By Canadian Press

Kings looking to start games stronger against Oilers: ‘We can do better’

Apr 20, 2023 | 12:50 AM

EDMONTON — If you told an Oilers fan before the first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings that Edmonton would take 2-0 leads in both Games 1 and 2 without trailing in regulation, they’d have been ecstatic.

They’d be thinking the Oilers were well on their way toward a sweep.

Yet, somehow, some way, even though the Kings haven’t come close to putting in complete efforts in either of the first two games, the series is tied.

“Both games, I thought we controlled the bulk of the play,” said Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft after a 4-2 Edmonton win in Game 2 on Wednesday. “In both games, we had a couple of minutes we’d like to have back.”

The Kings have to be happy with the split. But in the “glass half empty” side of things, they know the luck can’t hold out over the course of a long series. They can’t continue to get away with lacklustre efforts.

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The Kings have been outplayed for significant stretches of both games, and have been awful in first periods. On Wednesday, they managed just three shots on goal in the opening frame.

“The first 20 (minutes), not good. The next 40 was pretty good,” said Philip Danault, who scored Wednesday. “Actually, we played pretty good hockey and it seemed like the play was more slowed down. It was a good overall 40 minutes, but we’ve got to play 60.”

The Kings were able to come back from two-goal deficits in each of the first two games at Rogers Place. They won the first in overtime and lost the second thanks to a third-period game-winner from Edmonton’s Klim Kostin. But, for Kings coach Todd McLellan, it would be nice for his team to be competitive right from the get-go.

“The frustrating thing for me is that there were things that we needed to do early, and we didn’t decide to do them until the second (period),” he said. “It was very similar to Game 1.”

The main reason the Kings are even with the Oilers? The play of netminder Joonas Korpisalo, who was acquired near the trade deadline from Columbus.

In 2020, he posted a .956 save percentage and recorded two shutouts as the Blue Jackets stunned the Toronto Maple Leafs in the qualifying round of the bubble playoffs. His numbers aren’t as otherworldly in this series, but he stopped 37 of 40 shots in Game 1 — and 33 of 36 in Game 2. And, he’s doing it against the team that scored the most goals in the NHL this season.

“We came out flat in the first period, but we made a game of it,” said Gabriel Vilardi, who also scored Wednesday. “Obviously, Korpi was a big factor in that. But we’ve got to put together a solid 60 minutes. We haven’t played great for the majority of the game.”

The focus for the Kings is to be good right from Game 3’s opening faceoff. They can’t afford to fall behind 2-0 again. They can’t just hope for their netminder to hold them in the game.

“We need a better start, but the character was there,” said Danault. “We came back again. We proved we can do that. Now, we have to go the other way.

“We can do better than that. We can take the lead, maybe. We don’t always have to catch somebody.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2023.

Steven Sandor, The Canadian Press