The Edmonton Oilers entered the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs with all the momentum in the world. The team closed out the regular season as strong as anyone could have hoped for, and they had a rematch of last year’s first round against the Los Angeles Kings in store.
Getting off to an early lead, the Oilers looked dangerous and were great at funneling their shots to high-danger areas, and were also good at limiting high-danger shots against. Going into the third period with a 2–0 lead, things looked good for the Oilers until they didn’t. The two teams traded goals to make it a 3–1 game, and with under nine minutes to go the Kings drew within one. Finally with 17 seconds remaining the Kings tied the game up to send it to overtime.
Just before the midway mark of the first overtime period, the Kings went on their sixth power play of the game and made quick work with it to score the game-winner. Los Angeles steals the first one to take home ice advantage from the Oilers.
Connor McDavid was held off of the scoresheet—a rare playoff occurrence for the Art Ross Trophy and Maurice Richard Trophy winner.
The Oilers are down a game early in their series. Let’s see how they respond in the coming games. Charts from Game 1 are below.
Game events
Goals
| Goal | Assists | Time | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leon Draisaitl | Mattias Janmark | 06:57 | 1st | LAK 0 – 1 EDM |
| Evan Bouchard (PPG) | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman | 12:31 | 1st | LAK 0 – 2 EDM |
| Adrian Kempe | Matt Roy, Anze Kopitar | 00:52 | 3rd | LAK 1 – 2 EDM |
| Leon Draisaitl | Evander Kane | 08:46 | 3rd | LAK 1 – 3 EDM |
| Adrian Kempe | Quinton Byfield, Anze Kopitar | 11:23 | 3rd | LAK 2 – 3 EDM |
| Anze Kopitar (PPG) | Phillip Danault, Viktor Arvidsson | 19:43 | 3rd | LAK 3 – 3 EDM |
| Alex Iafallo (PPG) | Viktor Arvidsson, Anze Kopitar | 09:19 | OT | LAK 4 – 3 EDM |
All situations Corsi
5v5 Corsi
Do you have any feedback or suggestions? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter @oilrigEDM.
4 Comments