Kopitar, Kempe, Hiller | R1G6 LA Kings fall to Edmonton Oilers and lose the series

Andre, how tough is this one to process, especially with how great of a season you guys had coming into this one? Yeah, this one’s tough to swallow. Obviously, um having the season that we have, the uh the group of guys in this locker room and uh you know to come up short again, it’s it’s frustrating and uh you know, this one uh this one hurts a little more. Kobe, is this maybe the hardest one of the four knowing how good this group was throughout the course of the year? Yeah, I mean obviously coming in and especially having home ice and off to a good start with the first two games, winning the first two games and then just not able to, you know, to close games out and it cost us in the end. What can you say about the fight of this group though, especially if you single out just this game? Kind of the never quit attitude we saw tonight. Yeah, that’s been throughout the whole season. You know, that’s the the character of of this group and you know, the not giving up part and uh you know, there’s not very many not very many games throughout the season that we melt it in, but and uh you know, and even if we had an off night, you know, I thought we always came back strong and you know, playing the team game and you know, tonight was no different. We the effort was there, the fight was there, but we came up short. Coach, when did this momentum change in this series? Where did it flip the script from the new basketball? I mean, you can pinpoint game three, you know, didn’t didn’t close out definitely game four. You know, it’s uh completely different series if we go home up 3-1 versus 22. But uh could have, would have, should have. Look at this game tonight. plays 3-2 in the second. You guys generate, you know, a number of looks. Is that probably where you look at as those were the opportunities you guys had to to make this one? Yeah, I mean it’s, you know, the the chances were there and, you know, we we just couldn’t convert and, you know, credit to their goalie. He made some good stops. Uh, credit to their team. They uh last couple games they played uh solid checking game and made made it harder on us to uh you know to generate stuff but uh yeah I mean we fought and came up short. What was the message to the group after this one? You know as the captain you’ve been through so much with this team. Just what what did you say to the guys? I didn’t say anything yet. Um, we’ll sure we’ll get together at some point um in the next few days and we’ll we’ll talk about stuff and uh yeah, I didn’t didn’t say a whole lot tonight. Juice, I know it’s still, you know, extremely raw, but if you look at this one compared to even the previous three with the group you had in this room, is this the hardest of the four to swallow? Yeah, I think so. I mean, you know, most recent one too, for sure. But I think uh yeah, this year, you know, previous two seasons, two playoff series, I feel like we weren’t maybe close enough to be as good as they were. Uh this series felt like besides last home game we had felt like we were the better team. Uh yeah, couldn’t close the games out that we should have. Uh so that came back and bit us. hindsight, is it going to be probably those games three and four, those third periods that you’ll probably look back at as the swing moment in the series? Yeah, for sure. I think those were Yeah, I mean, game four maybe our best game in the series overall. Uh, yeah, three as well, I think, after two periods really solid. Uh, yeah, I mean, it’s tough when you It sucks when you play that well over Yeah. five out of six games and you come out like this. So, yeah. Uh, yeah. gonna have to regroup. What can you say about the fight of this group? If you if you single out tonight’s game, just seemed like there was a no good attitude. Yeah, it’s been like this all season. You know, we’ve had that identity right from the start of season. Doesn’t matter we played. It doesn’t matter when we play good. We always find a way to fight back and you know, it’s been fun to watch and yeah, felt like it was there all series as well. So, yeah, that kind of makes it extra tough right now. you guys put so much into those first four games in particular, kind of a short bench. Do you feel like you had what you needed to in the tank when it came to this game overall? Um, yeah, I think so. I think, um, you know, obviously it’s tough. You play a lot and maybe you’re not used to play as much uh in the regular season. So, but once you get a couple of games in there, I feel like everybody was fine. Um, hope hopefully everybody was fine. But yeah, I I’m pretty used to it. I feel like I had uh enough gas uh at the end of the games and at the end of periods for sure. Something that was sorry that was really strong coming into this series, more strong than other series would have been goalending. Just Darcy Keer giving you guys a chance. Um what can you say about the work that he put in? Yeah, he’s been great ever since he came here, you know, or came back, you know, last time he was here was awesome, too. But I think, yeah, great goalie. He’s working really hard. Uh, you know, I think, you know, going back to last game where everybody wasn’t maybe on their toes, you know, he really kept us in the game and even that game, you know, I think there was a chance that we and we had a lot of chances to to come back and win. So, I mean, yeah, he’s been awesome ever ever since he came back and we’re uh yeah, really happy to have him. Is it is it hard to pinpoint why you can’t get past that team? Um, no. I think the series it was because we couldn’t close the games out. Uh we couldn’t hit the empty nets. Uh I think we had about nine or 10 tries at it where we didn’t get it. And yeah, I mean I’m not saying that we win those games, we win the series, but it would have been you know different momentum going into you know game five and game six for sure. So I think that was a big uh yeah the biggest difference maker. It’s uh yeah that’s all I got to say. Jim, for a team that prides itself on defense all season, 20 goals against in the last four games, why were they able to get so many good looks against you? They got some good players and finish played pretty good defense. They got some good players that can finish. Power plays pretty good. Jim, uh the guys in the room, Kobe and Juice said that for them this one was the hardest one except of the four with the caliber of team they have. I know you’ve only been here for three, but would you agree for you hardest one to accept of the of the three you’ve been here for? Uh they’re all hard, I will tell you that. But yeah, based on how we started the series, how we had played uh the last couple months of the season, how we started the series, how we we failed to close a couple out, how, you know, we had a real tough game five for our team, played so uncharacteristic of our team, and then came in here tonight. I Dennis says they scored a lot of goals. I thought that we could probably deserve more than four tonight myself. Uh so we had a lot of chances, especially in the third. We pushed pretty good, huh? It happens sometimes when you’re trailing. It’s easier. You know what I mean? Like just generally that that’s the way hockey goes. Jim, uh over here, uh I know it’s very fresh. Is it hard not to look back at this as missed opportunity? Oh, yeah. 100 100%. It’s a missed opportunity. So, it’s it’s very clear, Eric. Yeah. It’s a missed opportunity for us. Uh especially we had great buyin from our players. Um we believe we could have won the series. We believe we should have won the series. We didn’t. So, that’s the bottom line. Be because it’s been the same team. Do you feel that there’s been that a mental block enters into this? No. No. Uh no. Not gonna not going to go there. No. No. We had our chances. We had our chances to get it done. Didn’t get it done. Hey Jim, um obviously in the playoffs there’s fine lines. Kevin hits the inside of the post. Uh you know, maybe we’re talking something different. Quinton be able to chip that puck out in game four. Talking about something different, but when it starts going the other way, how tough is it to kind of get it back? You guys said you said the other night you were going to trying to get it back, but how tough is it to do that? Uh I thought we got it back tonight. Honestly, I thought we played well. Now, I know they had some two-on- ones when we were pressing at the end. Uh, I don’t know what the what the chances will be in in the end. Um, they outplayed us in my mind. One game and the overtime. I’ll give them the overtime, too. There’s no question. Uh, we lose the series. That part doesn’t really matter. Jim, when you look back at the deployment in game four and you see the way Clark and Spence played tonight, will you in this over the summer question maybe you should have used your depth players more? Nope. Nope. Nope.

