In Saturday’s final game of 2023, the Kings could get an early jump on what should be one of their New Year’s resolutions: getting vengeance against the Edmonton Oilers.
In each of the past two seasons, the Kings have qualified for the playoffs only to be sent home by Edmonton, in a seven-game thriller in 2022 and in a six-match soap opera dominated by the Oilers’ power play last spring.
The Kings did not practice Friday as their showdown with Edmonton will be their third game in four nights. Like the Oilers have across the course of a season that saw a five-alarm fire and a coaching change at its outset, the Kings will have to adapt to an adverse circumstance.
Early in the year, Edmonton was jockeying around the bottom of the standings with the San Jose Sharks, whom the Kings pummeled 5-1 on Wednesday before Edmonton throttled them 5-0 on Thursday. The Oilers’ play of late, however, may have reinserted them into the contenders’ conversation with clubs like the Kings and Vegas Golden Knights, who won the Stanley Cup last year and beat the Kings 3-2 on Thursday despite the Kings putting up a season-high 95 shot attempts.
Edmonton began the year winning just two of its first dozen games, with crises mounted between the pipes, in the lower rungs of its offense and, ultimately, behind the bench, as Jay Woodcroft was left to fall upon the sword. On Nov. 13, Kris Knoblauch, who coached Oilers superstar Connor McDavid at the junior level, took the helm.
As it turned out, rumors of the Oilers’ demise were greatly exaggerated.
Since Thanksgiving in the U.S., the Oilers have compiled the NHL’s best points percentage, .786, with the New York Rangers being the only other team at .700. They’ve tied for the most points (22), wins (11) and regulation wins (10). Their 4.21 goals per game are a head above the next best mark of 3.56. They’ve given up the third-fewest goals in the NHL during this stretch. Their power-play has been hovering above 30% once more, with only the Boston Bruins performing more efficiently, while their penalty kill rate has ranked seventh.
Although McDavid and Leon Draisaitl will have some work to do to reach their perennial positions (Nos. 1 and 2) in the Art Ross Trophy race, McDavid has made up serious ground on NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov. Over that same time period, his 29 points in 14 games lead the NHL on a per-game basis. In a more overarching illustration of his prowess, Friday will be McDavid’s 600th game. His 580 career assists trail only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr for any player’s first 600 NHL games.
For the Kings’ part, they’ve continued to enjoy tremendous scoring balance and to play a dominant possession game. Looking at the same span from Thanksgiving to present, the Kings have led the NHL in shots on goal in addition to allowing the fewest shots on goal against. They’ve been in the top 10 in terms of faceoff and penalty kill percentages, helping them to the league’s second lowest goals-against average.
Where they’ve shined less is on the power play, which has struggled to recapture its uncommon form from last season and gone 0 for 13 in the past four games. Nevertheless, they have had three strong scoring lines five-on-five and an effective fourth line. The leading goal-scorer over the past two seasons, Adrian Kempe, had his first multi-goal game of the campaign Wednesday. On Thursday, Trevor Moore scored his team-leading 17th goal, giving the Kings another menacing shot in each trio to go with those of Kempe and third-liner Arthur Kaliyev.
Edmonton at Kings
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
How to watch: Bally Sports West