In danger of losing contact with the rest of the pack, the Los Angeles Kings broke out the offense in a rare display of effectiveness Thursday night. Granted it was against the Edmonton Oilers but the Kings needed to dust off the offense and did so in an 8-2 thrashing of the Oilers.
Drew Doughty broke a scoring drought in win over Oilers – file photo by Jack Lima
Several Kings skaters broke long scoring droughts including Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty and Jordan Nolan.
“We need them to do it every game,” Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. “[Brown’s] our captain and Drew’s obviously one of the top players in the League. When you go double digits or twenty-something games without a goal, I’m sure it wears on those guys because they’re used to being successful.”
For the Oilers, it was another game of leaving their goalies out to dry. The defense was standing around most of the night.
“I have no words to describe it,” forward Jordan Eberle said. “It’s just embarrassing.
“We are professional hockey players, so when you go out and give that effort, it’s embarrassing. They treated us like a junior hockey team, but because you’re a professional hockey player you have to be able to play through whatever it is or else there will be guys who will take your spot.”
The Kings are now tied with the Winnipeg Jets at 90 points and own the last playoff spot for the time being with tiebreakers in their favor.
“We have a lot of guys in here that thrive under pressure situations,” Doughty said. “We have a lot of heart, and we believe in every single player in this room to get the job done, and we have a lot of work left to do. So it’s only one game, and we can’t get ahead of ourselves.”
Ben Scrivens started and yielded five goals on 21 shots and was relieved by Tyler Bunz who gave three on 12 shots.
“First and foremost, the goaltending has to be better. I think we all know that. Going into the third, we put Tyler in there. It was a tough spot for him,” Oilers head coach Todd Nelson said. “We gave him an opportunity. It was probably nerves but we got through the game. But it has to be better in order for us to win hockey games, and the goalies know that, so we just want to forget about this one and get ready for some games at home.”
Marian Gaborik and Jeff Carter each scored twice and Robyn Regehr also scored for LA.
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