April 26th, 2025
JC Clemas
Los Angeles and Edmonton shipped off to Oil Country for game 3 of their first-round matchup Friday night. LA came into the game with a 2-0 series lead and looked to extend that to 3-0, which we all know is still not exactly safe when it comes to Edmonton. Despite their history in those holes, the Oilers still desperately needed a win here to shift the series’ momentum back in their favour. Will the goalies make saves? Will we go 5 minutes without a penalty? Will Oilers fans stop blaming the referees for everything? Spoiler alert: the answer is no to all of those questions.
Period 1
The Oilers rode the momentum home-ice advantage immediately.
As expected, Connor McDavid was sent out to face the Kings’ top line instead of getting locked down by Phil Danault. It worked. The puck was sent deep into the Kings’ zone, where the aforementioned McDavid collected it behind the net. He sent the puck over to Zach Hyman. Hyman made a quick spin and sent the puck beautifully into the slot for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who made no mistake. 1-0 Oilers, less than 3 minutes into the game. The exact start they needed.
Where would this series be without a power play?
The sad part about this penalty is that it was taken by Andrei Kuzmenko. An interference call put him in the box for 2 minutes. That’s a lie. It put him in the box for 3 seconds. The draw was won by Draisaitl, who then ran some subtle interference against Kopitar that went unnoticed by the refs. See, I like when they don’t call penalties, but this one would’ve gotten the game back to even-strength. Anyway, the puck went back to Bouchard, who ripped a patented “Bouch Bomb” into the back of the net. He’s really good in the offensive zone.
The Kings would not end the 1st quietly. Let it be known, Adrian Kempe is an absolute animal. The game went to 4-on-4 after some mutual slashing from Joel Edmundson and Leon Draisaitl. There’s not much to say about the goal. Kempe got the puck on Pickard’s left and just absolutely sniped it over the goalie’s glove. That was his 4th goal and 8th point in the first 7 periods of this series. Unreal.
Period 2
Are we ever going to get a scoreless period in this series? I hope not. The goal-scoring theme continued into the 2nd period.
LA received a power play after Evander Kane once again made his presence felt in this series (this time a high-sticking call). Late in the power play, the Kings entered the zone with Kempe swinging the puck to Fiala on Pickard’s left. Kempe cleared the lane, allowing Fiala to skate forward before letting go of an eerily similar shot to the one that gave the Kings their first goal. Right over the glove of Pickard, and we’re back where we started: at a tie game. 9 points in the series for Kempe. I don’t think he wants to be eliminated by Edmonton again.
With just under 7 minutes to go in the middle frame, the Kings went to the man-advantage again. We seriously need to get a handle on these penalties, guys. The Oilers’ penalty kill was actually looking quite good against the 1st unit. They didn’t allow any good looks, held the puck behind their net a couple times, and even got two different scoring chances where Kuemper had to be sharp. But the way you play the first 90 seconds of a penalty doesn’t really matter if you give up a goal in the last 30. Sure enough, the 2nd unit came on, set up, and Drew Doughty fired a quick wrister from the point. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but it beat Pickard over the glove. Maybe he should work on that.
After squandering their 2 goal lead and going down 3-2, the Oilers weren’t going to take these goals sitting down. Just two minutes later, their 3rd line was sent out. Henrique went hard on the forecheck, which freed up the puck for Evander Kane. Kane went for a skate around the net before catching the Kings off guard with a quick backhand centering pass. The pass banked perfectly off Connor Brown’s skate and in. We can pretend that was calculated. They all count the same. We’re tied!
Yeah, that lasted 9 seconds. Off the ensuing centre-ice faceoff, Joel Edmundson fired one to the far point where Trevor Moore was waiting. He collected the puck and fought Jake Walman off all the way to the net. While using one hand to fend Walman off, Moore used the hand on his stick to take a whack at the puck. The puck curved perfectly off the blade and through the five-hole of Pickard for a rare goal categorized as a “poke.” Great play by Moore, but definitely needs to be a save. Maybe, just maybe, the Oilers messed up by not acquiring a goalie before the trade deadline. 4-3 heading to the 3rd.
