Angeles Analysis – Trap, Meet Mentality

So much of this Saturday afternoon tilt against the short-handed Edmonton Oilers smelled of ‘trap’ for the Los Angeles Kings.

The Oilers were without a cadre of regulars including twin superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who is the odds-on favorite to win the Hart Trophy as league MVP, top-four defender Mattias Ekholm and starting netminder Stuart Skinner.

Add in the fact the Kings boast the best home record in the NHL and have been one of the most successful teams in the NHL since the trade deadline, as starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper has played his way into Vezina Trophy consideration having allowed two or fewer goals in 12 straight starts heading into Saturday’s tilt.

Book those two points, right?

Perhaps a team that hasn’t matured and developed the kind of hard shell this Kings team has woven over the past two-plus months might have been guilty of taking something for granted. A lesser team might have been thinking ahead to the playoffs that begin in exactly two weeks and how important two points would have been to securing home ice advantage, likely against these same Edmonton Oilers.

Maybe other teams would have been guilty of falling into said trap. But not this Kings team.

And so, another important test was passed in the form of a 3-0 victory.

Indeed, this was more workmanlike than glitz and glamor as the Kings moved four points ahead of the Oilers with six games left in the regular season including a rematch with the Oilers in Edmonton a week from Monday. By the end of Saturday evening, by virtue of Vegas’s win over Calgary, the Kings had clinched a fourth straight post-season berth and remain three points back of the Golden Knights who own the number one spot in the Pacific Division.

The Kings won the 5-on-5 battle as has so often been the case this season, riding Kevin Fiala and Andrei Kuzmenko even-strength goals to the victory with Trevor Lewis adding an empty-net marker. Kuemper picked up his fifth shutout of the season and at this point it should be a shock if he’s not a Vezina Trophy finalist with his league-best 2.03 GAA and .922 save percentage tied for second among NHL netminders.

The Kings didn’t score on the man advantage but had good looks and didn’t take needless penalties to open a door to the undermanned Oilers who, frankly, never threatened to hijack the game’s narrative.

That’s not to throw shade on an Oiler team that one assumes will look much different when the playoffs begin April 19.

But it highlights the discipline of a Kings team that took nothing for granted, never exhaled in a game that was pivotal to their goal of opening the playoffs in the comfy confines of Crypto.com Arena.

“They played hard,” captain Anze Kopitar said. “They obviously made us work for everything but it’s good for us obviously to get the win but just the way we played too I think we can take a lot of positives out of it. Some nights not necessarily the greatest hockey, but it still gets it done so that’s something we want to continue building and make sure we’re ready when playoffs roll around.”

And isn’t that the mark of a good team, being able to collect important wins when the product on the ice is more paint-by-numbers than Mona Lisa?

Asked and answered.

“Of course, you’ve got to find a way to win hockey games in different ways,” Kopitar said. “I think the biggest attribute is really the scoring’s been spread throughout the lineup.”

Head Coach Jim Hiller didn’t like the team’s first period, which ended scoreless but was sloppy and a bit ragged but really liked the second and third period. As for the fact the Oilers’ iced a lineup that didn’t resemble the team that has beaten the Kings in the past three playoff seasons Hiller doesn’t determine the other team’s lineup.

“We knew it was going to be a good game,” Hiller added. “They checked hard. They check hard when everybody’s in the lineup. They check hard when they’re missing a few guys. I can tell you this. The guys in that room, I’m pretty sure they would have liked nothing more to come into this building and beat us without the players that they don’t have right now. I’m sure they were ready for that. I’m sure that conversation took place in their room. So, we had to be ready for that.”

And they were and now they turn their attention to the Seattle Kraken who come visiting Monday. Anaheim and Colorado visit later in the week before the trip to Edmonton for a game that still looms large in spite of Saturday’s win although the pressure has shifted squarely to the Oilers if they hope to overtake Los Angeles and secure home ice advantage.

Not only do the Kings lead Edmonton by four points they are ahead of the Oilers in the first tie-breaker, regulation wins. Not that the Kings are assuming anything when it comes to starting the playoffs at home, something they haven’t done in any of the three previous series against the Oilers over the last three years.

“We’d certainly like to earn it. For some reason this year in particular we’ve played extremely well here at home so you’d like to have that advantage but there’s lots of hockey left to play you can’t look past anybody,” Hiller said. “We’ve got to make sure we’re just taking care of business one game at a time and see where it lands.”

Kopitar echoed those ‘day-by-day’ sentiments.

“I mean listen, there’s going to be times in the playoffs when you’ve got to win on the road, too, so we have confidence in this team,” Kopitar offered. “Would it be nice to start at home? Of course, it’s there for the taking obviously. But we’re going game by game and building our game. So, when the first game rolls around we’ll be ready.”