With the season on the line, the Kings know they need more on special teams during Game 6

The special teams battle has been a well-discussed storyline of this series. And rightfully so.

It was a massive factor in last season’s series, as the Oilers won that particular facet by a 9-2 margin across the seven games. It was a storyline this year as well entering the series, as Edmonton brought with it not only the NHL’s best power play, but the best power play in NHL history.

After Game 3, as the Kings led this series by a 2-1 margin, the goals scored on special teams sat tied at four apiece. The Kings never felt they needed to win in that category, but even would set them up nicely. They used timely goals on special teams in both of their victories, with a 4-on-4 goal and the game-tying goal scored on the power play in Game 1. Both LA victories came in overtime, as the Kings scored power-play goals during the extra session to seal victories in both Game 1 and Game 3, with that timeliness on special teams a big factor as to why.

Games 4 and 5 have seen the tide shift. Edmonton scored a pair of power-play goals in both games, as they flipped the series around to take a 3-2 advantage, off of consecutive wins. The special-teams margin now stands at 8-4 on the power play and 8-5 in total. Much of the focus has been on the Edmonton power play, which has now converted at close to 60 percent throughout the course of the series. The Oilers have eight goals on 14 opportunities and that disparity has helped to swing the series against the Kings.

Now, the series is on the line. Results outweigh process tomorrow evening and the Kings have to execute when and if they go on the penalty kill.

“It comes down to two things,” Todd McLellan said this morning. “One, you don’t want to take the penalties and two, when you do get the opportunities, you’ve got to kill them, but don’t expect perfection within a game,” Todd McLellan said this morning.

Would be a lot cooler if there were just no penalties called. I don’t know about you, though, but I don’t see that happening. So, the Kings will likely be shorthanded tomorrow evening and they’ll need to find a way to get the job done in one way or another.

Game 5, while the numbers were unkind, actually saw some small improvements on the penalty kill, despite a 1-for-3 performance. The Kings got through 1:55 of their first shorthanded sequence, before the second unit opened the scoring. Later in the game, a shot that was going high and wide hit Zach Hyman in the face and deflected in with just nine seconds left on that penalty. That’s why teams have the full two minutes, though. A goal a second in or with a second left counts the same. There’s no room for moral victories here in the postseason, which McLellan was quick to point out.

“That’s why they penalize you for the full two minutes you have to kill, it doesn’t matter which second they score in,” McLellan said. “When it’s all said and done, you have a full two minutes you have to kill and they get a full two minutes to score and we get the exact same amount going the other way. We’re almost there, but couldn’t quite get it done and that isn’t good enough.”

The players are well aware of the importance, too, and they haven’t shied away from acknowledging that improvements have to come from within.

The Kings weren’t exactly the best team in the league down a man this season, but they improved as the season went along, killing more than 80 percent of their penalties from January 1 on. Even before that, they certainly weren’t a team below 50 percent, which an unsustainable number throughout the course of the season. The penalty kill is important all season long. In the postseason, the spotlight is magnified. Improvements and adjustments are needed and the Kings are focused on executing them.

“It’s so huge, it’s been huge in the season, but right now it’s even more important,” defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov said. “We’ve got to improve that……it’s always challenging and they’re doing a review, we’re doing the same. It’s hard to surprise each other right now, so it’s all about execution.”

Part of it comes down to confidence. McLellan acknowledged the mental aspect of coming within a combined 13 seconds of a perfect night on the penalty kill, but seeing two power-play goals against despite it.

Forward Phillip Danault mentioned the same types of things, with hopes that he and the rest of the penalty killers can draw from past moments of success to generate confidence. The Kings have had stretches of success on the penalty kill this season and actually did a pretty good job against Edmonton during the regular season, leading all teams in the Western Conference at 84.6 percent. Danault is hopeful that perhaps the Kings can generate confidence from those successful stretches and apply it tomorrow evening.

“They obviously have really, really good players, some good shots all around too, but we can kill for sure,” Danault said. “We need more confidence, we know we can do it, we did it all year, in some key times of the year as well. We know we need to be better and we’ve got to adjust, more dedication and more blocks.”

So, what does adjusting mean?

You’re not going to just shut down the Edmonton power play by eliminating one option. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are obviously dangerous, but it’s a unit that has five different options. Evan Bouchard has one of the hardest shots in the league from the point and both Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman had career seasons, scoring 15 power-play goals apiece during the regular season. The Oilers had four of the top 13 league leaders in power-play goals this season, so they’ve got options, as forward Blake Lizotte details.

“I mean, it’s 5-on-4 right? There’s going to be chances, there’s going to be an open guy, I think you try and take away the more dangerous option,” Lizotte said. “Good power plays have three, four, five options that they can go to and Edmonton has that, so I think for us, it’s just deciding which evil you want to take your chance on going forward.”

We’ll find out soon enough if the team’s adjusting pays off. Switching the system or the structure is a tall task across two days of on-ice performance, but making small adjustments, chaning commitments in certain situations, is all doable. Perhaps they’ll surprise us all and come out with a completely new alignment, who knows.

What we have to count on, though, is a commitment to changing the outcome. The Kings will look to continue to be disciplined as they have been for the bulk of the series, averaging fewer than three over the first five games. Despite a few “dumb” penalties in there, as McLellan referenced them, the Kings have generally avoided the after the whistle infractions and that’s limited the time spent killing.

Still though, shorthanded moments will come and the Kings need to be ready. It’s a balance of the two focal points, avoiding penalties and killing them, that will remain key tomorrow night.

“It’s definitely challenging, but I think going forward for us, it’s vital to kind of find a way to shut them down,” Lizotte added. “Our coaches have said it many times, but that’s just keeping them off the powerplay. When we we play 5-on-5, I think we like our chances but once they get on the power play, they start to snap it around. When we get on the penalty kill in Game 6 we’ll need to be sharp.”

All comes down to G6 tomorrow, Insiders! A win and the season presses on, a loss and things end earlier than hoped. Plenty to come in the game preview tomorrow, as we get set for a big one on home ice.