Stuart Skinner couldn’t get the referee’s attention and the Edmonton Oilers third line had the blinders on while on for every Los Angeles Kings goal in a 4-3 overtime loss on Saturday.
Centre Adam Henrique (minus-4) was on for all four goals against and his line was dominated all day long by the Kings’ line of Warren Foegele, Quinton Byfield and Tanner Jeannot, who combined for four goals and seven points in the win.
“Just not having enough of our lines going,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, who did not need to name names, told reporters afterward. “We had strong contributions from some guys, but we couldn’t maintain the momentum, just because of everyone not playing to their best.”
Byfield wired home the OT winner in a disjointed Edmonton extra session. The Oilers had trouble changing, and at one point — with the puck in neutral ice and nothing really going on — a referee refused goalie Skinner’s request for a whistle due to a strap on his mask having come undone.
The next shot went in, and Skinner went right to the referees — who had given Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper a similar courtesy earlier in the game — to lodge his futile complaint, as the Kings celebrated.
“We saw that in the third period, when we had some momentum and they blew down the whistle for (Kuemper),” Knoblauch said. “I don’t know, maybe Stuart didn’t get his attention. But it puts the goalie in a vulnerable position, and if he pulls (his mask) off, it’s a minor penalty.
“So, yeah, we didn’t get the whistle. Which we definitely could have used.”
The Oilers had played only 15 road games this season, the fewest in the NHL. But starting with this quick back-to-backer against L.A. and Anaheim, they’ll play nine of their next 12 games away from home.
They certainly played well enough to win this one, a decent road effort coming out of the Christmas break. They’ll take their point in a battle between two of the NHL’s top three in recent weeks, with a long history of Oilers’ dominance that the Kings are sick and tired of replaying.
Edmonton had won five of its past six against L.A., and five of the last seven meetings at Crypto.com Arena before Saturday. Not to mention ousting the Kings from the playoffs in Round 1 for three straight seasons.
Leon Draisaitl (7-14-21) and Connor McDavid (3-16-19) both boosted points streaks to 10 games, though Zach Hyman’s six-game goal-scoring skein was laid to rest. He had three Grade-A chances, but couldn’t find the magic that saw him score 10 goals in his past nine games before Saturday.
Edmonton gets the Ducks Sunday at 2 p.m. MT / 4 p.m. ET.
Fair Warren-ing
In that longstanding tradition of former Oilers burning their team, Warren Foegele had a goal and an assist before the first period was over in his first game as a King against Edmonton.
Then he assisted on the 3-3 goal for a season-high three points against the team he spent three seasons with before leaving as an unrestricted free agent in July.
“This is a game I’ve had circled on my calendar for a long time,” Foegele told our Gene Principe after the first intermission.
Foegele left Edmonton for greater opportunity in SoCal — and money, at $3.5 million for three years — and got both with the Kings. He’s a top-six regular and getting some power-play time that he was never going to see with the Oilers. He’s got 10 goals and 21 points this season, and we’re not even at the halfway point.
Meanwhile, Jeff Skinner, sighed by Edmonton (one year, $3 million) is playing as a fourth-line winger. If the Oilers knew that was going to happen, they would have just given the money to Foegele.
In a close game against a division rival, Skinner got two shifts and 62 seconds of ice time in the third period. He was on the ice for the game-tying 3-3 goal, though not at fault.
Either way, Foegele was en fuego Saturday, and looks happy as a King.
“There’s always a chip on your shoulder when you play your old team,” he told the Edmonton Journal’s Jim Matheson on Friday. “I don’t know if Saturday is the ideal time, coming off a four-day break, though. But you deal with the cards you’re dealt. It’s going to be fun, interesting.”
