Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers lead their best-of-seven, first-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series against the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 after notching an incredible 8-2 win ...

Cody Ceci led the way with three, which is tied for the third most assists by an Oilers’ blueliner in a playoff game and makes him one of just four Edmonton rearguards to have three or more assists in a postseason contest. That’s the sixth fastest two goals by an Oilers player in the postseason, and fastest since Kurri did it in 71 seconds in Game 3 of the 1989 Smythe Division Semi-Final, against, who else, Los Angeles. That opportunity comes on Sunday (May 8), when the Kings host Edmonton for Game 4 of the series. All told, Edmonton has won by a margin of six or more goals just 12 times in the postseason, and two of them have come in the last four days. Kane had just recorded his first hat trick as an Oiler two weeks ago, when he scored three times in a 6-3 regular season win against the Colorado Avalanche on April 22. The closest came in the 1983 Smythe Division Final, when Edmonton beat the Calgary Flames by eight goals twice in a span of three games, but not back-to-back.

It was the first playoff game in Los Angeles in more than four years. The party didn't last long as Edmonton won 8-2.

Kopitar was a minus-four for the first time in a playoff game. For Vilardi and Kupari, it was their first playoff games in the NHL. Kupari drew in for center Quinton Byfield, who was a healthy scratch. Meanwhile, Viktor Arvidsson has yet to make an appearance in the series and information has been limited, although McLellan said on Friday morning that the injury was a lower-body issue. Athanasiou is pointless in three games and was victimized on Hyman’s second goal, which made it 4-0. It’s been 22 years since the Kings allowed eight goals in a playoff game (an 8-5 loss to Detroit in Game 2 of the first round in 2000). Before the Oilers turned it up several notches, the fourth line featuring the kids had a promising moment or two. We’ve got to come up together and we’ve got to be better.” Petersen didn’t give up a goal on the first shot he faced, but it didn’t long. 1. Sure, there have been huge momentum swings from game to game elsewhere in the playoffs. 2. The Oilers have become like a runaway train in this series. Nugent-Hopkins had been held to one assist before getting untracked in Game 3. Evander Kane had his first career playoff hat trick and third-line center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice and added an assist, and forward Zach Hyman scored twice and had an assist.

Edmonton winger Evander Kane, the NHL's postseason leader in goals during Round 1, tallied his first career Stanley Cup Playoff hat trick on Friday night in ...

"I don't think we see it as (outscoring them) 14-2," Kane said. Real credit to my family for helping me through everything," said Kane, who added that his uncle Leonard was currently in the hospital with an undisclosed ailment. "But I also think he has really good habits in his game. At the time of Kane's suspension, the NHL also was investigating allegations of domestic assault made by his estranged wife, Anna Kane, from a divorce filing, but those charges "could not be substantiated." Off the ice, his season was marred with controversy. That followed a 21-game suspension from the NHL, also for violating the League's COVID-19 policy.

Oilers 8, Kings 2 The hockey game itself was nowhere near as one-sided as the score suggested, but ultimately it is goals that decide the outcome and…

In the last minute with both RNH and Kane on the ice in search of a hat trick, they combined to score the final goal, with Nuge making a superb pass which Kane converted. Showed terrific determination on the first of those, making a couple of strong plays along the boards before taking the puck to the net and making the deposit. On his second he had a good shot from close range, then hustled to the boards to recover the rebound, fed the point and came back to the net front to deposit another rebound. Faced a barrage of rubber, including a lot of outside shots from various angles but with traffic in his face on many of them. Was, however, among the defensive culprits on both L.A. goals, beaten by a Kopitar bull rush on one and a gorgeous pass by the same player on the powerplay tally. On the wrong end of the shot clock but broke even on the big board. Solid 5v5 shot share (14-9) and especially goal share (5-1!), even as Nurse himself did most of his work on the defensive side of the puck. But had some good moments on offence, earning an assist on the one powerplay goal with a quick decision and good one-touch pass to McDavid. Also had a dangerous shot of his own on a nifty between-the-legs shot. Moved the puck north all night, mostly to the friendly sticks of Kane and McDavid. Made a great pass to Kane for one dangerous shot, and earned an assist for that pass seconds later when Kane converted the rebound of a point shot. Led all Oilers in ice time with 22:08 including a team-high 4:39 on the PK. Saw plenty of the Kings’ 3A Line of Anze Kopitar, Abdreas Athanasiou and Adrian Kempe and got the better of them, with the Oilers roughly doubling up on shot shares in that match-up. Contributed to a key defensive stop on the 4-on-4 seconds before 97 and 29 took it hard the other way for the 1-0. The Kings had plenty of try in this one, creating lots of zone time in Edmonton’s end and firing 46 shots on net to the visitors’ 37.

