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Kings 4, Oilers 7

It was a game of big numbers at Rogers Place that featured 82 shots, 72 faceoffs, 112 hits and 11 goals.  Connor McDavid scored 5 points, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard 4 each. Adam Henrique scored his first playoff point in 12 years. And the Edmonton Oilers won the opening game of a playoff series on their home ice for the first time in 12,409 days.

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But win it they did, cruising to a 7-4 win over Los Angeles Kings to establish a 1-0 series lead in the 2024 edition of the seemingly annual opening round series between the two.

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It wasn’t always pretty, but several of the goals sure were. The Oilers held the advantage in play, outshooting the Kings 45-37 with an 18-10 advantage in Grade A Shots as recorded by the Cult of Hockey (running count). 8 of those Grade A shots came on a red-hot powerplay that produced 3 goals in a combined time of 4:50.

Player grades

#2 Evan Bouchard, 7. Moved the puck well for the most part and had 4 secondary assists to show for it, not to mention a tertiary that doesn’t show up on the scoresheet. But was among the defensive culprits on both LA goals that cut a 4-0 lead in half before the end of the second period. Way more good than bad on the night. Contributions to Grade A Shots (GAS): Even Strength +3/-2, Special Teams +1/-0.

#5 Cody Ceci, 6. Played a rock solid defensive game, landing 5 hits and winning the lion’s share of battles. Victimized on a couple of unlucky goals against in garbage time, and in the spotlight himself on 1 of them when his stick exploded making a routine D-to-D pass after a won neutral zone faceoff. His 19:00 at even strength led the team. GAS: ES +2/-3; ST +1/-0. 

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#13 Mattias Janmark, 5. Classic Janmark game in which not a whole lot happened during his 10 minutes of action, pro or con. Tagged with an undeserved -1 on the Ceci-stick-explodes goal. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.

#14 Mattias Ekholm, 6. Solid with a couple of shaky moments. Made a couple of lunging stops on the same dangerous sequence. His neutral zone turnover led to a Viktor Arvidsson breakaway early in the second, then he was unable to contain Adrian Kempe on the 4-2. Delivered a great stretch pass to Hyman for a breakaway chance. Led the D with 2:00 on the penalty kill. GAS: ES +4/-2; ST 0.

#18 Zach Hyman, 9. All over it from the get-go, driving hard to the net time and again. Scored a goal in each period by materializing in a dangerous spot and converting a McDavid pass from close range. Added a primary assist on Henrique’s goal. Took a goalie interference for another net drive gone wrong. Later drew a call the other way. Hit a post in a scramble. Robbed by Talbot’s best save of the game on a breakaway. Took a knock on the continuation of that play and was in pain, but returned for another shift and appeared to be OK. May have set a record for most hats on the ice for a hat trick. 9 shots on net to lead both teams. Also added 5 hits and was a central figure in the battle all night long. GAS: ES +7/-1; ST+3/-0. 

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#19 Adam Henrique, 7. His first playoff game in 6 years and his first playoff win in 12. Won a battle leading to the first Oilers goal, scored the second himself with a strong wrist shot from range, then earned an assist on the third. Made a great aerial deflection of Ceci’s outside shot. Took a penalty. Among those beaten on the first Kings goal. GAS: ES +4/-1; ST +1/-1.

#25 Darnell Nurse, 6. Played a solid 2-way game with 7 shot attempts, 2 blocks, and 6 hits. Won a lot of battles along the way. Pasted Kempe in the early going with a booming open-ice hit. Safe and sound behind his own blueline until the very late going, when a cross-ice pass caught his skate and found the net to make it 6-3. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.

#27 Brett Kulak, 5. Low event game including no goals at either end of the sheet during his 16 minutes. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.

