Edmonton Oilers veteran Corey Perry was brutally honest with the media after tonight's loss to the LA Kings. The Oilers were shutout by the Kings 3-0 today as LA netminder Darcy Kuemper picked up his 5th shutout of the season. <div align='center' class='pl20 pr20'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/NHL/status/1908656170891370818'> </a></blockquote></div> It was a critical game for the Oilers too as these two teams are quite likely to face each other in the first round of the playoffs once again this year. With the win, the Kings now have 97 points through 76 games while the Oilers hold at 93. If that gap remains the same, LA would enjoy home ice advantage in a potential first-round matchup. After the game, Oilers veteran Corey Perry spoke to the media, revealing his thoughts as to what went wrong in the game. Namely, he spoke to the absences of Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. <div align='center' class='pl20 pr20'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/EdmontonOilers/status/1908656411116212273'> </a></blockquote></div> McDavid last appeared in a game on March 20th, a 4-3 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets where he played just under 15 minutes, far below his season average. Draisaitl meanwhile has been in and out of the lineup as he missed some time last month and was out again tonight. This time, the German center was out because he <a href='https://www.hockeylatest.com/nhl/injuries/leon-draisaitl-confirms-the-incident-that-caused-his-injury-against-the-san-jose-sharks' class='lien_marqueur' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>reaggravated an injury during Thursday's matchup in San Jose. </a> Draisaitl and McDavid have combined for 77 goals and 196 points this season, so its fair to say that Perry's comments about removing them from the lineup are right on the money. Of course, any Stanley Cup hopeful can't rely on just two players to win, but if you take away the top two centers on any team they would be in deep trouble going into the playoffs. Luckily both McDavid and Draisaitl are expected to be available for game one of the first round, but until then the team could struggle as they close out the regular season. At this point in the season though there is no question of whether or not they will make the playoffs, so the team probably isn't too concerned about that.