Pyrrhic Victory for the Kings, As Byfield Exits with Upper-Body Injury

The LA Kings shut out their playoff nemesis Edmonton
Oilers 5-0 at Rogers Place on Monday night, clinching home ice advantage for
the first round of the playoffs. Currently sitting at 103 points on the season
with two games remaining, LA has a chance to eclipse the franchise record of
105 points, set by the 1974-1975 squad. That roster was filled with names like
Butch Goring, Mike Murphy, and Rogie Vachon, so getting anywhere near the zip
code of that team is a clear indicator that the 2024-25 Kings have had an outstanding
regular season.

LA got the jump on the depleted Oilers (Draisaitl, Ekholm,
and McDavid all out) at 2:55 of the first period with a
goal from Warren Foegele, his 23rd of the year.

Quinton Byfield would later make the Oilers pay on the power play with his 23rd goal of the year, adding to an already career season high for the 22-year-old centerman.  By the time defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov rippled the top corner twine at 18:45, the Kings would head into the intermission with a healthy three goal lead. Did you know that when scoring three or more goals this season, LA is an eye-popping 40-0-2?

Kevin Fiala joined in on the action with his team-high 35th of the season on the power play in the second period, and Adrian Kempe, not to be one-upped, tacked on his 34th goal of the year at 8:13 of the third period to close out the strangely officiated penalty fest. 

With his assist on Kempe’s goal, captain Anze Kopitar is now just 29 points shy of franchise leader Marcel Dionne’s 1,307 points, who managed to do that in just 921 games as a King.  Little Beaver’s 1771 career points make him the highest scorer in NHL history to never win a Stanley Cup.

Normally a 5-0 victory against a hated division and playoff rival would be grounds for at least a mild euphoria but Darnell Nurse’s cheap and dangerous cross-check to the back of Quinton Byfield’s head surely led to tossing and turning from Kings’ fans across the globe. The young star exited the game, and the team later announced that Byfield was suffering from an upper-body injury.

In a season that has seen the 2020 first round pick blossom as a talented two-way player capable of highlight reel goals on one end and solid defense on the other, losing Byfield for any length of time in the playoffs would be a huge blow for the Kings. 

Nurse, who has already been suspended three times in his career, is likely to receive a call from and perhaps an in-person meeting with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety, and deservedly so. There is no place in the game for these types of hits, especially with all that we are learning about the devasting effects of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) linked to repeated blows to the head. 

This year the Kings have shown the ability to overcome adversity, as they missed the services of Drew Doughty for well over half of the season. Now they may have to figure out how to vanquish the Oilers in the playoffs without Quinton Byfield.

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