Post Game: Game #80 Kings 2 Oilers 0

Scoring Summary
1st Period
None


2nd Period
None


3rd Period
LA Slava Voynov 8 (Anze Kopitar, Brad Richardson) 0:34

LA Dwight King 5 (Mike Richards) 17:28


Penalty Summary
1st Period
3:10 Edmonton fighting - 5 min B. Eager drawn by J. Nolan
3:10 Los Angeles fighting - 5 min J. Nolan drawn by B. Eager
3:10 Los Angeles high-sticking - 2 min W. Mitchell drawn by D. Hordichuk
3:10 Edmonton holding - 2 min B. Eager drawn by J. Nolan

2nd Period
6:17 Edmonton slashing - 2 min R. Nugent-Hopkins drawn by D. Brown
9:12 Edmonton tripping - 2 min C. Teubert drawn by W. Mitchell
18:18 Edmonton hooking - 2 min A. Hemsky drawn by D. Brown

3rd Period
4:18 Los Angeles high-sticking - 4 min T. Lewis drawn by C. Teubert


Shots On Goal - Oilers 18 Kings 37

Game Notes:
- This game brought me back to my young adult life, thinking about the '90s Oilers who were grossly overmatched but always tried and hung around in hockey games. Tonight the Oilers were that team. The Oilers only scored 1 goal against the Kings in a two game set, only mustering 32 shots in that span. Kings got more than that tonight alone. Let's face it, the Oilers are undermanned right now, Playing essentially 3 AHL Dmen, and very little speed off the wings means little chance for offense against the much bigger Kings. But they tried and battled hard and at this stage thats all an Oilers fan can ask for. I personally wonder if the Oilers management understand what the weaknesses of the Oilers are. Like I mean, they tried to address those situations last offseason but brought in players that were more specialists than anything. And then once they were brought in, Tom Renney and his coaching staff decided to miscast some players, therefore lose them entirely. Juts a big time disconnect between the management, coaches and players. Eric Belanger was brought in to be a solid secondary 2-way center and what we get is nothing more than a 4th line, faceoff specialist. Cam Barker was brought in to be a PP option, bottom pairing Dman. What we get is player that gets little powerplay time and plays too much at evens. Ben Eager was brought to be an energy player that can play up and down the lineup and what Tom Renney does is treat him like a 4th line bit player. Tom Renney put his stock in too few of his players and ended up losing the whole room because of it. I'm sure thats how the story will end. Kings played desperate tonight, like a team that really wanted this game, and win it they did.

Player of the Game:
- Devan Dubnyk. Dubnyk was the only reason why this game was close. He was shelled for most of the game but the wall broke in the thrid and that was the ballgame. The Oilers mustered no offense tonight, the best they could hope for was a shootout. Dubnyk continues to cement himself as one of the goaltenders going into next year.

Goat of the Game:
- Sam Gagner. Ended up missing the net by 20 feet on a shot that ended up in a 2on1 going the other way that the Kings polished off to make it 2-0. The top 6 in general, was pretty abysmal. Very little in the way of offense and they played way too much in their own zone. Gagner had a tough time with defensive zone coverage with the bigger Kings roaming around.

Next Game - Thursday April 5, 2012 vs. Ducks @ Rexall Place on Sportsnet West 7:30 PM MT.