Oilers squeak by Kings in Game 2, series all square heading back to L.A.

It was a little too close for comfort, but Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and the Oilers squeaked out a crucial Game 2 win on Wednesday night to even their first-round series with the Kings.

Derek Ryan opened the scoring just two-and-a-half minutes in, cleaning up a Draisaitl miss off the end boards to send Rogers Place into a frenzy. Draisaitl converted his second of the postseason just under 10 minutes later, burying a perfectly executed cross-ice feed from McDavid as the Oilers' historically good power play came through.

For about half of Game 2, the Oilers looked a lot like the team plenty of people picked to reach this year's Stanley Cup final, if not win it all. Then the mistakes started pouring in, leading to Phillip Danault and Gabriel Vilardi converting just over five minutes apart to even things up at 2-2 entering the third period.

While things were close for the rest of Game 2, Klim Kostin tallied the eventual game-winner early in the third while the Oilers held on for dear life for the remainder of the frame until Evander Kane iced the contest with an empty-netter.

Despite all that’s changed for both teams (particularly an Oilers team with powerhouse expectations), this looks a lot like last year’s series, where Edmonton could not get away with taking Los Angeles lightly.

Draisaitl's even scarier with two working legs

Memorably, Draisaitl kept producing buckets of points while dealing a painful high-ankle sprain during the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs. While that sort of work gains plaudits from those who value “gutting it out,” the sizable scorer must be relishing the added benefits of two healthy wheels. (Or, at least “healthy for just about anyone around playoff time” legs.)

McDavid’s jaw-dropping speed understandably draws plenty of attention in transition, but Draisaitl can break through opposing defenses in his own right. His work on the Oilers’ first goal of Game 2 was a testament to that. Draisaitl gathered the puck around his own blueline and zipped up the ice before making a tremendous cutback move to set himself up for a powerful shot attempt. Derek Ryan eventually cleaned things up after all the havoc Draisaitl created, giving Edmonton a 1-0 lead 2:34 into the first period.

Being able to change the pace (and angles) so abruptly can really create headaches for a Kings defense that’s generally so structurally sound.

More Draisaitl playoff history

Generating slightly more playoff points per game than Mario Lemieux is patently absurd.

Oilers keep taking careless penalties

In Game 1, the Kings sent things to overtime and subsequently notched the game-winner via the power play. You can complain about borderline calls (and “game management” earlier when Edmonton was more dominant), but it’s glaring that the Kings received six power-play opportunities to three for the Oilers. Special teams often make a huge difference in the NHL postseason, but Edmonton didn’t draw it up like that.

After dominating the first period where both teams took one penalty apiece, the Oilers took all of the second period’s three penalties. Most of those infractions boiled down to poor decisions, particularly a wildly unnecessary puck-over-the-glass by Evander Kane, who was on the penalty kill to boot.

In the second period of Game 2, the Kings didn’t ride power-play tallies to erase a two-goal Edmonton lead. However, taking all of those penalties hurt the Oilers’ flow (including impairing Draisaitl’s ice time, as he didn’t kill penalties during the middle frame).

For better or worse, no penalties were called in the third period. It will be fascinating to see how the whistles go as the scene shifts to California.

Tough goals to accept at a playoff level

If you just take this season (or block everything out except some outstanding past playoff performances against the Maple Leafs), you might look at Joonas Korpisalo as a near-elite option in net for Los Angeles. Korpisalo’s larger body of work, however, gives the impression of a below-average starter. Stuart Skinner enjoyed some strong stretches for the Oilers, but there’s no sense ignoring that the team entered the season expecting Jack Campbell to be their top option.

In other words, you could raise questions about both goalie options. During Game 2, each goalie allowed at least one really rough goal.

You can ding Skinner for the first two goals, especially when he didn’t seal the post on this Gabriel Vilardi 2-2 tally. You can see that most clearly later in the video of the goal.

While the Oilers lost that lead on a painful goal allowed, Korpisalo got beat by Klim Kostin in a situation and from a spot where netminders are expected to make the stop.

Neither goalie’s been a disaster, yet it’s worth watching where their confidence is at as this series goes along. That’s especially true with Skinner, considering how much Jack Campbell struggled this season.