Last night was another dominating performance by the Edmonton Oilers. The Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings by s score of 8-2.

The Kings are the smaller team, this is an area the Oilers need to win on. I honestly don’t see how the Kings can come into the next game thinking they have a chance. - The Edmonton Oilers are still taking to many penalties. I don’t think it matter what goalie is in net thought for the Oilers. As an fan I was starting to get nervous how LA was controlling the play and scored those 2 goals. This series should end 4 games to 1 unless the Kings can figure something out.

With back-to-back wins over the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the playoffs, things look encouraging for the Edmonton Oilers.

It’s certainly a useful and valuable skill set, especially in the playoffs. To my eye, I think Ceci is also quite good at holding pucks in at the blue-line. Ceci’s offensive improvement can also be attributed to increased playing time alongside McDavid and Nurse, and I feel he’s performed fine as the “support” D alongside Nurse. While Nurse does more of the heavier offensive and transitional lifting, Ceci excels at staying back deep, and performing as a supporting defenceman for both Nurse and the forwards in terms of breakouts. In last night’s beating in Los Angeles, Ceci posted an 83% goal differential (+4 overall), a 67% expected goal differential, and even finished with three assists. Ceci has been able to hold his own without McDavid as well, with a 50.1 xGF%. Furthermore, Ceci has also taken a considerable amount of shift starts in the defensive zone. Ceci doesn’t always hold or deny the blue line, with his Zone Denial% merely ranking in the 39th percentile. In simpler terms, he performing an exceptional job at preventing scoring chances and shot quality against after shift starts in the defensive zone. It’s why Ceci has been a solid defensive fit with Nurse; Nurse’s primary issue at this stage of his career remains his in-zone defending capabilities, as I wrote in-depth several weeks back. The vast improvement in Ceci’s metrics is impressive after considering that he’s played a significantly more demanding role ever since Tippett’s firing. It’s been a complete effort for Edmonton in general, and there’s a large list of players to give credit to. “They’re really buying into the system, and they’ve been on us to stay up, gap up more, and trust our forwards to track back, and I think we’ve done a much better job at that.”

LOS ANGELES -- There may be nothing more encouraging to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference First Round against the Los Angeles Kings than their ...

And I think we're doing a good job of that." "I don't really think we look at it as 14-2," he said. They kind of pushed back today (when Edmonton took a 5-0 lead) and I thought we responded well." Again, it takes all and I thought we got contributions up and down the lineup." "I think coming into the playoffs, you're excited," Kane said after his first career playoff hat trick. "Up and down the lineup.

The Edmonton Oilers have looked good so far in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Can they turn these solid games in a long run?

He’s played well, facing a barrage of shots from a shoot-happy Kings team and he’s given the Oilers steady netminding. This year, it seems like the officials are calling penalties, even some that aren’t and that’s good for a team like the Oilers who can win games when given time to work their magic. The Kings are a big team and they’ve been taking cheap shots at the Oilers all series. This is huge if it continues as it means the top guys are rested, the opposition is tired and often physically abused and at any time, the depth can pot a goal. When two lines are effective, the bottom lines merely need to keep the momentum going or give the top two lines a chance to rest. Your stars need to be your stars and the Oilers’ big guns have shown up to play.

If you want to go deep into the playoffs, you don't want to be playing more than maybe one seven-game series.

• Connor McDavid — Could No. 97 go from being the greatest player in the world to being the greatest player in the Stanley Cup playoffs? • Leon Draisaitl — No. 29 also had 11 goals in 21 playoff games but had 27 points. • Kailer Yamamoto — The five-foot-eight enjoyed his first 20-goal season but in his eight post-season games had zero goals and one assist. • Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — The Nuge had three goals and 11 assists in 21 games and was a minus seven. Three games into the playoffs as an Oiler, Kane leads all NHL playoff performers with five goals including a hat trick Friday in a game in which he had nine shots and eight hits and is tied with McDavid and Mitch Marner with six points at the top of the playoff scoring list. There’s nobody to finger for failure. Hyman has done everything asked of him and scored two goals Friday and has three points. And they did that again in following up in Game 3 Friday in Los Angeles with 12,648 fans back in Edmonton to win 8-2. The 2017 Oilers didn’t have what they needed to go deep. And it turned out that they weren’t really ready for it. Article content Article content

After a shaky game one, the team has bounced back nicely in games two and three, but Jay Woodcroft and the players know there's lots of work to be done. “Each ...

