"I mean, I think we're close," defenseman Mikey Anderson said during exit interviews on Sunday. "Obviously, you look at the games from last year to this year. I know [we] still lose to the same team, but they were better this year. We were better this year. Every game besides Game 5 was a one-goal game, give or take."
The Kings have not won a Stanley Cup Playoff series in four appearances since winning the Stanley Cup in 2014, and addressing issues on defense and in goal that were evident against the Oilers will be the top priorities for general manager Rob Blake this summer.
Edmonton scored 25 goals in six games, including 16 in the final three games after Los Angeles won Game 3 on home ice to take a 2-1 series lead, with nine power-play goals in 16 opportunities (56.3 percent).
The Kings finished 24th on the penalty kill in the regular season (75.8 percent).
"It has to get better," coach Todd McLellan said. "And just forget about this series, the year as a whole we went up and down. … So we've got to look at the whole package there. Who we use, how we do it, how it impacts the goaltenders, where the dangerous shots are from, how much is going through the seam. We have a summer project there, and so that for me is the biggest area of concern."
Vladislav Gavrikov, a defenseman who will be an unrestricted free agent, had nine points (three goals, six assists) in 20 regular-season games after he and goalie Joonas Korpisalo were acquired in a trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets for goalie Jonathan Quick, a conditional first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft and a third-round selection in the 2024 NHL Draft on March 1.
"He was very, very solid all the way through to the last minute last night," McLellan said of Gavrikov, who had one assist and a plus-5 rating in six playoff games. "And that sounds like a player coaches or a team would like to have, but there's also the business aspect that he's entitled to and that the team has to look at.
"There's only so much of the pie that can be divvied up, and we're rapidly becoming one of those teams that's eating up the pie quickly, so some tough decisions may have to be made."
Korpisalo is also an unrestricted free agent after he had a 7-3-1 record with a 2.13 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in 11 regular-season games. He went 2-4 in the playoffs with a 3.77 goals-against average and .892 save percentage.
"Listen, I'd love to be able to bring back that exact team that we had yesterday, full health, and run right through a whole season," Blake said.
Alexander Edler is the last of the Kings' three notable unrestricted free agents, and the veteran defenseman has not made a decision on whether to continue playing.
"I mean, the easy answer would be to keep playing until I'm 45, or something like that," said Edler, who played his 1,000th NHL game on Dec. 31. "But there's a lot of factors now with getting a new contract, seeing how the body feels, talking to my family, so we'll see."
McLellan is entering the final season of a five-year contract he signed in April 2019, and Blake said there would be discussions about a possible extension.
"I'll sit with Todd and understand his desires and where we want to go," Blake said. "Very confident in that staff right now. I think they did a tremendous job. Real good structure, system in places and they get the players to play hard."
