Travel Day Notebook – Special Teams Thoughts + Matchups & Narratives As Series Shifts to EDM

Travel day in the LA Kings’ fascinating first-round series with the Edmonton Oilers.

The shifting of the series North means much more than the ability to get to a Tim Hortons within five minutes of anywhere you happen to be in the city.

Given how the first two games unfolded at Crypto.com Arena, both LA Kings victories, and given the recent playoff history of these two teams in the post-season, there is a sense of heading into uncharted territory for both the Kings and the Oilers as their fourth straight playoff clash continues.

Here’s a look at what lies ahead for the Kings in Games 3 and 4 at Rogers Place on Friday and Sunday.

Different Narrative Same Job To Do
In the three previous series between these two Pacific Division foes no team has opened up a series with a 2-0 lead. That the Kings did so this week probably shouldn’t be all that surprising given they had the NHL’s best home record during the regular season. But still. This is the playoffs and it’s hard to win two straight. The team worked hard down the stretch, though, to achieve the second seed in the Pacific Division and home-ice advantage against the third seeded Oilers and that hard work paid off with a sweep of the first two games of this series. Now, Games 1 and 2 have to be parked and preparations have to be made for what will be a raucous, albeit possibly nervous, crowd in Edmonton. It sounds self-evident but the first half of the first period on Friday looms large for the Kings who have yet to trail in this series and in both games took the lead before the mid-point of the first period. Not surprisingly, Head Coach Jim Hiller feels his team plays better with the lead and explains in part why they were able to open multi-goal leads in both games.

“When other teams try to chase it, maybe that’s how we can create some more offense and extend the lead. I think that probably goes for every team, they like to play with the lead. But I think with our team in particular, it turns out pretty well,” Hiller said.

So, staying calm and on point early in Edmonton will be key but it’s also something that is very much in character for the Kings. I go back to a comment from Alex Laferriere after Game 1 when the Oilers rallied from 4-1 and 5-2 deficits in the third period to briefly tie the game 5-5 before Phil Danault’s heroic, fluttering goal gave the Kings a 6-5 win. He talked about how the rest of the team looks to veterans like captain Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Joel Edmundson and others, for cues on how to react.

“It’s kind of a cliché, but you look at the guys around you, you look over at Kopi and you look over at Drew and Phil (Danault) and those guys that have been through it a lot and you kind of just look over at them and they’re not panicking at all,” Laferriere said. “For me, on the bench you feel that the world’s crashing down around you. But being able to look at those guys and see how confident they still are is pretty moving and helps us a lot.”

Look for more of that veteran stability to come to the fore with the Oilers desperate to avoid falling into the 0-3 series hole from which almost no team emerges.

A ’Frightening’ Power Play And A New Special Teams Script – So Far
A year ago, it felt like every time Edmonton went on the power play it was a given they were going to score. It seemed like that because, well, that’s pretty much what happened. During the five-game series, the Oilers scored nine times on 20 opportunities. The Kings scored zero power play goals. These kinds of trends can take on a life of their own. A stagnant power play often leads to players overthinking and over-passing or trying to be too fine. And each failure seems to compound the angst felt by the group. One of the keys with the series headed to Edmonton will be whether the trends established in Games 1 and 2 continue. The Kings, of course, have completely flipped the narrative from last season, scoring five times on 10 power play opportunities in the first two games, with TNT’s Darren Pang calling it “frightening” through two games. All but one of the Kings’ power-play goals have been scored by the team’s suddenly potent five-forward unit. The players and coaches continue to heap praise on Andrei Kuzmenko, acquired at the trade deadline from Philadelphia, as the catalyst to the power play’s turnaround in recent weeks. His unpredictability and his skill with the puck have made it difficult for opposing teams to defend. Adrian Kempe also noted the simple notion of confidence as a factor in the unit’s success. The more times you score on the PP, the more the group believes it’s going to happen every time. Sort of the opposite of what we saw last year from the Kings. With that growing confidence, the pressure on the Oilers to come up with an answer for the Kings’ power play is now enormous. It also creates pressure on the Oilers to be more disciplined as they have taken twice as many minor penalties as the Kings.

