from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,
In a battle of two divergent styles, Edmonton owned Game 1 by dictating how the game would be played for most of the 60 minutes. This game was about skating, passing and carrying pucks into the Kings zone, rather than the more deliberate — and boring — type of game L.A.’s one-three-one alignment is designed to produce.
“That’s not our model. That’s not the way we play,” stated L.A. defenceman Drew Doughty, whose Kings have lost two straight Round 1 series to Edmonton and got waxed in the opener of the 2024 edition. “It’s frustrating. We just have to put that game in the past and get back to doing what we do best and that’s playing good two-way hockey.”
Edmonton won the fight for how the game would be played, and as such, took a 1-0 series lead in this Round 1 series.
“We know that’s their game. We know they’re good,” Doughty said. “We’ve played them so many times, but that was probably the poorest we’ve played against them in the last three years in my opinion.”
I only saw the first period but Edmonton was playing in a different league. You know how a lot of playoff series start a little bit tentative, with teams getting a feel for each other for the first ten or so minutes? Not this one.
Will be interesting to see how LAK responds.
1-0 for Kenny so far.🙂
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