PREVIEW: Oilers at Kings (Game 3)

The Oilers look to take back the advantage in Game 3 of their first-round series against the Kings on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet at 8:30 p.m. MT or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630 CHED.

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PREVIEW: Oilers at Kings (Game 3)

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Edmonton Oilers will be aiming to regain the lead over the Los Angeles Kings with a better defensive effort on Friday night in Game 3 of their first-round series at Crypto.com Arena

“It's fun playing at home, but there's nothing better than winning on the road in the playoffs,” said Mattias Janmark after the team arrived in LA early Thursday evening.

“I think it's a different challenge for sure, and I think if we play it the right way, it can feed into our game and maybe we don't have to open it up as much.”

Edmonton is hoping to use its ‘road warrior’ mentality to get back to playing some better defensive hockey after some bad-luck bounces and breakdowns in their own zone during Game 2 on Wednesday contributed to their demise, falling 5-4 overtime in overtime off the stick of Anze Kopitar 2:07 into the extra period after Quinton Byfield somehow created a breakaway for his captain off a weird neutral-zone deflection.

Offensively, the Oilers have plenty to like about their game right now with the power play going 4-for-7 in the series so far and all three of Zach Hyman, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid combining to produce 15 points (5G, 10A) over two high-scoring affairs that have been split one game apiece after Edmonton's Game 2 loss.

The Oilers believe that if they can back to allowing fewer goals and play more of those low-scoring games, they have a lot of faith in their offence being able to push them across on most nights thanks to some renewed depth of scoring down their lineup.

"In the playoffs, it’s more difficult to score and we've been able to find the net," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "But every good team that is able to have a long playoff run and hoist the Stanley Cup when it's all done is usually congratulated and acknowledged for their strong defensive play, and there are things that we need to tighten up and get a little bit better at."

Dylan Holloway produced the first two playoff goals of his career in Wednesday’s Game 2 loss as part of a fourth line with Sam Carrick and Mattias Janmark. Evander Kane has passed the eye test in recent games since mentioning that he's been battling a sports hernia injury all year. Despite not having any offensive returns to show for his increase in play, the winger has drawn praise from his coach.

"Evander’s played really well these last two games and been a factor; maybe not so much on the scoresheet, but I think the impact he's had on the game has been very positive for us and we want to use him more, get him more minutes and more offensive opportunities," Knoblauch said. "How that'll look, we'll discuss and find out what's best."

Like Holloway, Coach Knoblauch wants to find more opportunities for Kane in the lineup, but doesn't want to handcuff himself into making a hasty decision when the lines that could be affected by the changes are still having positive moments.

"You don't want to juggle too much, and it's a short period where if one of your best players has one or two bad games, you don't want to be shuffling the lines so much because they're bound to find their game and be one of your better players as they have been for most of the year."

Janmark added that the road is great for getting the team back into that defence-first mindset.

“I think Game 1 maybe the score doesn't show the game quite as much, but for sure [Wednesday] we let them get up to a 3-1 lead, and it's going to be hard to win in the playoffs if you do that continuously,” Janmark said. “We can't get scored on four times per game. That's not going to work. It's going to be a quick exit, so we’ve got to find our game here and I think going on the road can help us there.”