This could turn into a disaster really quickly for a team with huge expectations. The Edmonton Oilers have fallen into a 2-1 series deficit to the LA Kings as even though they’ve utterly dominated LA at times, they’ve been woeful at converting their chances into goals.
You’d think a team with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Evander Kane, and Zach Hyman would have no problems with scoring, but here we are.
The Edmonton Oilers have been one of the most explosive, exciting, and dangerous teams in the playoffs so far, but the LA Kings are the ones with a 2-1 series lead over them as the Oilers have been pretty useless when it comes to converting their plethora of chances.
Okay, not everyone on the Oilers has been useless as Connor McDavid (2 G, 1 A, 3 PTS) and Leon Draisaitl (2 G, 4 A, 6 PTS) have been their sensational selves (obviously), while Evan Bouchard (1 G, 3 A, 4 PTS) has really stepped up from the blue line as he’s been an integral part of the Oilers powerplays and the defensive scoring contribution. But everyone else who’s job is to put the puck in the back of the net has been worryingly absent.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2 A), Evander Kane (1 G, 1 A), Zach Hyman (1 A), Darnell Nurse (1 A), and Kailer Yamamoto (o PTS) all have two or less points to their names thus far, while Draisaitl himself has scored as many points as these five key contributors combined. Obviously, that’s not good enough!
Like I say for every single playoff contender, the teams who have realistic prospects of winning the Stanley Cup are the ones who have all four forward and all three defensive lines contributing offensively in addition to their normal roles.
Unlike a sport like basketball or baseball, which have more restrictions on how opposing teams can defend, a hockey superstar can’t take over a series nearly as effectively as they do in the regular season as opposing teams simply neutralize with tight defensive coverages.
It’s the reason why only a handful of superstar players from 1970-now have 5 or more Stanley Cup rings (ex: Mark Messier, Bryan Trottier, Guy Lapointe, Larry Robinson, Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe, Serge Savard, Jacques Lemaire, Yvan Cournoyer, Jari Kurri, Bob Gainey, Guy Lafluer), and only four players (Messier, Trottier, Anderson, Lowe, Kurri) won 5+ Stanley Cups while not being a part of the great Canadien dynasty team of the 1970’s and 80’s.
Simply put, great teams need to have both their superstars, stars, role players, and depths players to score consistently if they hope to have a chance of winning the Stanley Cup. And, as I’ve pointed out, the Oilers barley have their superstars scoring.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who was one of the eleven 100-point scorers in the regular season, has just two assists in three games, Evander Kane has scored just once in three games despite scoring 16 goals in 41 games this year, Zach Hyman and Darnell Nurse have a mere point a piece despite the pair scoring 83 PTS and 43 PTS, respectively, and Kailer Yamamoto not have a single point in three games is unacceptable as a Top-6/9 forward.
Moreover, not only have the stars not shown up, but the depth guys have been even quieter.
Out of the 1- Bottom-6 forwards and Bottom-4 defensemen, only three of them (Klim Kostin, Mattias Janmark, and Derek Ryan) have a single point to their, respective, tallies in the three games the Oilers have faced off against the LA Kings thus far. Just three collective points!
Reversely, the 10 Bottom-6 forwards and Bottom-4 defensemen for the Kings have tallied a grand total of 7 points with Alex Iaffalo (3rd line-center), Gabe Vilardi (3rd-line winger), Matt Roy (2nd-pair defenseman), and Vlad Gavrikov (2nd-pair defensemen) all supplementing the 20 points the Top-6 forwards the Top-2 defensive pairing have put up so far.
And that has obviously been the biggest difference between the two sides…along with Joonas Korpisalo playing out of his mind with a 2-1 record, .931 SV%, and a 2.53 GAA.
Nonetheless, the Oilers must figure out Korpisalo some way or another and get their secondary scorers firing as the Kings, who came into this series as big underdogs, are within a game of going up 3-1 and closer to getting revenge on the Oilers for dumping them out of the 2022 postseason.
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