We’re talking about moving pawns here, but the truth of the matter is sometimes the right adjustments can be a big difference maker. The Oilers have utilized him sparingly on the penalty kill, and he can be replaced there. First off, I would look to move Ryan McLeod to the Oilers’ third line alongside Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Derek Ryan, and bump Josh Archibald to the press box. He’s using his speed and smarts to get to the right areas, and has shown some offensive jump. So where are the areas of concern for the Oilers? Let’s break down the Oilers’ lines as they have been deployed at 5×5 in games two and three, while adjusting for score and venue. Again, what this all comes back to is if you’re not trying to make your team better at all times, you’re not doing the right things. I worry that the Oilers’ bottom-six could get exposed. The Oilers’ top two lines aren’t of concern. “The score of the game doesn’t matter if it’s a 2-1 triple overtime game, or if it’s a little bit more lopsided, that doesn’t matter. “We have to make sure that we’re doing the necessary things to see how we played clearly. There are lots to like about the Oilers’ game, no doubt. On top of that, they’re dominating in the high-danger areas.

Edmonton Oilers fans couldn't get enough of Friday's big 8-2 win over the Kings, especially those who watched the game in Los Angeles.

“I am at the happiest place on hearth after a huge 8-2 Oilers win… “They appreciated that we made the trip all the way from Edmonton… but they were like, ‘man you’ve got a great team, you got the best player in the world and we’re probably not going to beat you, and if we don’t, we’d rather see you win than Calgary,'” Sheetz said. “The beauty is you walk down the streets and you see someone with an Oilers hat on or with a hoodie or whatever in the mornings and you’re immediately best friends because we’re all travelling down as a giant family,” Downton said.

An unanticipated problem was encountered, check back soon and try again ... Edmonton Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft speaks about what Zach Hyman and Evander Kane ...

“As a player, you know your abilities and you want to push them to the limit,” he said. “And the playoffs are the time to do it. You want to be in a place that cares and you want to be in a place where when you win, it matters, it means something. The lows may be lower and the highs may be higher, but as a player you want to be in a market that truly cares.” Maybe it hasn’t shown statistically, but I just want to continue to help the team win and keep moving forward.” . . it was a 50/50 puck battle and he was just, in my opinion, more determined to win that puck. The regular season is almost like a trial for the playoffs, and that’s when the real hockey starts. Kane had a hat trick on Friday and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the talented by distant third centre behind McDavid and Draisaitl, scored twice. The 29-year-old hadn’t scored more than one in any of his five attempts with the Leafs in the Stanley Cup tournament, which is surprising because the ox-strong Hyman seems built for the playoffs. A guy who spent six seasons under the broiler in Toronto, getting roasted for the Maple Leafs’ traditional first-round playoff exits, might want to go somewhere cooler and safer to play. . . in the first round, I think the parallels are there for those. “There’s a tonne of parallels,” Hyman said Saturday of leaving Toronto for Edmonton. “First and foremost, we’re both in a Canadian market, two Canadian teams, and with the Stanley Cup not being in Canada for a long time, I think any Canadian team that makes playoffs has that extra pressure from the market.

Rob Kinsey and his wife were among the Oilers fans who made the weekend trip from Alberta to Southern California for the Game 3 win.

Article content Article content “They were everywhere.” Article content Article content

A man who spends six seasons under a Toronto broiler and is roasted at the Maple Leafs' traditional first round playoff exit may want to play somewhere cool and ...

The Kings should be the total entry for the parts of this first round series, while the Oilers 6-0 and 8-2 to take 2 with a deep contribution and balanced ice time. One lead in the Best of Seven and looks like a much better “team”. “You like playing with guys, you like being around them, you want to win. And you want to be a successful player in those games. It may not be shown statistically, but I want to continue to support the team’s victory and keep moving forward. “I always felt like I had promoted my game in the past. “I think every player wants to improve their game in the playoffs,” Heyman said. Lows can be low and highs can be high, but as a player, you want to be a market that you really care about. The 210-pound winger aims to win pack battles and pack protection, control play along the board, and fight traffic to reach the forefront of the net. “I’m thinking of his goal last night … It’s a 50/50 pack battle and in my opinion he was more determined to win that pack. You want to be a caring place, and that’s important when you win. “There are many similarities,” Heyman said, leaving Toronto for Edmonton on Saturday. “First and foremost, we are both in the Canadian market and we have two Canadian teams.