Coach: Oilers ‘gift-wrapping opportunities’ for L.A.

It’s not just the Los Angeles Kings who are beating the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers are also beating themselves.

That was the response Wednesday from Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch after he watched his team allow six goals for the second straight game in a 6-2 loss to the Kings in Game 2 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.

“The last two games, [the Oilers have allowed] five on the special teams, so that’s a problem,” Knoblauch said. “The other one is just mistakes. I don’t necessarily see us — I don’t see L.A. making plays to beat us. Mistakes, gift-wrapping opportunities. That’s different. If they make a heck of a play and [are] able to score goals, you just tip your hat and say, ‘There’s not much we’re able to do.’ But I don’t think I’ve seen very much of that. I think it’s been mostly gaffes that have cost us.”

Entering the postseason, the defending Western Conference champions were already facing questions about how their defensive structure would perform against the Kings. Most of those concerns were centered around their goaltending, which finished the regular season in the bottom 10 in team save percentage, according to Natural Stat Trick. The concerns were further amplified by the fact that one of their best players, defenseman Mattias Ekholm, would miss the first round with an undisclosed injury.

Game 1 against the Kings saw the Oilers fall into a 4-0 deficit before a late second-period goal from Leon Draisaitl sparked a comeback that saw them tie game with 88 seconds left in the third before Phillip Danault scored the game winner with 42 seconds remaining in L.A.’s 6-5 victory.

In Game 2, the Kings jumped out to a 3-0 lead before goals from Draisaitl in the second and former Kings winger Viktor Arvidsson in the third cut the lead to 3-2 before the Kings scored three unanswered goals in less than five minutes.

Knoblauch pulled goaltender Stuart Skinner after the fifth goal before his replacement, Calvin Pickard, allowed a goal on three shots in a little more than a minute worth of work.

“We’re down 5-2, give him a break, but also sometimes when the goalies change, there’s a little boost to our team, an immediate spark,” Knoblauch said. “That’s a stretch, it’s a long shot after the TV timeout, give it a try.”

Knoblauch was asked by reporters how he’ll assess who will start in Game 3 between Skinner, who has allowed 11 goals on 58 shots through two games, or Pickard.

The second-year Oilers coach said he’ll get together with his coaching staff and decide.

But Knoblauch added that he believed Skinner was not at fault for the team’s defensive troubles.

“I don’t think there’s been any bad goals. There’s been a lot of goals but the chances that we’re giving up are Grade A’s,” Knoblauch said. “I’m not sure that are many, ‘Geez, where’s the save there?’ It’s been very difficult for a goaltender playing. More structure and the less we’re giving up those opportunities, it’s a lot easier for Stuart Skinner or Calvin Pickard playing.”

Brandt Clarke scored the Kings’ first goal on the power play as he was able to get open in the slot for a tip-in on an odd-skater rush. Quinton Byfield pushed it to 2-0 when he walked in on net and fired a point-blank attempt that beat Skinner while Andrei Kuzmenko‘s goal saw him get behind the Oilers on the power play.

“When you’re making that gaffe and a guy is all by himself in the slot and we’ve seen probably three of those in the last two games, that’s not giving your goaltender much help,” Knoblauch said.

With Clarke, Kuzmenko and Anze Kopitar all scoring power-play goals, it led to Knoblauch addressing why the Oilers have struggled whenever the Kings have been on the extra-skater advantage.

Edmonton’s penalty kill was among the factors in its run to the Stanley Cup finals last season. The Oilers were an NHL-best 94.3% in short-handed situations.

Through two games this postseason, they’ve already allowed five goals on 10 power-play opportunities.

“They made a change at the end of the season, and it’s a good power play,” Knoblauch said. “There’s a lot of good moving parts there and it’s difficult to check all five of those guys. They bring a different element. It’s exactly what we expected from them. We saw a lot of penalty kills in our last regular-season game against them, and obviously, we’ve looked at the other games they’ve played against other teams. I don’t think there’s anything that’s unexpected.”

Knoblauch’s recollection of what the Oilers saw from the Kings toward the end of the regular season plays into what could become part of a larger narrative throughout the series.

In their last four combined regular-season and playoff games against the Kings, the Oilers have allowed 20 goals. That includes a 3-0 loss on April 5 followed by a 5-0 loss on April 14.

With the series set to resume Friday in Edmonton, the Oilers will try to find the cohesion that has eluded them against a team they’ve faced in the first round for what is now a fourth consecutive season.

Over their previous three encounters, they’ve split the first two games with the Oilers going on to win the series. But with the Kings leaving L.A. with a pair of victories, they now stand two wins shy of advancing to the second round for the first time since the 2013-14 season, when they won their most recent Stanley Cup.