Kings’ Game 3 loss turned on failed, unnecessary challenge: ‘It cost us big time’

Sports

add

EDMONTON — There will be some work for Jim Hiller to do before Game 4 on Sunday to get his Los Angeles Kings to move past the events of Friday night and quell the momentum gained by the Edmonton Oilers as they can still take a stranglehold on the series back home.

Because the second-year coach, who has mostly pushed the right buttons in his first full season, pressed the wrong one in Game 3, and that has given the Oilers some fuel to launch a full-scale response and nullify all the good work the Kings did in building a 2-0 lead.

Game 4 now is massive for the Kings after Edmonton’s 7-4 victory. Hiller must make sure a direct line isn’t drawn between his failed challenge and Edmonton making it become a series-turning event. It was the wrong call, and the Oilers made him and his team pay.

The situation was the Kings holding a 4-3 lead when Evander Kane got what appeared to be a tying score on a goalmouth scramble as Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper was sprawled along his crease. Initially, Kane was determined to have kicked the puck in, and replays indeed showed he struck it with his skate.

But they also showed him jab at the loose puck that Kuemper couldn’t secure. Following the review, Frederick L’Ecuyer determined that Kane hit the puck with his stick before it crossed the goal line. The irony is that if a prone Kuemper hadn’t blocked the puck with his body and it went straight in after Kane’s kicking motion, it likely wouldn’t have counted.

“Yeah, I shot the puck in the net,” Kane said. “I knew it was just a matter of them seeing it on the replay. I felt good. And then they challenged it. You never know what can happen in those situations. But it was a good boost for our team, an important goal. Then the power play goes out and does its thing and we’re in the lead.”

The review went against the Kings. That’s fine. It was 4-4 with 6:42 still left in regulation. It’s not like Hiller’s team couldn’t generate more great scoring chances. They’ve been getting those golden looks all series, including a Game 3 where the defense-challenged Oilers put embattled goalie Stuart Skinner on the shelf and asked Calvin Pickard to save the day. There was a lot of time left for them to break the tie before the end of regulation. After all, Trevor Moore restored their lead nine seconds after Edmonton had tied it at 3-3 late in the second.

The problem is that Hiller compounded the situation by challenging for interference against Kuemper. It looked certain to the Kings’ video staff, which pushed for it. It didn’t look very certain to virtually anyone else.

“Well, we got a good look at it,” Hiller said. “We took plenty of time. And we felt it was goalie interference, so we challenged it. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose on those and tonight we lost and it cost us big time. No other way around it.”

The situation room in Toronto obviously did not see it, and that put the Oilers on the power play as a result. A team in need of life after a Game 2 spanking going into Friday night got the spark from the raucous Rogers Place crowd in building a 2-0 lead but was back on shaky footing after the Kings scored three straight goals. Hiller’s failed challenge provided an added boost to the Oilers when one wasn’t necessary to hand out.

Ten seconds later, Evan Bouchard finished off a give-and-go that penalty killers Mikey Anderson, Warren Foegele and Vladislav Gavrikov were slow to pick up on for his second goal of the game. Connor McDavid and Connor Brown made the result look worse than it was by adding empty net goals.

“I’ve said it, I don’t know how many times now, they know how we want to kill,” Anderson said. “We know what they’re trying to do. It’s a chess match. They’re going to try and make some new plays. Change up what they’re doing on the fly. We got to try and read it. They made a good play. Unfortunately, we missed a couple sticks and ends up in your net.”

Hiller said it was a play they had seen earlier in Los Angeles, and they kept the Oilers from executing the back part of it. But the penalty kill didn’t have to be. Perhaps the Oilers would have broken the tie and won at another juncture. It was just an unnecessary risk to give a club with all-world offensive talent — and one that set the modern NHL record for power-play efficiency last season — an opportunity by putting your team a man down.

“We don’t obviously know the nitty gritties of all the rules,” Anderson said. “So, it’s hard to say what should have been this or that, but obviously it didn’t go our way there. Crowd gets into it a little bit. And then unfortunately we couldn’t get a kill.

“Big swing of emotion. But that’s the way of the game sometimes.”

Why not just swallow the lost review and play on at 4-4?

“All those things go into it,” Hiller said. “And that’s why we take a timeout. We understand the situation. We don’t want to give them a power play. But clearly we felt that challenge was in our favor. The league disagreed. You move on.

“The next step would have been for us to kill the penalty. That didn’t happen either. It’s a tough stretch for us. There’s no question. That’s hockey. That’s playoff hockey especially.”

That wasn’t the only questionable Hiller decision. The Kings essentially played four defensemen, leaning hard on their veterans. Drew Doughty played a game-high 28 minutes and one second. Anderson played 26:40. Vladislav Gavrikov and Joel Edmundson were only a second apart, clocking in over 21 minutes.

Meanwhile, Brandt Clarke played only 11:34 after he scored his first NHL playoff goal in Game 2 and Hiller extolled the virtues of his improved defensive work. But Jordan Spence played only four shifts for a total of 2:55, his last coming early in the second period when Kane high-sticked Jeff Malott. Assistant coach D.J. Smith plays a major role in running the defense and monitoring who he wants out there in given situations.

There appeared to be no injury with Spence, who played 79 games this season but hasn’t been trusted to play more than 8:50 in any of the first three games.

“We always make decisions on ice time based on how we think we’re going to win that evening’s game,” Hiller said. “If that was the case, then we felt there was guys in front of him who needed to play more. It’s just really, really simple.”

On the challenge of playing most of the game against the Oilers with five defensemen, Doughty said, “We were ready for these moments. Obviously at times you’re going to have a shift where you’re out there for a long time and you’re going to be tired. But that would happen even if you play 10 minutes. Same thing. We train all summer and all year to recover quickly. I think all of us are fine.”

“You get into a rhythm,” Anderson said. “I don’t think anyone really thinks about it. If you put any one of our D out there and you’re playing a lot, it’s a rhythm you want to be in. Everyone wants to play as much as they can. It is what it is. It sucks for Spenny that maybe he didn’t get a whole lot today. He’s a great teammate. He was there the whole time cheering everyone on.”

The Kings also downplayed the fact that they’ve blown late third-period leads in two of the three games. They’re going to get their chances to score, and it doesn’t matter if it’s Pickard or Skinner in the opposing net. They’ve racked up 16 goals, enough in each to win. Sure, they’ve got to outscore the Oilers, but holding them to two goals like Game 2 is their true recipe.

As exciting as they’ve become with all the offense, the Kings are still about tight defense and quality goaltending. That’s been their credo. That must come to the forefront in Game 4. And their coach needs to be better as developments materialize.

“We’re going to forget about this game,” Doughty said. “We didn’t play poorly. There’s no doubt in my mind about that. And we had a good game. They played well too. It’s just two good teams playing for the series. Forget about it. Move on. Get the win next game.”

That’s something Hiller will take right about now. Turning something that could go down as a foolhardy, damaging challenge into a footnote.

(Photo: Jason Franson / The Canadian Press via AP)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

Real Madrid hoje: Ancelotti tem desfalques contra o Barcelona em final da Copa do Rei

Futebol

Next

trending_flat

Claude Giroux and Senators are taking notes from Flyers’ reverse sweep in 2010

Sports