BLOG: Oilers prepared not to cross the physical line during Game 2

EDMONTON, AB – If there weren’t any surprises between the Oilers and Kings coming into Round 1, there certainly won’t be any misconceptions over how Los Angeles will try to work their way back into this series by crashing, banging and being outright menaces on the ice.

Physicality will be the name of Game 2 for the Kings on Wednesday night against the Oilers in a bid to respond to a rather uninspiring start to their post-season campaign on Monday night, but the Oilers are well prepared to meet the demand their own way and stamp out the urgency that'll be down by LA down 1-0 in this first-round series.

Kings Head Coach Jim Hiller left no room for interpretation about his team’s need to improve quickly – with the penalty kill and defending the rush being a few of those areas that need to be addressed – and there’s nothing quite like getting into the game early with a few hard checks or by instigating some scrums around your opponents’ net.

“I think you used the word: urgency,” Draisaitl said, responding to a media member after today’s morning skate. “They're going to come out a lot harder. They're going to check a lot tighter. We know that and we're aware of that.

“For us, it's just a matter of finding our game again and then just one-upping their intensity. We know this will be a tighter-checking game, so we'll make sure we're ready for it.”

Keeping it clean and preventing Edmonton’s vaunted power play from cashing in like in Game 1, when the Oilers went 3-for-4 with the man advantage, will be a delicate balance for the Kings, but the Oilers are all too familiar with that approach from experience and won’t want to get drawn into playing LA’s way.

Rest assured, the Blue & Orange believe they have the players to play that type of game, and probably nobody in the NHL understands how to do that than the man on the Oilers' roster whose reputation precedes him as a pest and someone who can goat you into taking penalties.

“You have to meet or match their intensity,” said Corey Perry, who's approaching 200 career playoff games. “You know that they're going to come out hard. They're down 1-0, there's no secret there. So you know they're going to come out and they'll be a little better than they were the other night, and we've got to be better than we were.”

LA wasn’t able to win the physical battle in Game 1, with their four penalties resulting in the Oilers' power play being able to put the game out of reach by converting twice in the third period.

Perry stressed the importance of knowing when the time is right to get involved and knowing where the line is with the officials aroudn the crease when it comes to being too aggressive – something he’s developed over 197 career playoff games and winning a Stanley Cup with Anaheim back in 2007.

“Well, that's one thing you can't really do is respond after the whistle, because you've seen throughout the playoffs and the first few games that they are calling it right away,” he said. “So it's a balancing act, and like I said, you just got to pick your spots and it'll fall where it falls.”

But even at the tender age for a professional hockey player at 39 years old, it’s a discovery process in the playoffs that never gets old for him.

“It’s just something that’s always been ingrained in me, and it's just something I have fun with,” he said. “It's part of the game within the game. The refs do talk when I'm around the crease. They're yelling at me. I'm sure you guys can hear it upstairs because I can definitely hear it playing. They let me know if I'm in the crease, if I'm out of the crease and if I have to move, so that's a nice part just knowing that fine line of where to be.”