And Now A Word About The Penalty Kill
As for the penalty kill, that too has been a boon for the Kings who have denied the star-laden Oiler power play on all five opportunities in the series. It’s almost too simplistic to note but the key isn’t necessarily defending the power play itself, but in limiting the opportunities given to an Edmonton team that boasts two of the greatest players in the world, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The Kings did slip a bit in that regard in Game 2 taking three minor penalties, two of which could be construed as being of the avoidable variety. Maybe it’s a function of the way the Kings have opened up multi-goal leads in each game, but the Oilers have been far less disciplined than the Kings. That in control, nothing outside the whistles mindset has to continue for the Kings. Vladislav Gavrikov logged 3:43 in shorthanded time in Game 2 and only Mikey Anderson, at 3:54, logged more. An impressive part of the Game 1 and Game 2 victories.

Different Duties For Drew
One of the interesting byproducts of the Kings’ five-forward power play deployment is that it means perennial power play quarterback Drew Doughty is seeing an evolution of his role with the Kings. It’s not diminished. He played more than any other King in Game 1 and was among the ice time leaders in Game 2. But what he is asked to do is different now that he plays on the second power play unit which sees very little ice time. Because he sees a much smaller amount of power play time Doughty is easier to dispatch in other situations, Hiller said.

“He’s fresher to play the five-on-five minutes,” Hiller said. “So, I think in the end, that’s probably been a residual benefit for us, is just to have a fresher defenseman to play the rest of the game.”

Doughty, to his part, has said that if it’s working, he’s not worried about it. That’s not to say he doesn’t want to be involved there but his primary objective is simple – to win. At this stage in his career, Doughty made clear he simply wants to win. Whatever role he’s given in that process, he’s happy to accept.

The Matchup Chess Match
Everything begins and ends for the Oilers with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Breaking news, I know. McDavid’s four-point effort in Game 1 was almost enough to affect a comeback that could have redefined this series. But it wasn’t. The Kings learned from that near-miss and held McDavid without a point in Game 2. Draisaitl had one goal, a nice deflection at the end of the second period to get the Oilers on the board with the score 3-0 Kings at the time. Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch used the two superstars together throughout Game 2, literally from the opening face-off. Hiller countered with Phil Danault, Warren Foegele and Trevor Moore up front and Doughty and Anderson on the back end for the bulk of the shifts in Game 2. The results were exemplary as the two Edmonton stars managed just four shots on net. They were also on the ice when Quinton Byfield scored to make it 2-0 early in the second period. McDavid was on the ice for three even-strength Los Angeles goals in Game 1. Now, Knoblauch will have the last change in Edmonton and, assuming he keeps the McDavid/Draisaitl pairing together in the hopes of sparking an offensive breakout, he’ll have the opportunity to dictate the matchups to a certain degree. Hiller is a coach not all that concerned about chasing matchups, especially on the road.

“I don’t think there’s a lot where we say, oh, we’re going to have to do this now or this now. They’ll get last change and maybe keep us a little bit sharper on the bench. That’s all,” Hiller said. “We’re not looking at trying to make too many adjustments or define challenges that maybe aren’t there.”

He noted that all three of the team’s top centers, Danault, Kopitar and Byfield, have had experience squaring off with the Edmonton stars during the season.

“Somebody’s going to be out there, and there’s no need to panic. They’ve done it. They know the job,” Hiller said. “We’re not going to chase it around, and I think it hopefully speaks to the composure. There’s a lot of faith in our players, I think, amongst one another, and I think they would hopefully say that the coaching staff seems to have a lot of faith in them at the same time. And we’ll handle it as it comes.”

An approach the Kings did not have the luxury of taking in years past. And they still have preferred matchups, night-to-night. But they won’t always get them on the road and they’re confident in several different routes, as the situation dictates.

Off to Edmonton! The Kings will touch down in Alberta later on today, before tomorrow’s Game 3 at Rogers Place. More to come between now and then!