You have nothing to know about hockey to know Kiss find it difficult to return to Edmonton for match 5 of their eliminatory series of the West Conference in the first round with the Oilers.
The simple fact of being able to count is sufficient knowledge.
After Loss 1-0 of Sunday In Crypto.com Arena, The Kings Trail The Best Of-Seven 3-1 series. It makes the game on Wednesday a must for the Kings. That's all that comes after that.
“Yes, our backs are against the wall,” said the Phillip Danault center. “Nothing to lose. One match at a time. The pressure is on them. Give everything you have.”
A painful smile hit his face.
“All clichés,” he said.
It does not seem just that after a regular season which started and finished in a record way, the Kings find themselves a defeat to withdraw from the playoffs with a groan, not a blow.
The Kings won their first 11 games on the road to the season under the coach Todd McLellanBreaking the NHL record. Then, after the dismissal of McLellan and the assistant Jim Hiller was promoted to take their place in February, the team won eight in a row at home at the end of the season, corresponding to the longest sequence of the team's home victories in 32 years.
However, now, after consecutive losses at home, the Kings are a loss of road away from a long off -season.
It was not supposed to end in this way, of course. Two years ago, in the first round of the playoffs, the Oilers eliminated the kings in seven games. Last year, They did it in six. Now it could happen in five.
After having an average of almost 3 home goals during the regular season, the Kings scored once at the crypt in two playoffs. The team does not progress, it regresses. But he was a hole that he dug.
It is Kill penalties valued onceSecond in the league during the regular season, was burnt down in this series, the oilers marking eight times in 15 opportunities for men, the latest in the second period on Sunday to decide the match 4. The power game of the Kings, on the other hand, was helpless, going 0 for 11, the last puff arriving in the third period of Sunday when they are not even due to a shot.
The oilers have scored 18 times in four games and their three tall people from Zach Hyman, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid combined for 10 goals and 15 assists. However, kings are not yet dead (vital signs, however, are really weak).
But as Danault, who has apparently never heard a shot that he will not repeat it, knows, the series is not over until it is finished.
In 2021, when he was in Montreal, the Canadians lost three of their first four games in a first round series with Toronto, only to rally with a pair of extension victories that helped them win the series. This team arrived at the Stanley Cup final.
“So we have to believe. And that must be there,” said Danault.
If the Kings need encouragement – and clearly they do it – they could have received it in the loss of Sunday, because if the result was not what they wanted, the performance was. The Kings surpassed the Oilers 33-13; Overputs them, Outhit and was launched; And managed to stay outside the penalty box for most of the night.
They also launched the dice by replacing goalkeeper Cam Talbot with the backup David Rittich, who had a test of playoffs, after abandoning eight goals in 32 minutes. Rittich was almost perfect on Sunday, becoming only the fourth goalkeeper to hold the oilers in Hautocyte to a goal or less in 39 games – a Rittich sequence started when He closed Edmonton In early February.
It was a model for a victory even if it ended with a loss.
“This is the kind of game you have to reproduce,” said Danault. “This is the only way to win against Edmonton at the moment. We have to play exactly the same way and it will give us a great chance.”
Addition of Hiller: “The preparation, the effort is right there. So, to summon this again. It is not as if we were to go. It is right. So, it should not be so difficult.”
Trevor Moore said it was now a leader's follow -up game.
“The leadership in this room (of locker) is unparalleled,” he said. “It's just the game per game. It's awake, go train and, you know, keep improving.”
But these leaders must also appear on the ice – Moore included. He led the team with 31 goals and collected 26 assists during the regular season, but he has only one goal in the playoffs. And while the captain Anze Kopitar has one goal and two assists in the series, the three points came in the same match. Then, there is Pierre Luc-Dubois, that the Kings acquired last summer, then signed with an eight-year contract and $ 68 million. He has only one goal in the series, did not take any shooting in 35 teams combined in the two games at home and has only one blow in the last three combined games.
“The message simply stayed with her. Stay with our game and play in the same way and we will be rewarded,” said Danault. “Normally, we do it. So we have to continue playing the same way and we will be rewarded the next game, I suppose.”
If they don't, anyone can count for four will be able to count kings.
“Our backs are against the wall,” said Danault. “So nothing to lose.”
