EDMONTON, AB -- For the fourth straight season, the Los Angeles Kings find themselves pushed aside in the first round of the playoffs. The Oilers had four consecutive wins after going down 0-2 to start the series. As one would say, the series completely flipped on its head.
A two nothing lead squandered, and a devasting departure self-evident. There's an overarching theme here of a schematic that was a flawed approach, or rather a roster and overreliance that came to proof throughout six games. There's no doubt that this one stings for LA.
Being led by a Vezina finalist for the first time since the Kings had one in 2011-12, the Kings checked many boxes going into the playoffs this season. Two 30+ goal scorers, the best home-ice record in the league, and a team ready to slay the dragon. Add that to a 19-5 record going into the postseason, being the hottest team in the league, and you might've felt good for the first time in four seasons about facing off against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Despite many heroics it's hard not to think of some of the players who essentially played their roles to a tee. Phillip Danault would have the finest playoff series of his career, largely keeping the two-headed beast off the board while chipping in eight points (2-6-8 +2) in the six-game series. It's a wasted performance, and it's hard to believe that the two-headed monsters were slowed down when Draisaitl was still over a point per game (3-7-10 +6) and McDavid (2-9-11 +5).
The depth under the two superstars was suspect going into the series, particularly with the top shutdown defenseman out in Mattias Ekholm. However, what was one of the clear-cut advantages for the Kings but would be weaponized for the Oilers against the Kings. The Oilers out depth-ed the Kings over the final four games.
Coach Jim Hiller will get a ton of flak for this series, and there is some self-inflicted pain there (I'm looking at you game three challenge). Hiller largely ran nine forwards and four defensemen throughout the series, and in many of the games, particularly game four, the top guys for the Kings looked gassed. Anze Kopitar, the longtime captain and future Hall of Famer, logged more than 20 minutes four times in the series and, despite nine points, was a -6. Additionally, the second oldest player after Kopitar, Drew Doughty, logged over 25+ minutes in five of the six games, logging four points as a -7.
The two future Hall of Famers looked like a shell of their former selves while statistically elevated from their teammate's play next to them. The concerning aspect of these two is their age and trajectory. If this is the Doughty to finish his contract, the Kings' backend is in big trouble if their number one cannot be a true number one anymore. The same goes for Kopitar, but at least Quinton Byfield played 20 minutes or more in the six games, putting up four points in the six games, with an opening goal in the elimination game.
Brandt Clarke never broke more than 14 minutes despite two massive goals this postseason. On the other hand, Jordan Spence only cracked double digits once and was a healthy scratch for one of the playoff games. The backend looks more dire than the center depth despite Kopitar and Danault holding two of the more critical center roles well into their 30s.
Again, it's a tough one to swallow, particularly since this is mostly a write-off 105-point season in which the team had everything come together at the right time. Will the youth be given the keys to run the show moving forward?
"100 percent. It's a missed opportunity. It's very clear. Yeah, it's a missed opportunity for us. Especially we had a great buy in from our players. We believe we could have won the series. We believe we should have won the series. We didn't."- Hiller postgame, via LAK Insider
The Kings brass continued to push the buttons on a 37 and a 35-year-old to get the team to this point, but will it look the same for a 38 and 36-year-old next season? There are legitimate concerns for a maligned franchise that has flirted with greatness despite a schematic and strategy that an Oiler's team has essentially chewed on.
This is a top-down approach and failure. Rob Blake has taken a ton of flak in the last few seasons and will only continue. His deadline acquisition, Andrei Kuzmneko, looked to sweep aside a lot of the dismay from past seasons, but he had a single point in the remaining four games, a powerplay goal after his five-point outburst in the first two games.
Blake will have to come to a decision regarding Kuzmenko and pending free agent Vladislav Gavrikov this offseason. There's also Blake himself, who was rumored to be coming close to an extension with the Kings. Alongside a most likely scenario of sticking by Hiller, the Kings are likely to be status quo when the franchise, and in particular, ownership, should consider drastic changes.
The team needed to get uncomfortable, which we heard from Blake prior to the season starting, but where did they end up at the end of the year?
Rinse and repeat, and where do the Kings go from here? Will their youth be ready to take charge and given the keys to drive the bus?
Does that put the Kings back in the driver's seat for their team to be 'real' contenders or are they on a pathway towards a more realistic middling ground, set to squander the primes of Byfield and Clarke as they continue to face a team in an actual championship contending window?