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47 comments

  2. Games 1 thru 5, I blame the coach. His decision to not trust his players that got him there will haunt him. If he's retained, I hope he learns from this…

  3. For extended stretches of this game Oilers dominated in offensive zone time and overall puck possession in all areas of the ice. LA out chanced the Oilers in odd man rushes, but struggled I thought to establish effective O zone time behind the goal line for any considerable time. I would say LA needs more size and grit up front to wear down oppositions d-core. Jim itā€™s Reub here.

  8. Oilers "B Team" scored the last 9 goals. Kings started over confident, celebrating like they won the series after game 1. Cocky team photos and tongue waggles. Couldnt figure it out after it started to unravel. Outcoached.

  9. First, congratulations to the Oilers.

    The Kings were the best team in the regular season after the trade deadline. They got there by playing three great lines and trusting one grinding line to have ice time. Three defensive lines with plus talent they could deploy. This was overcoaching. We see it, the media sees it, the players won't say it. The bogus challenge and the absurd use time is all on him. It created distrust and doubt in the players, not in each other but in what they were doing and who was directing it. The emotion carried him away in game 3.

  14. Kopitar should not be the centerpiece of this team. He was invisible after game two unless he was making stupid turnovers. Byfield is the future of this team and Dannault is the lockdown center.

  17. Ggā€™s kings – your coach really let you down unfortunately. Yall definitely had a team that had every making of being a strong contender, especially backed by a vezina calibre goalie – heads up guys, hopefully (not really) you make the necessary tweaks in the summer (new coach lmao)

  18. Kings brass have to see that after game 2 this could have been a short series. Games 3 and 4 completely blown. This hiller presser is brutal, how do you keep a coach who doesnt take accountability

  19. Oilers and kings had the same amount of wins this season. Oilers were a hurt team most season, so it goes to show who the better team is…
    I dont know why people thought kings were gonna beat the Oilers?

