GAME THREAD: Edmonton Oilers vs. Los Angeles Kings

Edmonton Oilers (32-22-7) 3rd, Pacific vs

Los Angeles Kings (22-32-6) 7th Pacific

23 February 2020

Staples Center

8 PM MST

TV: Sportsnet West

Radio: 630 CHED

SB Nation Opponent: Jewels From The Crown

If you’re scoring goals like these, good things are happening. Right? Sort of.

A natural hat trick from Minnesota’s Jared Spurgeon helped to propel the Minnesota Wild to a 5-3 victory on Friday at Rogers Place. Spurgeon scored the last three goals of the game to help seal the deal for the Wild. The second line clicked well for the Oilers, but it wasn’t enough to push them up the hill. They look to move on tonight with a visit to Staples Center to face the LA Kings.

Oh, and Connor’s back.

Let’s go to the tape.

THE OILERS ARE SAYING

“It’s a tough loss...We need to tighten some things up. We just had a couple of tough breakdowns, things that we can tighten up pretty easily. I thought we played hard, we just didn’t come out on top. These are things we can correct pretty easily. If we do that, we’ll be a pretty deadly team.”

Source

That’s Kailer Yamamoto on his club’s 5-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Friday night.

I love youthful optimism.

Yamamoto had a fine night for himself pickiing up two assists in the first period of Friday’s loss. The 93-29-56 line is almost unstoppable, as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored both goals off of Yamamoto’s assists. Leon Draisaitl picked up the other marker for the Oilers.

THE KINGS ARE SAYING

Just not enough offensive chances or time sustained in their end. It wasn’t because we didn’t have the puck, we just didn’t do good, smart things with it offensively tonight

Source

That’s Kings coach Todd McLellan on his club’s 2-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Friday.

The Kings managed just 21 shots against the Avalanche. LA is 3-6-1 in their last ten.

THREE THINGS TO LOOK FOR

• I’ve been guilty of saying “anyone can play with Connor McDavid”, but it’d be nice if Ken Holland could swing a deal between tonight and tomorrow for an inexpensive winger. Yes, I’m looking at you, Tyler Ennis. It’s good to have McDavid back in the lineup after missing six games. Can he propel this line to the scoresheet?
• Let’s talk about the second line. It’s straight fire. Leon Draisaitl could hit the 100 point mark with a good game (he’s at 97 points right now), Kailer Yamamoto has 20 points (9-11-20) in 20 games, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins picked up a pair of goals in Friday’s 5-3 loss to the Wild. The line is red hot, can they keep it moving tonight?
• NEED 2: It’s a mighty tight squeeze in the Pacific Division right now. Edmonton wins tonight and they’re right behind Vegas with a game in hand. Go into LA, take care of business.

Let’s. Go. Oilers.