#29 Leon Draisaitl, 8. Nearly wrecked himself on his opening shift when he took a run at a King and missed, but thankfully survived. Did his best work on the powerplay, setting up an RNH tally with a brilliant pass and scoring the winning goal himself with a brilliant shot. Also made a superb pass to RNH on an even-strength 2-on-1 that wasn’t converted. Strong defensively. Drew a penalty. Rock solid on the faceoff dot at 15/24=63%. 3 shots at one end, 2 blocks (!) at the other. GAS: ES =0/-0; ST +5/-0.

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#37 Warren Foegele, 6. Mashed Drew Doughty with an excellent hit in the very early going. Played a simple, solid game. Scored the empty netter that finalized the score line, after first stealing the puck in the neutral zone.

#39 Sam Carrick, 5. Played his first career playoff game at age 32 and got the job done. His line with Holloway and Janmark lost the possession battle but held their own on the scoresheet until the late fluke. He did get tagged with a -1 on the 4-2, but his “mistake” there was to do the job hjje was sent out to do and win a d-zone faceoff. 1 shot, 2 blocks, 4 hits, and 10/18=56% on the dot. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.

#55 Dylan Holloway, 5. Held his own in his second career playoff game. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.

#71 Ryan McLeod, 6. Played a fine defensive game between the vets Kane and Perry. 2 takeaways, 2 blocked shots. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.

#73 Vincent Desharnais, 6. Rock of Gibraltar on the blue, with 6 hits and 5 shot blocks. On the receiving end of a nasty low-bridge hit by Trevor Moore that left him in obvious pain as the second period wound down, but returned in the third to finish the job. Best of all, the Oil scored the game winner on the resultant powerplay. GAS: +0/-1; ST 0.

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#74 Stu Skinner, 6. Very good in the first half of the game. Contributed the TSN Turning Point when he got a tiny piece of his pad on Viktor Arvidsson’s breakaway shot, with the Oilers subsequently scoring on the continuation. The game that could have been 2-1, was instead 3-0. The back half of the game went less well with 4 official GA and a fifth which was gloved in and correctly called back after a couple of nervous minutes. Struggled a bit with rebound control. 37 shots, 33 saves, .892 save percentage.

#90 Corey Perry, 5. Put the puck in good places, including on Kane’s stick for a couple of great chances in tight. 3 hits, 2 takeaways. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.

#91 Evander Kane, 6. Was visible throughout, mostly in good ways. Fired 6 shots on net including a couple of powerful wristers. nearly squeezing one through Talbot. Did have a couple of issues suppressing outside shots from the point. Led EDM forwards with 15:45 TOI at even strength. GAS: ES +3/-1.

#93 Ryan Nugent Hopkins, 6. Set up perfectly by Draisaitl for what apepared to be a wide open net, but the puck rolled off his stick. Made up for it a few minutes later with a strong goal mouth finish of another sweet Draisaitl feed. 4 shots, 2 blocks, 2 hits, 1 takeaway, and a team-high 2:04 on the 2-for-2 penalty kill. GAS: ES +0/-0; ST +1/-0.

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#97 Connor McDavid, 9. Became just the 15th player in NHL history with 5 (or more) assists in a playoff game, joining dynasty Oilers Wayne Gretzky (2x), Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson  and 10 others from other teams. 4 of them were primary assists, including all 3 of Hyman’s tallies. Twice McDavid beat defenders with brilliant spin moves before dishing. Threaded a bullet pass through Matt Roy’s skates for Hyman’s hat trick goal. 3 shots, 3 hits, and uncounted passes. GAS: ES +3/-0; ST +6/-0. 

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In his 52nd NHL playoff game, the same amount that vaulted Doug Gilmour to the Maple Leafs’ franchise lead with 77 playoff points, it was high time for Auston Matthews to step up this spring.

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Toronto’s season likely would be toast if it came home trailing 2-0 to playoff nemesis Boston, with faith already shaken outside the room after a Game 1 clunker. Matthews, highest paid of the Core Four forwards at $13.25 million US a season, needed to have a huge presence in a Game 2 that looked at times as it, too, would be fumbled away.