  21. Coach completely blew this series with his horrid challenges and lineup choices. Absolute must-do for the Kings is to fire him ASAP.

  22. Definition of insanity, keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. "We just need to play our game." Your game worked in 2014, this is 2025. You have 11 players over 30, it's time to get lots of younger but experienced players who deliver, TWO goales, and a Head Coach with Playoff experience. Sorry, but half the team can't hold a lead, or play 3 hard periods, they run out of gas….they're old. No hits, but they take a bunch. Time for BIG CHANGES.

  25. Always love kopi but Iā€™m so tired of seeing his tired depressed looking face year after year, I lost the series and still havenā€™t said anything to your team? We need that fire from kopi to get all these guys in check, kopi an amazing player and Iā€™m sure has great leadership skills but heā€™s a little too quiet and passive, we need someone with more of an energy and drive

  26. Any team in the history of sports who loses 4 games in a row, under no circumstances "should" have won the series, nor is there any argument that they are the better team. Especially if they didn't even take it to 7. Stop the cope.

  27. The Captain sets the tempo and identity for the entire team. Kopi is reserved, quite, and soft. McDavid is the complete and total opposite. Plus he has that killer instinct/IT factor. This is the real reason why the Oilers dominated the Kings on the attack, while the Kings were stuck playing defense for most of the series.

    The Kings need to strip Kopi from his C, and give it to a fresh hungry new face like Kempe or Fiala. The Kings need a new identity. They need to operate with a hungry aggressive tempo just like the Oilers do.

  31. Heads need to roll after this pathetic meltdown. Hiller has to go, Kopi loses the C (something I never thought I would consider) Doughty loses the A. I knew this was going to happen and I'm actually kind of relieved that they it's over. I can enjoy the rest of the playoffs now. This has been a miserable and embarrassing series.

  33. Win as a team, lose as a team. Great effort by kings tonight and better season than i expected. Oilers were the better team and better coached but sadly the dirtiest team in nhl. Leon and mccrybaby have not completely recovered and kings still lost. Love kopi but hate his softness, drew isn't 100%, refs suck as nhl is a business not a sport. Go woke go broke.
    Hiller clearly lost his head in the game 3 challenge and made huge mistake game 4 not relying on bottom forwards and d men. Coach doesn't seem to take responsibility, at least not publicly. This is the result of luc and rob, its on them, they hired hiller, PLD scored same as kopi, Velardi on top power play in the league, if ownership stays the course this is the results you can expect,"our intentions were…" liberalism.

  35. Watch the oilers interviews after losing to the kings the first 2 games the oilers said they had to play better and also talked about the kings being a hard team to beat. Whereas a team that has lost 4 postseason to the oilers still talk like they played good and should have won. Like kempe saying they could have won the last game is delusional with the way the played

  36. A coach that was so positively evaluated by his regular season performance, I could not have lost more respect for him at this point.

  38. Not gonna lie Dewy pissed me off more than a handfull of times last night costed us the lead in like a min ,? Lol
    Other than that hiller needs to walk the plank šŸ˜…
    Utilize all the players ffs
    Spence and Clarke shouldve been in the whole series
    Jus some lucky bounces that didnt go in our favour
    I just dont know anymore after failing 4 years to this team

  40. Kings were so good this year. Hiller definitely cost them this series. Bizarre coaching decisions. With that said, glad the Oil beat them again. šŸ™‚

  42. Kings need to either have a better season or a worse season so they donā€™t play the oilers in the first round. Oilers own the kings now, LA should just give the keys to the city to the oilers at this point.

  45. The two youngest d men werenā€™t deployed properly. The team was totally out of gas because the coach overplayed his top 9 forwards and top 4 d men! Fire Hiller and DJ Smith. They were out coached and outclassed by Edmonton.

  46. Hiller hamstrung the team, plain and simple. Oh well, we'll probably see y'all again in round 1 next year. Maybe the 5th time is the charm for LA. That said, GOIL.

  47. Hiller is a step up from Todd Mclellan, but still missing it. Doesn't sound like he can make adjustments. Whatever they were trying on the road just never worked and whatever adjustments, if there were any, never worked either. I hope Hiller can develop as a coach but it doesn't seem like it.

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