EDMONTON — Earlier in the day, Drew Doughty made a comment about the Edmonton Oilers that was not only obvious but prophetic by the night’s end.
“They have a lot of good players on this team,” the veteran Los Angeles Kings blueliner said. “It’s not a two-man show with (Leon) Draisaitl and (Connor) McDavid, as good as they are. They have depth.
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“They’re a better team than they were last year.”
The Oilers pushed past the Kings 4-3 in Game 5 on Wednesday to take a third straight first-round series between the two teams. In doing so, they exhibited exactly what Doughty was talking about. Aside from a few brief lapses, they were better than the Kings from the first puck drop in the opener — which helped them to their first Game 1 win in seven series — to the final buzzer in the clincher.
Sending the Kings packing and moving on to the next phase of their Stanley Cup run always seemed inevitable.
“There’s a level of comfort just having been through this a few times, and that also comes with the calm in our game, being able to weather different storms,” defenceman Darnell Nurse said.
“It was a good sign of what’s to come, but there’s still so much hockey we’re hoping to play through the rest of the spring here. It’s important to keep picking it up.”
Naturally, McDavid and Draisaitl were the catalysts — both in Game 5 and the series overall.
McDavid opened the series with five assists and had two more on Wednesday. He finished the series with 12 points. Draisaitl had five goals, including a pair in Game 5, and 10 points. Both players hit double-digit points in a playoff series for the fifth and fourth times in their careers, respectively.
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But the Oilers are so much more than Nos. 97 and 29 now. It showed more than ever against the Kings this time around.
“We’re not a young team here,” McDavid said. “We’ve got lots of guys that have played in big games and have been in big situations.”
Coming off a 54-goal season, Zach Hyman scored his seventh of the playoffs on Wednesday. That ties him with Colorado’s Valeri Nichushkin for the league lead.
Evan Bouchard topped all defencemen in scoring in last year’s playoffs. Capped by a three-assist effort, he recorded nine points against the Kings, matching Colorado’s Cale Makar for top spot among NHL blueliners.
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Go right down the roster. Nearly everyone chipped in, whether it was late call-up Dylan Holloway scoring twice in Game 2, the defence corps shining in Game 4 or Derek Ryan going from an early series scratch to defending a lead in Game 5.
“We’ve got lots of depth,” McDavid said. “Even the guys that didn’t play in the series are more than capable of stepping up and stepping into big roles and important assignments.”
And then there was goalie Stuart Skinner.
Skinner had a rough first postseason a year ago, getting pulled four times in 12 starts. Things could have gone off the rails for him in this series as wonky bounces resulted in goals against.
But Skinner rebounded brilliantly from pucks that got by him off his defencemen’s skates and off a double deflection during the first two games. He allowed one goal on 61 shots in Los Angeles.
On Wednesday, he was steady following an Alex Laferriere goal that was rimmed in as the puck caromed off a stanchion and right in front of the net.
Neither he nor the Oilers let that stuff deter them.
“It’s how can you stay calm and play through it,” Nurse said. “Those are things you can’t control. We controlled what we could control this whole series.”
“It’s been a lot of growth for this team,” Skinner said. “Everyone’s seeing that.”
The Oilers improved to 5-1 in series-clinching games in the McDavid era. Their only loss was in Game 7 against the Anaheim Ducks in 2017 — the first playoff foray for their leadership core of McDavid, Draisaitl, Nurse and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
Those days are long in the rearview mirror. They’ve closed out every matchup at the first opportunity each of the last four times they’ve had three wins in a series.
They’ve never beaten the Kings this quickly before, though.
Two years ago, they had to travel to Los Angeles for Game 6, trailing 3-2. They needed a goal late in the third period from Tyson Barrie to force a deciding matchup back in Edmonton.
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Last year, they trailed 2-1 in the series heading into Game 4 and were down 3-0 after the first period. They roared back to victory thanks to an overtime goal by Zach Hyman, which pushed them to a six-game win.
Defeating the Kings in five, especially with the clincher coming at home, is significant — and a promising sign.
“In the long run — which of course is our goal, to play for a long time — these extra days are massive,” Draisaitl said. “They’re critical.
“We lose and you have to get back on the plane and head to L.A. Now, we get an extra couple days rest, which is really nice. We dug deep to earn that right to get a little bit of rest.”
The Oilers’ next opponent will be Vancouver or Nashville. Game 6 of that matchup goes Friday in the Music City with the Canucks up 3-2.
Edmonton didn’t exactly cruise past L.A. this time, but there was never a doubt they’d advance to Round 2. That they required just five games is all the proof needed.
The case is airtight when everything is put on the table.
The Oilers outscored the Kings 22-13. They pummelled the Kings in Games 1 and 3. The Kings’ only win came in overtime.
The Oilers dominated non-five-on-five play. They went 9-for-18 on the power play in the series, a 50 percent success rate that flatters the Kings. In Game 5 alone, Draisaitl and Hyman scored just after a pair of power plays ended, and the Oilers finished the game on the man advantage as Phillip Danault got called for hooking with 20 seconds remaining. The Oilers also killed off all 12 Kings power plays in the series.
“It’s a pretty simple write-up in this one,” Kings coach Jim Hiller. “You saw one team execute on special teams and one team didn’t.”
“That was the difference in the series,” Oilers counterpart Kris Knoblauch said.
But the other key difference, one that’s become more noticeable with each passing spring in which the Oilers and Kings meet, is that the 2024 Oilers aren’t the same as versions past.
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Doughty acknowledged it before puck drop, and the Oilers reinforced it one last time on Wednesday.
“We’re probably a better team this year than we were last year or the year before,” Draisaitl said.
Now they’ll just have to keep proving it over the next few weeks.
(Photo: Codie McLachlan / Getty Images)
