But their penalty killing, though it finished 17th at 79.4 percent over the entire season, was the NHL's best from March 24 to the end of the regular season, 92.5 percent over their final 18 games.
That momentum has continued into the playoffs.
"In the last couple months, we've laid a good foundation in what we want our special teams looking like," forward Derek Ryan said. "That rolled into playoffs.
"There's been more penalties than I expected in the beginning of the playoffs, but we all know special teams are huge come playoff time. You only get so many power plays. We want our power play to be lethal. If they're not scoring, they're creating momentum for us right now, which is good. The penalty kill's been doing the same. It's creating momentum by killing it off."
One of the keys to Edmonton's penalty killing in Game 2 was the sharp play of goalie Mike Smith, who made 30 saves for his fifth NHL playoff shutout.
It was a critical rebound performance for Smith, whose late-game giveaway in Game 1 led to the Kings' game-winning goal by center Phillip Danault with 5:14 remaining in the third period.
Los Angeles had eight power-play shots during their four opportunities on Wednesday, all denied by Smith.
"He was really sharp for us early on, especially on those penalty kills," said forward Evander Kane, who scored two goals for Edmonton, including one on the power play at 11:55 of the third period that made it 6-0. "Personally, I really didn't expect anything less from him. He's so mentally tough. He played a great game the other night, a mistake was made, it happens all the time and he had a great performance tonight and we've got a lot of confidence in him as a group."
Smith said he simply adopted the no-panic approach, opting for the calm demeanor and strong belief that Nurse spoke of when preparing for Game 2.
"To be honest, I really didn't feel too bad in Game 1," Smith said. "I made one bad play and it cost us the game. I think I just carried the same kind of mindset into tonight and obviously wanted to put in a good showing, especially after you feel like you're maybe the cause of the loss. A bounce-back is obviously important and obviously tonight the team played more up to the capabilities of how we're able to play, and we got rewarded because of it."