EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers can eliminate the Los Angeles Kings in the Western Conference First Round for the fourth consecutive season with a win in Game 6 at Rogers Place on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, TVAS2, ESPN, FDSNW).
Edmonton leads the best-of-7 series 3-2, winning three straight games after losing the opening two games of the series in Los Angeles. If necessary, Game 7 is at Los Angeles on Saturday.
“We know that they’re a good hockey team, they’re going to play with a lot of desperation,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “They feel that they can beat us, and for us, we need to match our level of play that we had in Game 5 as much as possible. I thought everybody was pulling in the right direction and contributing the way they should.
“And even though we played a heck of a game, it almost wasn’t enough. So, we expect a very strong push from L.A., and we’re going to have to elevate our game.”
Edmonton took the series lead with a 3-1 win at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday, outshooting Los Angeles 46-22. Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper made 43 saves in the defeat.
Centers Leon Draisaitl (three goals, seven assists) and Connor McDavid (two goals, eight assists) lead the Oilers in the series, each with 10 points. On Thursday, Draisaitl was named a finalist for the Hart Trophy, voted as the NHL’s most valuable player, along with Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov.
Edmonton has defeated Los Angeles in each of the past five potential series-clinching games between the two teams dating back to Game 6 of the 1991 Smythe Division Finals.
The Kings have not won won a playoff series since they won the Stanley Cup in 2014, but defenseman Drew Doughty, a member of that team, said Los Angeles is not getting caught up in history.
“I haven’t thought about that once, honestly,” Doughty said. “Right now, we’re in the present. All the players are in the present. We know we’ve got to win one game and try to get back on home ice. What happened in the past is in the past, they were different teams, different players. It really has no effect on this game tonight, at all.
“We’ve just got to go win a game.”
Forward Adrian Kempe has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in the first five games of the series. Center Anze Kopitar has eight points (one goal, seven assists).
Kuemper is 2-3 with a 3.44 goals-against average and .899 save percentage in the series. He was named a Vezina Trophy finalist, voted as the NHL’s top goalie, along with Hellebuyck and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Here is a breakdown of Game 6:
Kings: Kempe has one assist in Games 4 and 5 after having nine points (four goals, five assists) in Games 1 through 3. Los Angeles has limited secondary scoring so will need Kempe to have another big game offensively to extend the series to a seventh game. Kopitar also has one assist in the past two games after having seven points (one goal, six assists) in Games 1 through 3. Quinton Byfield does not have a point in the past three games after two goals and an assist in the first two games. Forward Andrei Kuzmenko has one goal in the past three games after five points (two goals, three assists) in Games 1 and 2. The Kings are 4-8 in their past 12 road playoff games against the Oilers.
Oilers: As is usually the case, McDavid and Draisaitl are the key drivers in Edmonton’s offense; McDavid has 46 points (10 goals, 36 assists) in 23 career playoff games against Los Angeles with six points (one goal, five assists) in a three-game point streak heading into Game 6, and Draisaitl has at least one point in every game of the series. The Oilers have gotten healthier over the course of the series; outside of defenseman Mattias Ekholm, who was ruled out of the first round because of an undisclosed injury, Edmonton has every player on the roster available. Forward Jeff Skinner, who made his playoff debut in Game 1 after 1,078 regular-season games, is expected to be a healthy scratch for the fourth consecutive game.
Number to know: 19, the number of consecutive games Draisaitl has recorded at least a point in the playoffs against Los Angeles. He has has 37 points (17 goals, 20 assists) in that stretch and can break an NHL record for longest postseason point streak by a player against a single franchise; Wayne Gretzky had a 19-game point streak against the Calgary Flames and Mark Messier had a 19-game streak against the Kings.
What to look for: Will Los Angeles continue to mostly playing three lines and four defensemen? Doughty (27:02), Mikey Anderson (26:33), Joel Edmundson (24:02) and Vladislav Gavrikov (21:53) have logged the bulk of the minutes on the Kings blue line and their fourth line has seen limited ice time. Will Calvin Pickard give Edmonton another solid start? He’s 3-0 with a 2.44 goals against average and .912 save percentage since taking over from Stuart Skinner to start Game 3.
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