Tempers flare as short-handed Oilers thumped by Kings in pre-playoff dust-up
“We’re not out there to hurt anybody. Let’s move on.” After a mild war of words, the Oilers and Kings will indeed move on after L.A.’s win Monday night that left no one surprised and no one particularly concerned.
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EDMONTON — It was a 2025 brawl. Plenty of face washes, lots of chirping and not a single scrap.
“I think they have their B squad and they’re trying to hurt us tonight,” said Phillip Danualt, continuing the theme said in his intermission interview.
It was the kind of fine whine that would have got you laughed out of the rink years ago, but today, that’s what we do. Complain to the intermission host.
“What the f—?” said Corey Perry when informed of Danault’s complaint. “Excuse my language, but what do you want us to do? Did he not see what has happened (injuries) over the last couple of weeks? What does he want us to do? We’re not out there to hurt anybody. Let’s move on.”
Well, Darnell Nurse did issue a cheap shot to Quinton Byfield. And the Oilers roster was peppered with fourth-liners and Bakersfield grads.
So maybe Danault had a point…
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“I’m not really interested in getting into a media war with Danault,” said Oilers winger Connor Brown when informed of the quote. “He took a run at me, I took a run at him. I don’t really have anything to say.”
The teams will indeed move on, after this 5-0 result that left no one surprised and no one particularly concerned.
With a similar lineup — though one that included Connor McDavid — the Oilers had won the night before at the home of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets by a 4-1 score.
Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you.
The Nurse cross-check to the back of a prone Quinton Byfield’s head will have the Oilers squirming this week. With Mattias Ekholm likely done for the season, Edmonton can ill afford to lose its best defender, and predicting what the Department of Player Safety might do is like betting on the hamster races at the old Transit Hotel on Edmonton’s Fort Road.
Byfield never returned to the game. If he suffers a concussion, Nurse may get a game or two for an undisciplined, dangerous and totally unnecessary act.
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In a game that featured not a single fight, there were 69 minutes in penalties — just 16 to the Kings in the form of eight minor penalties.
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch was asked if he liked the way his team stood up for each other.
“Yeah, a little bit,” he shrugged. “I don’t think we were running around. We had a couple scrums, but I don’t think it was anything more than a regular game.
“Obviously there’s some extra tension, just in the likelihood of us playing each other (in Round 1) going into this game. But I didn’t see a lot more than a typical game.”
This one was a mismatch from the minute they filed their rosters.
While the most important player among the Kings’ scratches was stand-up defenceman Joel Edmundson, the Oilers went into the game minus Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Ekholm, Jake Walman and Troy Stecher — six regulars and four of their very best players.
A few might have been able to play — McDavid for sure.
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But being as healthy as possible for Game 1 was deemed more important than improving the lineup for Game 81 of the regular season. And the result was predictable.
The Kings officially clinched second place in the Pacific with the relaxing win over the Oilers, and now they’ll await the beginning of their fourth consecutive Round 1 meeting. Edmonton has won the previous three in seven, then six, then five games.
“Everyone knows what’s ahead of us, a gruelling series,” said Brown. “It’s a good team over there, it’s a good team in here. It’s going to be a good series. It’s exciting.”
Is there anything to be taken out of this, the final meeting of the regular season between Edmonton and L.A.?
“What are you going to take out of that game?” Perry asked. “There was eight power plays for them and six for us. You can’t really do much about that.
“We know who we’re playing and we kind of know when. We know where. It’s a matter of being ready.”
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Give the Kings credit — they’ve gone 16-4 down the stretch and have the best home-ice record in the league. While the injury bug has felled the Oilers, the Kings have taken full advantage of good health and grabbed home-ice by the horns.
“It means a lot,” Kings winger Adrian Kempe said. “We’ve established our home game well all season, we have really good confidence there and we’ve shown over the last couple of weeks that we can play better on the road as well.
“I think we’re pretty happy with our game right now.”
Quinn Hutson played his first-ever NHL game, logging 14:34 for the Oilers with no points and a shot on net. He served Nurse’s major, and is expected to play again in San Jose.
