LOS ANGELES — This was a test, and the Edmonton Oilers didn’t just fail it. They were exposed.
In the first game of the second half of their schedule, against a Kings team the Oilers would dearly like to reel in in the Pacific Division standings, Edmonton was soft, undisciplined and gave up four power-play goals in a 6-3 loss.
In a game that was ruptured by whistle-happy referee Furman South, and to a far lesser extent Marc Joannette, the Kings won every battle on special teams, outclassing the best power play in the NHL while punishing one of the worst penalty kills on the circuit (ranked 27th).
LOS ANGELES — This was a test, and the Edmonton Oilers didn’t just fail it. They were exposed.
In the first game of the second half of their schedule, against a Kings team the Oilers would dearly like to reel in in the Pacific Division standings, Edmonton was soft, undisciplined and gave up four power-play goals in a 6-3 loss.
In a game that was ruptured by whistle-happy referee Furman South, and to a far lesser extent Marc Joannette, the Kings won every battle on special teams, outclassing the best power play in the NHL while punishing one of the worst penalty kills on the circuit (ranked 27th).
‘Tonight we got touched up’: Oilers’ Woodcroft on execution from special teams
“The refs got involved. There was a lot of calls both ways,” said Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft. “Our penalty kill could have been a lot sharper and we ended up on the wrong side of the special-teams battle. I thought that was the difference in the game.”
On a night when the Kings hosted a clinic in McDavid Management (one goal, no assists), and the power play was ineffective (0-for-6), well, there were no more bullets at Woodcroft’s disposal. Because he simply does not have a team that can check its way to a win or penalty kill itself out of trouble.
The Kings scored four times on seven opportunities.
“It’s a game we want back on the PK,” admitted Oilers’ Derek Ryan. “I liked our five-on-five game … had some good looks, good zone time. But the penalty kill couldn’t get it done.”
Kings’ Fiala targets top corner from sharp angle for his second goal in first period
It was a rare night when the Oilers’ power play ran cold. The best unit in the league (31 per cent) usually feasts on nights like this one. Not this time.
“That’s gonna happen some nights,” Woodcroft said. “Our power play has operated at the level it has this season. How about the penalty kill step up and take care of the other team’s power play? If that would have happened, we wouldn’t be talking about our lack of production.”
Let’s face it: Edmonton is a power-play-reliant team that really has no other way to win a game that Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl or the power play doesn’t win for them.
This is a team that has just two ways to turn the momentum in a hockey game: A goal and a power-play goal.
They don’t have a fighter, they don’t have energy players and they don’t have hitters — even though three unlikely suspects named Zach Hyman, Jesse Puljujarvi and Klim Kostin bravely jumped into the fray Monday.
Oilers’ Kostin and Kings’ Lemieux drop gloves after empty net goal
If this team doesn’t score — and we’re talking mostly about four or five guys here — they can’t change the direction of a hockey game. Even though the aforementioned, unlikely trio tried their best on Monday.
With the score 4-1 for the Kings, Puljujarvi stepped into Viktor Arvidsson with a hard hit, and then stood in against Phillip Danault when the Kings centre came to his winger’s defence.
Kings’ Danault steps up to Puljujarvi after delivering a huge hit on Arvidsson
Hyman flattened big Quinton Byfield with a lovely hit and then scrapped Sean Durzi later on. And Kostin danced with Brendan Lemieux at the end of a long-gone game.
“Our team showed fight and our team showed fire in a game where things didn’t go all our way,” Woodcroft said. “I think that’s a positive sign. We had some good hits on some of their skill players, in a legal fashion. On the physicality side of things, we were right there.”
Someone had to do it, and here we are, with a Finnish skill guy and a young Russian newcomer leading the Oilers in fights this season, with two each. Meanwhile, there are a host of former Western and Ontario League players who are simply not physically engaged enough on a team that would do well to get its hands dirty more often.
“It shows that they want to win. That they want to go to war for all the guys in the locker room,” Kailer Yamamoto said of the players who were on Monday’s fight card.
You wouldn’t have predicted that Kostin and Puljujarvi would be leading this team in fighting majors one game into the season’s second half. Nor would you say that’s a good thing.
“That’s the way the game is going,” Yamamoto said. “It’s getting faster, but I think we need a little more grit from our team.”
This team isn’t hard enough, isn’t tough enough, and its third and fourth lines have so little definition they are really just lesser versions of the top lines.
You can be sure of this: There isn’t an opponent in the NHL that fears playing against the third or fourth lines of the Oilers.
No McDavid? No Draisaitl? No problem for the opposition as far as line matching goes.
Shut down McDavid, shut down Draisaitl (no points), and shut down the power play.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
