season, he’d later add his tenth for a total of 12 points in 17 games so far. I’m not sure he’s a 30 goal scorer (he’s got a 41.7 shooting percentage right now), but 20 doesn’t seem that all far-fetched.
• Nice touch by 97 out there to set this one up. McDavid has points in his last six games (3-7-10), he’s got 33 points on the year (13-20-33).

What else? Yeesh.

• Cal Petersen stopped 32 of 34 Oiler shots. If you’ve never heard of Cal Petersen, he was an unsigned free agent drafted by the Sabres in the fifth round of the 2013 Entry Draft. He’s spent the last year in the Kings organization with Ontario, and he’s now in for the Kings as they’re down two goalies. Small sample size, but a .921 SV% isn’t much to sneeze at.
• Ty Rattie: 3:32 ice time. I think we know how this ends.
• Jesse Puljujarvi was called up for this game, he spent a total of less than eight minutes with varying linemates. Hitchcock said that it took Puljujarvi a few minutes to get his feet under him, but that he’s pleased with what he’s seen so far. I’m willing to give Hitchcock some time here, but Puljujarvi’s got to play whether it’s in the NHL or in the AHL.
• Edmonton finishes their three-game California roadie at 1-1-1. Disappointing? Yes. The club has some glaring roster issues, but they were literally 16 seconds away from two points in Anaheim. They’ve got to beat the Kings. There’s no getting around it. If the club wants to set their sights on playing into April, you can’t lose to the last place team in the Pacific.
• Oilers are below .500 once again and have Dallas coming up tomorrow. They don’t get any easier from here.