The first round of the playoffs has gotten off to a rocky start for the highly favoured Edmonton Oilers.
After surrendering a two-goal lead in the third period and allowing a goal in the final 15 seconds, Edmonton suffered a disappointing 4-3 loss to the LA Kings in Game 1 on Monday night.
The Oilers first blew a 3-1 lead with under nine minutes to play in the third period, before a costly tripping penalty in overtime by Edmonton defenceman Vincent Desharnais ended up being the fatal blow as LA’s Alex Iafollo scored the game-winner on the powerplay.
Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl spoke to members of the media after the game.
“We’ve got to be more mature than that.”
Leon Draisaitl shares his thoughts after scoring twice in the 4-3 overtime defeat.@Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/OqW8tHNrJU
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) April 18, 2023
“It’s frustrating. We’ve got to be more mature than that,” said Draisaitl, who scored two of the three Oilers goals. “I mean, it’s a 3-1 game and there’s eight minutes left or whatever. So, we’ve got to lock that down.”
Edmonton’s head coach, Jay Woodcroft, had similar thoughts on the first game of the series.
“We’re a confident group. we know we can handle certain situations better than we did tonight, specifically in the third period,” Woodcroft told reporters. “We did a lot of good to get the lead, but in the end, we’re disappointed with how we locked it down.”
The second game of the series is Thursday night at 8 pm MT. The Oilers will once again have the chance to win one in front of their home crowd at Rogers Place.
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