Breaking down the single play that doomed the LA Kings against Edmonton

For the fourth straight season, the Los Angeles Kings saw their season end in the first round of the playoffs, and the Edmonton Oilers were the team to knock them out. However, compared to the prior three, this year seemed to be much more competitive and the Kings certainly had a good chance of advancing.

They began the series strong with two home wins before heading to Edmonton for Game 3 and Game 4. In Game 3, the Kings had the lead in the third period, but a goal by Evander Kane and then an ill-advised challenge by Jim Hiller swung momentum in the Oilers' favor as they would capitalize on the power play from that challenge.

While that certainly helped the Oilers and got them back into the series, a win in Game 4 would have given the Kings tremendous momentum and put them in a great position to advance. It looked like they were on their way to doing just that until the closing moments of Game 4.

LA Kings could never recover from Evan Bouchard's goal at the end of Game 4

In the closing minutes of Game 4, the LA Kings had a 3-2 lead and the Oilers had pulled their goalie in hopes of tying the game. Quinton Byfield would get the puck and instead of just clearing it, he tried to skate it out of the zone.

The Oilers would force a turnover and the puck would get to Bouchard who would beat Darcy Kuemper and tie the game. They would then win in overtime and head back to Los Angeles with the series tied at two games apiece.

The Kings never seemed to recover from this moment as they probably had their worst performance of the series in Game 5, losing 3-1, and while they had an early lead in Game 6, the Oilers took over shortly after and the Kings could never close the gap.

This was undoubtedly a closer series than past years but the margin of error once again seems so small that one mistake could cost the LA Kings an entire series.