GAME PREVIEW: Edmonton Oilers vs. Los Angeles Kings

Edmonton Oilers (33-34-8) (6th, Pacific)

Los Angeles Kings (28-39-8) (5th, Pacific)

7 PM MST

Rogers Place

TV: Sportsnet West

Radio: 630 CHED

NOW THAT ALL OF THE AIR IS OUT OF THE TIRES

The Oilers’ last gasp at the playoffs was released when the Oilers suffered a 4-3 overtime loss to the Senators on Saturday night. Brady Tkachuk would score the game’s first goal in the first period, he’d coincidentally score the game’s final goal while in overtime. The Oilers would see Alex Chiasson score his 21st goal of the year, Connor McDavid would pick up his 38th, and Colby Cave netted his third of the season to tie it up at 3 in the third.

The Oilers would make it to overtime when Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk would pick up his 19th on the year to give Ottawa two points in the standings.

Currently seven points out of a wild-card position, they have seven games remaining on the season. The Oilers could finish with 88 points on the year if they were to complete a 7-0 run, though it’s quite unlikely that this would happen while the four teams ahead of them would go on some terrible losing streaks.

The Kings are in town to take on the Oilers tonight. Can the Oilers knock off the last place club in the Pacific?

Let’s go to the tape.

The Oilers are saying

This is the NHL, you have to show up every night...Every team is capable of beating you. The reality of our situation is that we need as many points as possible no matter who we are playing, and we didn’t get the two points tonight.

Source

That’s Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse on his club’s 4-3 loss in OT to the Senators on Saturday night.

The Senators aren’t good, they’re a club that the Oilers have to beat every time. Not sure that a point would have made the difference in Edmonton’s long-shot odds to the playoffs, but it’s a lot easier on the eyes to be six points back instead of seven.

The Kings are saying

It doesn’t matter where we are in the standings...You can control what we have in front of us. We can’t control what has happened this year up to this point; we have to keep it going. If we play like this, it’ll be a fun (seven) games left.

Source

That’s Kings goaltender Jack Campbell after his club’s 3-0 victory over the Calgary Flames last night.

Any day’s a good day when you take care of the Flames. Jack Campbell turned aside 42 Calgary shots last night en route to the shutout. The Kings are playing in their second game in two nights. Can the Oilers take advantage of a tired Kings club?

HAVE SOME OF THIS

• THERE’S NO CAP TO MAKE ANY OF THIS WORK: The Oilers are going to live or die in 2019-20 based on whether or not they can find good, cheap contracts. From the looks of things, Alex Chiasson is probably not going to be that. (Barring any moves, The Oilers will have something like 13 million to fill 5 forwards, a defenceman and a goaltender. Good luck with all of that) So? Let him walk. I doubt that the offer he should receive is the one that he will accept. Chiasson has killed it this season, but most of his work was done during a hot streak where he was scoring on 30% of his shots. He just scored his 21st goal against Ottawa on Saturday night. There’s an outside chance he could finish with 25 on the season, but he’s had just five goals since the new year.
• SEND A NURSE - Wanna see the prettiest pass in the world?

If that didn’t make you tingly all over, I don’t have much for you. A tape to tape pass from Nurse to Chiasson and Chiasson didn’t miss. More of this, please.

• GOAL DROUGHT IN LA: Only the Anaheim Ducks score fewer goals per game than the Los Angeles Kings (30th, 2.37 GPG). The Kings rank 21st overall in goals allowed (3.09 GA/G). The Oilers are now 20th in goals scored per game, averaging 2.8. That’s a slight improvement, though not enough to make a dent in the overall situation.
• GOAL DROUGHT PART II: Goals have been hard to come by in Los Angeles. Anze Kopitar leads the club with 53 points (21-32-53). The Ilya Kovalchuk experience hasn’t quite worked out as well as most would have wished (14-17-31 in 60 GP). Trading Jake Muzzin hasn’t helped the overall product on the back end, though the Kings do have Toronto’s first rounder in 2019. They don’t see any significant cap relief for another year. Sounds familiar, really.
• NUMBERS AND STUFF:_ Connor McDavid picked up his 38th goal of the season in Saturday’s 4-3 OTL to the Senators. That’s 108 points on the season for young 97. He needs just two more to hit the 40 goal mark on the year. Leon Draisaitl picked up his 52nd assist on the year on Saturday, he needs just five more points to hit 100 on the year. Two killer years for these gents.
• NET GAINS: Mikko Koskinen is likely to go for the Oilers tonight (23-18-5, .908 SV% / 2.87 GAA / 4 SO). Jonathan Quick will likely counter for the Kings (15-21-6, .891 SV% / 3.25 GAA / 2 SO).
• SICK BAY: For the Oilers, Jesse Puljujarvi recovers from hip surgery, and is out for the seaseon. The Kings are without winger Brendan Leipsic (lower body).