5 Ways The LA Kings Can Win Game 6

These are the playoffs.

You think you know the path, the future, until the path makes a hard turn and the future becomes something else altogether.

Anyone who has followed this topsy-turvy first-round series between the LA Kings and the Edmonton Oilers understands that very well.

A 2-0 series lead for the Kings has been followed by three straight Edmonton wins that sets the stage for the first possible elimination game of the series Thursday in Edmonton.

Given the lackluster way the Kings responded at home in Game 5, a 3-1 loss, it’s obvious there is a high level of frustration from the Kings players and coaches on through the fan base.

But did we mention this is the playoffs?

“There’s not a lot of stories for me to give you,” Kings head coach Jim Hiller said Wednesday before the Kings jetted north to Edmonton for what they hope is a date with destiny. For us, we did not play well last night. They have the momentum. It’s our job to go up there and take it back. Simple as that,” Hiller said.

Here are five ways the Kings get back in this series.

Back To What Got You There Part I
Why the Kings came out as flat and discombobulated as they did in Game 5 is up for much discussion. And the reality is there’s no one answer. Fatigue based on running a short bench for the entire series. Maybe. Maybe it’s the psychological impact of blowing three third-period leads through the first four games (they won Game 1 despite multiple blown leads). The reality is that for at least half of this series the Kings have been the better team. That team has receded from view in recent days. Since the third period of Game 4 the Kings have been out-shot 70-35 and out-scored 6-1. Is it too late to coax out the team that was so good for such long stretches of this compelling series? Does that burden fall solely on the players?

“We’re in it together. We’re a team,” Hiller said Wednesday. “That includes our training staff, our coaches, everybody’s involved. We’re all in this together. So, it’s not them (the players). It’s all of us. And it’s there. We’ve seen it. We felt it. We just have to get back into the frame of mind and maybe the looseness of the body, loosening up, and just going out there and playing that game again. And we maybe got off it a little bit last night, and the results were obvious.”

Back To What Got You There Part II
As the Kings have found themselves sliding from control of the series to facing elimination one of the main narratives has been whether the Kings relied too heavily on their top nine forwards and top four defensemen? The Oilers noted how important rolling four lines has been to their coming back from the early 2-0 series deficit after Game 5’s victory in Los Angeles. Head coach Jim Hiller doesn’t really care about how the Oilers feel about their game and how it got there. Fair enough. But there is something to how an injury-depleted Oiler team has surged ahead in this series as it related to their balanced attack and balanced allotment of ice time. If the Kings are going to challenge the Oilers it seems imperative that the Kings go back to their core identity and that is a team whose success is intrinsically linked to the depth and balance of their lineup. There are no Connor McDavid’s or Leon Draisaitl’s on this LA roster. The Kings are here because they are greater than the sum of their parts. The fact they weren’t anything close to that in Game 5 isn’t necessarily an indictment of the team but rather an indictment of how far they strayed from their identity. Game 5 marked the return of Alex Turcotte after being scratched following Game 1 and Jordan Spence to the blue line after being scratched in Game 4. Turcotte, playing on the fourth line with Samuel Helenius and Jeff Malott, were effective in the limited ice time they got. Turcotte drew a penalty that led to the Kings’ only goal on the power play, with Hiller praising their commitment to playing their game in Game 5, calling them the line that played the most like the Kings in the losing effort. A good step forward for those players and for the team in better using its depth.

The Kuemper Factor
Just a couple of things on Darcy Kuemper as I know Zach is taking a deep dive into the Vezina Trophy nominee. But there are a couple of things about the level of Kuemper is playing. He faced 93 shots in Games 4 and 5 and allowed six goals. He single-handedly stopped Game 5 from being an absolute blowout. His stop on Evan Bouchard in the first period of Game 5 still has fans shaking their collective heads. Kuemper kept the Kings in a game they had no business being in. He’ll have to be that guy in Game 6 and if they are successful in Game 7 at home on Saturday. But it also seems self-evident that the Kings must do a better job of protecting their number one goalie – and team MVP as voted on by local media. Joel Edmundson talked about that after the game.

“We’ve relied on him too much in this series,” Edmundson said. “We’ve got to block more shots. We’ve got to take care of our D-zone and limit their chances.” And Hiller mentioned it Tuesday as well. But if there’s a path for the Kings to get back in this series it goes right through Kuemper’s crease.

“As bad as we played in front of him, he still gave us a chance,” Hiller said. “So, yeah, we’ve got to bounce back from it. I mean, he’s clearly been our best player, and you don’t want to rely on him as much as that. But if there’s a player in a series you want to be your best player, I would argue you’d probably take your goaltender if you had a chance to choose. So, he’s in a good place. We know what we have to do. If Darcy gives us those saves, we’re going to play better tomorrow.”

Special Teams (Duh)
Let’s assume that the Kings will complete some passes and not cough up pucks in front of Kuemper 10 or 15 times or allow multiple odd-man rushes, all of which happened in Game 5. If they take care of the execution that deserted them in Game 5, they have a chance to reassert themselves as the better 5-on-5 team in this series. That leads the special teams issue that has always played such a huge part of the past three playoff clashes between these two teams and has not continued in this fourth straight playoff meeting. Thus far the Kings have more than held their own. Indeed, their special teams play in Games 1 and 2 when they killed off the first five Oiler plays while scoring five power play goals, was the catalyst to taking a two-game series lead. The Kings power play continues to be productive although it has gotten away from its dominance of early in the series. That dominant unit will have to return. Strong 5-on-5 play, especially play in the Oiler zone, should lead to more man-advantage opportunities. The Kings must capitalize on those opportunities and that means managing the puck better than they have in the past two games. Again, that kind of performance is in that room, we’ve seen it, but it must make itself known in Game 6. Same for shutting down the Oilers’ potent power play. They didn’t score, technically, in Game 5 although they did tie the game moments after the end of a Drew Doughty minor penalty. Not saying the Kings need to take no penalties in Game 6 but it seems critical the Kings limit ill-timed penalties. There’s no good time to take a penalty against Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid but there are lots of bad times. The Kings can’t feed into potentially defining moments that the Oilers might take advantage of by taking careless penalties.

It’s Always Darkest Before The Dawn
This is not a hockey phrase. In fact, its origins date back to 1650. But it’s true. And Game 5 was pretty dark. But players in the Kings locker room have seen some darkness. Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar and Trevor Lewis were down 0-3 to the San Jose Sharks in the first round in 2014. They won their second Stanley Cup in three years later that spring. Joel Edmundson was on a St. Louis Blues team dead last in league standings halfway through the 2018-19 season. They beat Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in Boston.

“I don’t think you have to rally the troops. Again, you’re at the end of April, when you’re playing until the end of April, you’ve got troops that can rally themselves, that believe in themselves, or else you’d be done already,” Hiller said. “So, we just need to play better. We’re going to have to understand what we didn’t do well, maybe why we didn’t do that well, and then just get back after it. Just get back after it.”

That’s the nature of professionals. They know the situation. It doesn’t mean they accept it.

“It’s the beauty of professionals. It’s hard because you’re invested, and believe me, they’re invested. But they’ve been trained, both physically and mentally, to be able to handle situations like that when it goes up and down. And that’s part of being able to play in this league and then play in the playoffs,” Hiller said.