LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Kings had their chance to get on track on Frozen Frenzy night, but instead they ran into Connor McDavid and another brutal first period.
Edmonton beat the Kings 4-1 on Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena, handing Los Angeles its fifth straight loss to start the Peter Laviolette era and leaving the team still searching for its first win of the season.
McDavid was the center of everything for the Oilers. He finished with four points - three assists and a goal - and continued piling up video-game numbers against the Kings, who have now seen him collect 51 career points in 38 games against them, including 20 goals and 31 assists.
He leads the NHL with 17 points and has posted multiple points in five of Edmonton’s six games this season. Afterward, Laviolette called him a "world-class player."
The damage came fast. Edmonton scored three times on seven shots in the opening period, with Leon Draisaitl starting the surge by slipping the puck past Darcy Kuemper from the bottom of the left faceoff circle after Cody Ceci drifted off to deal with McDavid. Vasily Podkolzin made it 2-0 a minute later, and then McDavid created the night’s loudest moment when he split two Kings defenders on a breakaway and finished with a backhand to make it 3-0.
The Kings did get a response from Brandt Clarke in the second period. His first goal of the season came when he came off the bench and sent a shot through traffic that bounced behind Edmonton goalie Devon Levi.
Levi has settled in after a rough outing against Vancouver on Oct. 1, when he allowed seven goals on 22 shots. Since then, he has given up just four goals on 91 shots over his last three starts, good for a .956 save percentage.
Los Angeles had reasons to believe better results were close. Before Tuesday, the Kings had seen encouraging play from Kuemper, who had stopped 58 of his previous 62 shots.
But his night was effectively over after the opening period, and Anton Forsberg took over for the final two frames. Forsberg stopped all nine shots he faced.
Even with the scoreboard tilted early, the Kings piled up chances. They outshot Edmonton 40-17 and put 18 shots on goal in the second period alone, but the finishing touch never showed up.
Trevor Moore said that’s the issue in plain terms: "Puck luck doesn't matter at this point," Moore said. "We gotta finish."
Moore was even more blunt after the loss: "It's just not good enough right now," forward Trevor Moore said postgame. "We gotta figure it out."
Laviolette pointed to the same problem from the bench.
"I feel like we had more than enough looks tonight," Laviolette said. "It's gotta find its way to the back of the net."
Special teams didn’t help. Los Angeles went 0-for-4 on the power play and is now converting at just 16.7% on the season, another missed opportunity in a game already tilted by Edmonton’s first-period burst.
The frustration is starting to show. The Kings have just two points through five games and have now lost 11 straight dating back to last season.
"We all wanna win so badly," Clarke said. "It's frustrating it's not going our way."
Los Angeles will try again Saturday night at home against the Boston Bruins before beginning a five-game East Coast trip.
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