It will be fashionable to talk about the LA Kings weathering the storm in Game 4 in what stands as the most crucial game in this wacky, topsy-turvy series.

It will not just be fashionable but critical.

Kings head coach Jim Hiller acknowledged in the wake of a 7-4 loss in Game 3 Friday night that halved the Kings’ 2-0 series lead that he felt the team could have done a better job at withstanding an early-game push from the Oilers.

He’s not wrong. The Oilers took their first lead of the series just 2:49 into Game 3. Then the Oilers scored their first power play goal of the series and before Game 3 was nine minutes old the Kings trailed 2-0.

But wait, you say, the Kings very quickly got back to their game, the game that has put them in such good stead thus far and ultimately led 4-3 going into the third period. And that is also true.

But at the end of the day this is a results-driven business and all of these elements are interconnected.

“They were a desperate team and they came with a lot of push,” said Kings captain Anze Kopitar Saturday afternoon. “But then again if you look at it from our point of view, we got down 2-0 and came back and took the lead again. There’s a lot of positives we can take out of this. There’s some stuff that we have to correct for tomorrow and we’ll go from there. We’ve just got to make sure, I know it’s a lot easier said than done, but to get ‘er going right off the start tomorrow.”

The fact the Kings came back to take the lead in Game 3 speaks to their determination, their resiliency, and those are good qualities. But to flip the script back to what happened in Games 1 and 2 where they scored early and forced the Oilers to chase the game is, of course, the preferable plan.

To achieve that seems to be a combination of mindset and scheme.

Veteran defenseman Joel Edmundson suggested simplifying the game early in Game 4 when the Kings can expect another early push from the Oilers behind their amped up crowd at Rogers Place.

“Make them have to break the puck out and play in their own zone,” Edmundson said.

Hiller suggested that one of the paths to a better start is simply the experience that his team is gaining every time they get on the ice in these playoffs, especially those younger players who haven’t been through the playoff grind.

“You get to play at home and it’s intense and you realize ‘wow this is a little different’, now you go on the road and you really realize what it’s like,” Hiller explained. “So, I’m hoping that, and not to lay it on those players because it was collective, but I’m hoping that with that one game under our belt on the road that we’re maybe just a little more comfortable as a group overall.”

Can you draw a line between what happened early in Game 3 and how it played out at crunch time in the third period?

Some differing opinion on that.

But certainly, to some it seemed the Kings were guilty of being too passive as the Oilers controlled zone time and offensive chances leading up to the critical moment when Evander Kane scored to tie the game at 4-4 with 6:42 left in the third. The Kings challenged for goaltender interference. That challenge was denied and moments later, on the ensuring power play, Evan Bouchard scored the game-winner which was followed by two empty-net goals.

“I think you learn from that, that you need to kind of keep your foot on the gas and keep pressing,” said netminder Darcy Kuemper who was outstanding throughout Game 3 in spite of allowing five goals on 34 shots. “It’s tough in those games not to try and hang on to leads but usually you do that, especially against a team like that, they’re going to get some looks. Something we’ll go over and going forward we’ll try and play that a little bit differently, I’m sure.”

Easy to say ‘keep pushing’ or ‘make the Oilers play in their own zone’ but harder to do because these players are human.

“Maybe a little bit too much of backing off and not being as aggressive as maybe we wanted to be,” Kopitar explained. “But listen, in the heat of the moment you’re trying to do everything that you can to obviously protect the lead. We failed to do so but I guess there’s another game tomorrow that we’d better get ready for.”

Edmundson, from his perspective, didn’t see the Kings as having changed their style or mindset in the third. Fair enough.

“I don’t think we sat back. They just capitalized on their chances,” Edmundson said. “They got a good team over there so they’re going to make be making plays. We’ve just got to make it hard on them. No, I don’t think we sat back.”

If there has been one impressive part of this Kings team – and really there have been many positive qualities throughout the season and through the early parts of this series – it’s been the team’s ability to learn on the go. The ability to absorb disappointment and move on and in the case of the playoffs, move on quickly.

The Kings, for instance, collapsed in the third period of Game 1 and still eked out a 6-5 win. Game 2 was a masterclass in setting the tone early and staying on task all the way through a 6-2 rout of the Oilers.

In the roughly 44 hours from the end of Game 3 to the start of Game 4 the Kings will have to prove they can address those issues that contributed to the loss and hope to rebound with a win that would give them a chance to close out the Oilers Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena and earn their first series victory since 2014.

Hiller acknowledged there are a couple of areas he’d like to see the Kings get better at in Game 4 although he declined to identify them specifically.

“It’s something we think we can, it’s not big stuff it’s small stuff, but we think we can do better with a little bit more attention to detail,” Hiller said.

It’s been a series of great swings in momentum and unexpected twists and turns. And, oh yeah, lots of goals. Thirty goals in total through three games. That’s a lot. As a player or a coach, you don’t get to choose the type of game sometimes the game chooses you.

“Honestly, I didn’t have that on my bingo card, 6-5, 6-2 and 7-4,” Kopitar quipped. “Probably would have taken the under on all of those. It is what it is. At the end of the day, you’re trying to be first to four wins and it doesn’t matter how it happens. Would we prefer not giving up seven goals? Of course. It happens sometimes and we’ve got to move on.”