Kings can't close the deal--again

Another game of too-cautious defensive play erased the Kings' series lead over Edmonton. Sitting back hasn't left them sitting pretty.

Almost despite themselves—and certainly despite a second straight display of dubious coaching strategy by Jim Hiller—the Kings on Sunday were less than 30 seconds away from leaving Edmonton with a 3-1 series lead over the Oilers with the knowledge that one win in the friendly confines of the Crypt in downtown L.A. would propel them into the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2014.

They had been bold, skating swiftly and confidently, in building a 3-1 lead over the Oilers through two periods at Rogers Place. They outshot the Oilers 28-15 over that span and had yielded only a power-play goal to the eternally pesky Corey Perry.

But as they had done in Game 1, in which they blew leads of 4-0 and 5-2 and allowed four goals in the third period before being saved by a lucky bounce, and again in Game 3, in which they erased two deficits and were tied at 4-4 when Hiller lost a foolish coach’s challenge and the Oilers surged ahead on the subsequent delay of game penalty, the Kings again sat back in a defensive posture Sunday and let the Oilers carry the play. With Hiller basically using only four defensemen and nine forwards, players’ legs became heavy in a fast-paced game. They had no spring, no energy. They managed only six shots on goal in the third period, to Edmonton’s 16.

Edmonton cut the Kings’ lead to 3-2 at 7:51 of the third. But the Kings might still have won if Quinton Byfield had completed what should have been a routine attempt to chip the puck safely out of the Kings’ defensive zone during the frantic final minute of the third period. He had time and space to make a safe play but tried to get fancy, creating a chance for Evan Bouchard to get his stick on it and keep it in the zone. The puck ended up in the Kings’ net with 28.4 seconds to play courtesy of Bouchard, the whose blistering shot (known as a Bouch bomb) makes up for most of his frequent defensive blunders.

In overtime, the Kings again generally sat back while the Oilers, sensing the Kings’ fatigue, relentlessly attacked. Edmonton’s 17th shot in sudden death play, a power-play effort by Leon Draisaitl from the right circle at 18:18 after the puck had pinged around in front of the net, balanced the series at 2-2 heading into Game 5 on Tuesday at the crypt.

“You’re up 3-1, you’ve got to seal the deal. You’ve got to make those plays when it counts,” center Phillip Danault told reporters in Edmonton. “It’s hard. It’s hard to win, especially on the visitors’ side.”

This isn’t to blame the loss on Byfield, whose teammates were quick to defend him. “He tried to make the right play. He tried to chip it out and their guy just somehow got a stick on it,” winger Warren Foegele said. “It happens. It’s part of the game. He’s trying to do the right thing. We told him, ‘Don’t worry about it.’”

Easy to say, but the Kings do have plenty of cause to worry about their situation now.

“He’s made that play all year. I’m not worried about that play one bit for Quinton,” Hiller said. “I’m proud of the 28 minutes he gave us tonight, how hard he played. And I know he’ll be ready to play the next games. You shake those things off. It doesn’t go your way every single time. You shake it off and you come back again and he will.”

But some setbacks are harder to shake off than others. This one could be tough to put out of mind. As it should be for Hiller. His job is to give his players the best chance to succeed. He hasn’t done that in the last two games.

When he should have played it safe in Game 3 and resisted calling for that coach’s challenge on the game-tying goal by Evander Kane, knowing he’d put Edmonton on the power play if his contention of goaltender interference was rejected, Hiller went for it anyway. He lost, as expected. The Oilers scored on the power play to break a tie before rolling to a 7-4 victory.

When Hiller should have told his team to be assertive on Sunday and continue to attack, he instead held them back. A constant defensive stance is exhausting, both mentally and physically, more taxing than playing offense. And Hiller had already tired out many of his key players by shortening his bench so drastically that players were gasping for air as they chased the newly rejuvenated Oilers.

Defenseman Joel Edmundson played a career-playoff-high 36 minutes and 16 seconds. Mikey Anderson’s 34:14 was his highest total in a playoff game. Vladislav Gavrikov played 31:40 and Drew Doughty played 32:57, his most ice time in a game this season and probably past the peak of effective use. Jacob Moverare took the spot of Jordan Spence (who had made a cameo appearance of 2:55 in Game 3) but played 2:26. Brandt Clarke played only 11:58. Fourth-line forwards Sami Helenius (1:44), Jeff Malott (2:27) and Trevor Lewis (5:19) were rare sightings, too.

If Hiller could have played his big four the entire game—as Lakers coach JJ Redick did with his starters for the entire second half against Minnesota on Sunday—he probably would have. It didn’t work out so well for the Lakers, either.

Foegele said that despite similar circumstances, the Kings’ third-period woes the past two games didn’t feel the same to him. “We pushed a lot harder in this third than Game 3 but we just didn’t get the bounces,” he said, citing a shot by Fiala that hit the post not long before Edmonton pulled even on Sunday.

The question becomes how the Kings can bring about a different outcome and close out the Oilers in the third period, if given that chance again. “It’s hard to say,” Danault said. “They have a big offensive machine. For sure, if you stay back for a while it’s hard to attack after, maybe that’s what it is. They just capitalize every chance they get.”

Hiller insisted the Kings didn’t let up. “I thought we skated all game. That’s something we wanted to do to improve upon,” he said. “I thought we skated a lot better tonight than we did Game 3 and had plenty of opportunities to put it away and did not. Here we are. We go home 2-2 instead.”

It feels, though, like a 2-2 deficit for the Kings. Draisaitl played like the superstar he is, collecting three assists to go with his goal and running his totals for the series to three goals and nine points. Connor McDavid had two assists, for nine points in the series. The Oilers were two for three on the power play; the Kings were 0 for 3, blanked for the first time in four games. Andrei Kuzmenko lacked his usual zip. Adrian Kempe was held off the score sheet for the first time.

What might have happened if the Kings had closed out the Oilers on Sunday doesn’t matter now. They can’t change the past. Their challenge is to keep recent history from repeating itself in this, their fourth straight playoff encounter with the Oilers.

The Oilers have two of the NHL’s best players in Draisaitl and McDavid, but the Kings’ edge over them this season was supposed to be in their balance and depth. Maybe that was all a mirage. If it’s real, Hiller must bring it to the forefront in what is now a best-of-three series.

“Of course it’s painful but it’s 2-2, back to even, and go back home and play hard,” Danault said. “Put our heart on the line and you don’t know what can happen.”

We know what can’t happen: they can’t sit back passively, and they can’t let late leads slip away. If they’re truly a better team than they were last season, now is the time they must prove it.