They aren’t joking when they say you can’t win ‘em all.
And that might be a little unnerving for the Edmonton Oilers as far as their rivalry with the Los Angeles Kings is concerned.
After meeting in the first round of the playoffs three years in a row, with the Oilers ending L.A.’s season all three times, there is every chance they’ll be seeing each other again this spring.
Which makes you wonder if the odds are going to catch up with Edmonton at some point. And if you weren’t wondering before, you might be now after the Kings beat the Oilers at their own game Saturday.
Smart, patient and resilient, the Kings trailed 1-0, led 2-1, trailed 3-2 and then won 4-3 in overtime at Crypto.com Arena to let the Oilers know that this rivalry might not be as one-sided as the last three post-season series might suggest.
The Kings improved to 9-2-2 in their last 13 games and are still right there with the Oilers, despite Edmonton’s torrid December pace.
They are growing into a legitimate threat with the emergence of a power line featuring Quinton Byfield, who scored two goals, including the overtime winner, ex-Oiler Warren Foegele who scored his 10th of the season and added two assists and Tanner Jeannot, who scored the other L.A. goal.
And there isn’t a club in the NHL more motivated to take Edmonton down than they are.
Add it all up and you get what we saw on Saturday — a team without an injured Drew Doughty giving Edmonton all they could handle.
“It just feels really nice to get the win,” said Foegele, who wanted nothing more than to take down his old team. “We stuck to it the whole game. We needed everyone to contribute and we did, guys back checking, blocking shots. It’s a good club over there so we should be proud of our effort.”
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch thought it was a simple case of Edmonton not bringing enough guys to the fight. While the Kings were all digging in and pulling hard, the Oilers had too many passengers.
“Just not having enough of our lines going,” said Knoblauch. “I thought we had strong contributions from some guys but couldn’t maintain momentum because of everyone not playing to their best.”
Edmonton got a good night’s work from its secondary scoring, with Kasperi Kapanen getting his fifth goal of the season, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins netting his seventh and Viktor Arvidsson scoring his fourth. For Arvidsson, it’s two goals in the last two games since returning from injury four games ago.
But it was a ghastly night for Edmonton’s third line. Foegele, Byfield and Jeannot ran wild on Adam Henrique (who was on the ice for all four goals in a 4-3 loss) Kapanen (who was on for three) and Connor Brown (two).
“We’ve been using our speed and size the last couple of games, wearing them down and getting pucks to the net,” said Foegele. “It’s a pretty simple recipe but we’re sticking to it.”
The Oilers were hoping to not only pick up right where they left off before Christmas, on an 11-2-0 roll and cutting a swath through the best teams in the league, they also wanted to remind the upstart Kings who’s in charge of this rivalry.
But it was the Kings who sent the loudest message, led by Foegele, who had a goal and an assist in the first 20 minutes to give the Kings a 2-1 lead at the intermission and then set up the 3-3 goal early in the third period.
“The first thing I really wanted was the win,” he said. “Scoring against the former team is pretty special and the standings are so tight it’s a massive win for this group. There’s no question the juice was going for me.”
As of right now, tied for second place in the Pacific Division with 45 points each, the Kings and Oilers are on another collision course.
It’s a little reminiscent of the Oilers-Dallas playoff battles when they met six times in seven years from 1997 to 2003.
Dallas won five of them, but they couldn’t win ‘em all.
Confusion over Skinner’s mask
The winning goal in overtime came while a strap on goaltender Stuart Skinner’s mask came undone. He got the referee’s attention, but with the play heading toward Edmonton’s end, they let it play out.
“Before the goal he was yelling to the referee that his strap had come off,” said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch. “It’s tough because it puts the goalie in a vulnerable position. If he pulls it off it’s a minor penalty. We didn’t get the whistle which we definitely could have used.”
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