5 Thoughts Heading Into Game 1 in Edmonton

Never mind Christmas or your birthday, why does it always take so long for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to get here?

I’m sure that’s what L.A. Kings fans are thinking as they count down the hours until puck-drop Monday night in Edmonton.

Same for the folks in Edmonton.

And you know the players are past ready. As Los Angeles Kings head coach Jim Hiller noted on Sunday, this LA/Edmonton series will be the last of the eight first-round NHL playoff series to get going.

Bring it on.

So, a few thoughts while we’re still in wait mode.

Every year it gets said in every NHL playoff dressing room – the playoffs are a new season.

It’s an absolute truth but what does that mean exactly and specifically what does it mean for the Los Angeles Kings as they prepare to face the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the playoffs for the third straight year.

Glad you asked.

1. 82 Out The Window
You can talk all you want about regular season achievements – like Connor McDavid’s 100 assists for instance – but as impressive as any of those accomplishments on either side of this series are, they are completely irrelevant now. That’s probably more meaningful for a Los Angeles Kings team that struggled at times to find consistency down the stretch. Given the core of veteran leaders on this Kings team starting with Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty but including guys like Viktor Arvidsson, Trevor Lewis and Phil Danault, parking whatever disappointments there might have been during some ragged moments in recent weeks should be a no-brainer. And talking to players over the past couple of days there seems no shortage of enthusiasm for what lies ahead and little discussion of what is now in the rearview mirror. Doughty called it the playoff mindset and it’s crucial that it becomes a way of life for the Kings and not just a catchphrase.

2. New Season, New Emotion, New Challenges
I was talking to Kings defenseman Jordan Spence about his first playoff experience two years ago when he got into three games in the first-round, seven-game set with the Oilers and how excited the native of Prince Edward Island was to hear O Canada in his first playoff game. Goosebumps. Doesn’t matter if you’re a multiple Stanley Cup winner and future Hall of Famer like Doughty or Kopitar or a youngster like Spence, one of the keys to success, especially early in the series is the control of the emotions. Lots of ways to put it, controlled emotion, playing your game, tuning out the noise, all those variations on a theme. But it’s real and the team that controls the emotions best, especially early on, is likely to make fewer mistakes and be rewarded with success.

3. The Series Dynamic
If I was an NHL head coach (and I rarely claim to be one) I would want to start on the road.

Easy to say if you’re talking about a Kings team that finished third in the Pacific Division and so didn’t have a say in the matter, but I do think there is a benefit to being on the road. Yes, I know that home teams had gotten off to a great start in Carolina, Boston, Florida and New York, bear with me. At a time when hyperfocus has to be a way of life, being on the road is a natural conduit to that. If you’re at home you have family, friends, all manner of distractions. I also think that’s especially true in Canadian markets where there is the added pressure of expectation when the puck drops in Game 1. Maybe you try to do too much at home, maybe you’re so juiced that you take an unnecessary penalty. Again, it is key for the Kings to not get caught up in what will be a rocking Rogers Place and focus on their own gameplan. For what it’s worth Doughty said he had no issues starting on the road.

“You feel, in a way, if you steal one of the two that you kind of won, where as if you’re at home you feel like you’ve got to win both of them no matter what,” Doughty said. “So I don’t know if that’s an advantage or anything. Obviously we’re going to try and get two.”

4. Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold
That’s how the old saying goes. But I thought it interesting that Doughty said the idea of vanquishing the Oilers after two straight playoff losses to them was of little consequence.

“Honestly, we’re just wanting to win a playoff series,” Doughty said. “We didn’t care who we play. Yeah, we want revenge obviously but that’s not the objective. The objective is winning a playoff series, hopefully winning a second and carrying on from there.”

Maybe this is a variation on a theme but I do think not getting too caught up in the whole ‘third time in a row’ narrative is probably a wise move. The best revenge will be in playing well and taking advantage of mistakes not making mistakes that give the Oilers opportunities.

“We know everything about Edmonton. They know everything about us,” Doughty noted. “The X’s and O’s isn’t what’s going to win us this series in my opinion. It just comes down to heart and whoever wants it more is going to win.”

5. It’s been interesting to chat with head coach Jim Hiller a couple of times since my arrival in Los Angeles. He’s very affable and everyone speaks highly of his communicative skills. But he is reluctant to be drawn into a discussion of what this moment means to him as he prepares to coach his first-ever NHL playoff game.

Not that he’s a stranger to the whole playoff landscape given his work as an assistant in Los Angeles, with the New York Islanders, Toronto and Detroit dating back to 2014-15. But it’s a whole different thing when you’re where the coaching buck stops. While Hiller won’t be afraid to mix things up if he doesn’t like what he sees on the ice – it’s become his calling card in some ways – he talked Sunday about understanding that there’s no sense in tinkering for tinkering’s sake.

“It’s putting that one more ingredient in the whatever you want to call it, it might even be a beverage,” Hiller said. “But one more ingredient to make it just a little better. No, you have to resist that urge because we all know that doesn’t usually turn out too well. It’s there the framework is there let’s go. Let’s go do it.”

Game preview, coming up next from Rogers Place!