Edmonton, Canada – Stop me if you've heard that, but summer starts early for the Kiss After A defeat in playoffs in the first round against Edmonton's Oilers.
This is a little different, however, because it was a season that inspired a rare promise before it ends Thursday in the same painful monotony as the last three, the current oilers and the Kings return home.
And it is particularly disappointing since Kings equaled franchise records for victories (48) and points (105) and set one for home victories (31) this season. However, it ended with the team that broke another record: he has now taken 11 seasons without winning an eliminatory series, the longest drought in the history of the team.
A playoff series in which the Kings seemed to be ready in the long term lasted only six games, the last A defeat of 6-4 against the Oilers in Rogers Place This lets the organization again walk in the off -season in the grip of doubt, frustration and a big question.
Edmonton's Oilers Adam Henrique and Trent Frederic celebrate after having marked in the first period against the Kings in match 6 of their eliminatory series in Rogers place on Thursday.
(Andy Devlin / NHLI via Getty Images)
What happened?
“Having the season we had, the group of guys in this locker room, and knowing, so that it is not afraid?” It's frustrating. This one is a little worse. “
It's been a little worse because the Kings lost more than a match and a series on Thursday. They lost a gold opportunity. Rarely set up the playoffs so favorably for the team.
After having acquired Andrei Kuzmenko on the deadline for trade, the Kings have made a tear, winning 17 of their last 22 games, with an average of 3.7 goals per match. The power game formerly Punchless has become powerful; The goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper won 15 games granting two or less goals, the second longer sequence in the NHL expansion era; And the team sprouts in front of the oilers to place second in the Pacific division, its best finish in nine seasons.
No team finished the hotter or healthier season than the kings.
This also meant that the Kings, who had the best home record of the NHL in the regular season, would have the advantage of ice ice for the first round of the playoffs. And if they finally exceeded a team of Edmonton who drink in the injured in the playoffs, they would have faced Las Vegas in the second round and a team of a quartet of Winnipeg, Dallas, Colorado or Saint-Louis during the final of the Western Conference.
The Kings were an 8-4-1 combined against these teams in the regular season. It was not weird to think that the Kings had a gunshot in the Stanley Cup final.
“Everything is going as planned,” whispered a team director at the start of the playoffs. And then this was not the case, the kings stumbling again on a familiar obstacle.
“A hundred percent, this is a missed opportunity,” said Kings coach Jim Hiller. “We had an excellent buy-in of our players. We think we could have won the series. We think we should have won the series. We didn't do it.
“So that's the essential.”
The oilers have proven to be kryptonite even for the most superman teams of the Kings, with Edmonton the place where kings posts will die.
Protective facts of the 6-4 victory of Edmonton's Oilers on the Kings in match 6.
The teams met in the playoffs 11 times since 1982 with the oilers winning nine of these series, including the last four games. The last time the Kings defeated Edmonton in the playoffs in 1989, Wayne Gretzky led the team in points, the current director general Luc Robitaille was in his third season as a player while Kopitar, the only player of the team of this year who was even alive at the time, was still in diapres.
The loss of this year can be the most painful in the lot.
The Kings had the advantage of home ice, one of the three main guards of the League in Darcy Kuemper and the first play of power in the playoffs. They led every game.
However, they have always lost in six.
The turning point of the series arrived late in match 3. After dominating the first two home games, the Kings led the first match to Edmonton with about seven minutes to play when the disaster struck. After Evander Kane des Oilers equaled the match on a controversial goal, Hiller challenged the call, affirming the interference of the goalkeeper. He lost, Edmonton received a power game and 10 seconds later, the oilers went ahead.
In match 4, the Kings led with less than 35 seconds to play when Quinton Byfield failed to establish a simple release of the Kings area. The oilers jumped on the error of linking the match, then won it in overtime. They have never lost again.
“You can identify match 3, we did not end,” said Kopitar. “Certainly the match 4. It is a completely different series if we return home 3-1 against 2-2. But should, should, should have.”
The Kings were simply raised, especially on the blue line. This is why they abandoned the 15 goals in playoffs in the third period and extension of the series. Oilers have only marked 12 times during the first and second combined periods.
However, during his post-match press conference if he regretted how he had used his defenders, Hiller was Curt.
“No,” he said.
And with that, he moved away from the podium for the last time this season.
Fans of Edmonton's Oilers celebrate the victory of the eliminatory series of their team over the Kings Thursday in Rogers place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
(Andy Devlin / NHLI via Getty Images)
Then there is the offense. Kopitar and Adrian Kempe combined for 19 points in the series, but had only one goal and two assists after Kane's goal in match 3.
“The chances were there. We just couldn't convert,” Kopitar said. “Credit to their goalkeeper, he made good stops. Credit to their team. The last two games, they played a solid verification game and made more difficult to generate things.
“We fought and failed.”
It starts to seem redundant.