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He embraced his inner Killer and like Gilmour, had significant shifts throughout the 200-foot stage, capped by the 3-2 winner on a full steam breakaway. Matthews’ three-point night tied a career single-game high and though still trailing Gilmour 77-47 in post-season production, Matthews earned himself and his club and extended runway in this series, tied 1-1 heading home.

“Auston’s all over the stat sheet tonight,” head coach Sheldon Keefe praised to media in Boston. “A goal, two assists, but to me it’s the way he worked — hard, physical, winning puck battles all over the ice.”

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Game 3 is Wednesday in Toronto, where the Leafs could get William Nylander back and now have a very confident Ilya Samsonov in net after Boston chose to take Leaf nemesis Jereny Swayman out Monday for Linus Ullmark.

In the teeth of the Bruins’ TD Garden den, Matthews played a team-high 23 minutes and 24 seconds, had eight shots on Ullmark and delivered six hits. After labouring in vain to reach his 70th goal in the last three regular season games, he finally nailed it in style, one-handing a long aerial bomb from Max Domi at the Boston line away from the flailing stick of Charlie McAvoy, settling the disc and deking Ullmark.

“It’s all about just trying to get to the net,” Matthews said. “It’s a battle at the net fronts out there, and I guess on the goal, just a flip out of the zone and just try to anticipate and time it well.”

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With less than eight minutes to go, it was Toronto’s first lead on Boston in six games all season. Matthews then helped kill the final seconds with Ullmark on the bench, after Tyler Bertuzzi served a potentially devasting penalty.

“There is just a lot of belief and trust in that room in one another,” captain John Tavares told Sportsnet. “A lot of guys have been in different situations over the years. We just continued to stay with it and got rewarded.

“Good for the power play to come through (1-for-16 against Boston this season coming in) and anytime you give No, 34 a look like that, he’s obviously a special player who made a good play.

“The way the guys were blocking shots, closing time and space, Sammy being big and seeing pucks and guys battling hard for him, it was a hard-fought win.’

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The Leafs had lost the previous eight to Boston going back to last year and in their previous eight playoff game versus Tampa, Florida and Boston, had not scored more than two.

GAME ON

At times Keefe flipped Domi and Mitch Marner on Matthews’ right side to put Marner with his long-time centre. It’s just as important to give Marner some jump, too, especially with William Nylander missing a second game with an undisclosed injury … Tavares’s goal when Matthews found him alone in the slot was preceded by two power play video reviews that went against the Leafs, which Keefe cited in saying he “loved the resolve” of the Leafs. Calle Jarnkrok’s shot that Ullmark gloved was inconclusively not over the goal line, and a Bertuzzi’s mid-air bat looked low enough until the cameras zoomed in … As in Game 1, a good Leaf start came undone trying to show Boston they wouldn’t be intimidated on Causeway Street. Jake McCabe cross-checked Jakub Lauko after a whistle and Boston capitalized, Jake DeBrusk adding to his productive Game 1 setting up Morgan Geekie after David Kampf and Timothy Liljegren got confused on who should make an easy clear.

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Kudos to the Leafs for coming right back 14 seconds later, Matthews corralling a high puck, firing it off of the crossbar, with Domi following up, which made Max and Tie Domi the first Leaf father and son with Toronto playoff goals … The fourth line of Ryan Reaves, Kampf and Connor Dewar once more out-played Boston’s group, though the Leafs cratered in the last 20 seconds of the first period. Samsonov whiffed on a hand-off to Liljegren, giving Charlie Coyle an extra shot that broke Samsonov’s mask. In the time it took the goalie to get his broken strap fixed, Boston had time to double check a faceoff drill, Pavel Zacha winning it, defenceman Simon Benoit unable to tie up David Pastrnak, who then eluded Marner for his first of the series … Starting Ullmark left Boston cosch Jim Montgomery open to criticism, messing with Jeremy Swayman’s 4-0 record against the Leafs this season with only three goals against the past three in regular season and playoffs. But Montgomery was not going to break up what has been an effective rotation.

Lhornby@postmedia.com 

X: @sunhornby

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