Period 3
It really looked like we were going to get both a scoreless period and a penalty-less period. Both of those were eliminated on the same play.
After the Oilers pressed for a while, McDavid got the puck behind the net. He swung it to the crease, where Evander Kane and Anze Kopitar were battling. Kane kicked the puck towards the net. Kuemper made the save on that with his leg while sprawled out, which only doomed him. Kane was able to take a whack at it with the stick, and it slid into the net. The goal was reviewed for a kick, but rightfully stood. Kings’ coach Jim Hiller then challenged for goaltender interference. I would describe what he was particularly challenging, but I have no idea what part of that play he ever saw as interference. Quite plainly, it was an awful challenge that should never have been given. The officials didn’t need long to decline the challenge, and LA was headed to the penalty kill.
On the power play gifted to Edmonton by Jim Hiller, they didn’t need much time. Bouchard carried the puck into the LA zone and then dropped it to Draisaitl. Bouchard then stormed straight towards the net. The Kings were unable to catch up to the defenseman, Draisaitl found him by the net, and Bouchard was able to tap it in for the Oilers' lead. You really have to wonder what the LA video room saw to challenge for goaltender interference rather than just accepting a tie game. The risk far outweighed the reward.
With the goalie pulled in the last 2 minutes, Drew Doughty fumbled the puck at the blue line 3 times in a row. Hyman collected it and gave it to McDavid, who skated the puck into the Kings’ net. Brown was then able to add another with 7 seconds left after Pickard made an incredible save off Kopitar. 7-4 game. 4 unanswered 3rd-period goals by Edmonton. We have a series!
Overall Thoughts
The Oilers were never going to go down easy. This isn’t the same team that was swept in the 2022 Western Conference Finals by Colorado. This is the team that is one season removed from going to the Stanley Cup Finals and erasing Florida’s 3-0 series lead. Even though they don’t look quite as strong, they still are never going to go down without a fight. They were down 4-3 in this game going into the 3rd, and a loss would’ve put them on the chopping block. Instead, they were able to build momentum in the 3rd. Thanks to a free power play, they continued that momentum on and never looked back. Hard-working win for the team.
It doesn’t matter who’s in net for the Oilers if they can just score 7 each time. Pickard was not very good at all, but he did enough to get his team the win, which is more than Stuart Skinner can say. Now, obviously they’re not going to score 7 goals every game, but if they can just get like ONE good game out of a goalie this series, they have a chance. That may be too much to ask out of either of these goalies, but my faith lies more in Pickard than in Skinner. It’s likely a wise assumption to say it’s Pickard’s crease for game 4.
Adrian Kempe is really getting his name out there. He’s a 40-goal scorer who also represented Sweden at the 4 Nations Face-Off, but with 9 points in 3 playoff games so far, he’s undoubtedly having the biggest stretch of his career. He’s pretty much pulling a McDavid AGAINST McDavid. More underrated on the Kings has been Phil Danault, who has contributed 5 points of his own in the 3 games while largely being deployed in a defense-first role. There is no question that the Kings’ offense is doing its job. Kuemper needs to do better at his (-2.23 GSAx today). Doughty also has not been great. The age and injury history could be catching up to him at this point in the season. Nice goal, though.
We’re never escaping power plays.
Andrei Kuzmenko Recap
He wasn’t very good. Just a 42.63 xGF% on MoneyPuck. 0 points. Took a penalty that led to an Oilers goal. Ended the game at -4 (though 2 of those were empty netters). Not much more to say here, besides that he needs to play a lot better in game 4.
Game 4
Game 4 is set to be played in Edmonton on Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. Pacific. If the trend of home domination continues in this series, we could see the matchup tied at the end of the week. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: the difference between a 2-2 series and a 3-1 series is enormous. If LA can get the next one, they’ll just have to win one of their two potential home games remaining in the series to move on to round 2. If the Oilers pull a win out of that game, we’ll head to a best-of-3 contest that could go either way. Every game in this series has been eventful, chaotic, and full of hatred. Let’s hope it continues this way.