LA Kings' Jim Hiller, Adrian Kempe make feelings known after dismal playoff elimination by Oilers despite 2-0 series lead

The LA Kings were eliminated from the playoffs after losing 6-4 to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 on Thursday. The Kings had a 2-0 series lead but dropped the next four games, marking the fourth straight year they lost to Edmonton in Round 1.

Following the game, LA Kings coach Jim Hiller called it a missed opportunity and that the eam believed they could and should have won.

"100 percent, It’s a missed opportunity," Hiller said, via lakingsinsider.com.

"It’s very clear. Yeah, it’s a missed opportunity for us. Especially we had a great buy in from our players. We believe we could have won the series. We believe we should have won the series. We didn’t."

Hiller dismissed the idea of a mental block against Edmonton, though.

"No, no, I’m not going to go there," Hiller said. "We had our chances to get it done, and we didn’t get it done."

LA Kings forward Adrian Kempe led the team in playoff points with 10 (four goals and six assists). But despite his top-notch performance, the Kings struggled against the Oilers offense in the last four games of the series

Kempe said that the team’s biggest issue was its inability in closing games, pointing to missed empty-net chances as a key factor.

"I think this series, it was because we couldn’t close the games out," Kempe said.

"We couldn’t hit the empty netters. We had about 9 or 10 tries at it where we didn’t get it. I’m not saying that we win those games, we win the series, but it would have been different momentum going into Game 5 and Game 6 for sure. That was the biggest difference maker."

Kempe scored 35 goals and 38 assists in the regular season for 73 points. followed by Captain Anze Kopitar with 67 points. Kempe had a rating of 22 and averaged 19:09 minutes of time on ice.

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Adrian Kempe said that the LA Kings played better this season

Adrian Kempe compared this season's disappointment to the previous four playoff losses against the Edmonton Oilers. He said that this year’s loss is the toughest, as he felt that the Kings played better than in past seasons.

"I think this year … previous two seasons, two playoff series, I feel like we weren’t maybe close enough to be as good as they were," Kempe said. "This series felt like, besides the last home game we had, it felt like we were the better team."

The LA Kings will have to calculate their offseason moves to fare better next season.