LOS ANGELES –– As the Kings navigated a minefield of a first-round series that had seen them get blown up for 14 goals in two mortifying losses, they sought an equilibrium between eagerness and impatience.

In Games 2 and 3, they found themselves playing with the wrong sort of desperation. It wasn’t the determination, sacrifice and at-all-costs attitude of the regular season, but rather frustration, angst and a tendency to take daunting risks with limited rewards.

That’s been particularly true when the Kings have had to play from behind. Though they’ve had respectable starts in all four games, they came undone in the second period of Game 2 and were down 2-0 in the first period of Game 3 thanks to the Edmonton Oilers’ early opportunism. In Games 1 and 4, early leads helped steady their hands.

“You can get roped into it, the way they like to play. They take more chances than we do,” defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “When things aren’t going great, it’s easy to get derailed from it. But obviously we’ve done a good job all year, when we’ve been down, of finding a way to claw back and doing it within our structure.”

The Kings, who range in experience from seasoned veterans with multiple Stanley Cups to rookies with less than a full regular season’s experience let alone playoff comfortability, now have to feel their way through when to run, when to walk and when to retreat, and fast.

“That’s knowing who you are as a player, knowing the time and the situation. You know that 97 and 29 are pretty good players and you have to pick and choose your spots,” said Kings coach Todd McLellan, referring to Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. “We haven’t done that. Even when the game has been close, we haven’t done an exceptional job with that.”

“When I say we have to get back to our game, our game is also making decisions that are precise and instant, not in-between,” he continued. “If you’re playing in-between against that team, you’re done.”

Battling Edmonton, and history

There was little in the way of gray areas or interstices for Sunday’s Game 4. A 2-2 count would have effectively shortened the series to three games, whereas a 3-1 deficit would have placed the Kings in a position from which only 29 teams have recovered from in the 105-year history of the NHL.

The most recent roster to surmount a 3-1 series deficit was that of the Montreal Canadiens last season. It shattered the Stanley Cup dream of its archrivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Aboard that bus, which carried the postseason’s worst team by record all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, was Kings center and regular-season team MVP Phillip Danault. He assisted on the goal that gave the Kings a 1-0 lead Sunday and scored the game-winner in their Game 1 victory.

In franchise history, the Kings have twice rallied from down 3-1. In 1989, they upended Edmonton after the Oilers had just won two consecutive championships and four in a span of five years. But former Oilers captain Wayne Gretzky had switched sides via trade, and he spearheaded a comeback by the Kings that would leave Edmonton waiting another year for their fifth and, to date, final Cup.

The other instance was against the San Jose Sharks in 2014. The Kings fell behind 3-0, then became the fourth team in league history to reverse sweep a series. Those Sharks were coached by none other than McLellan.

Lineup shuffling

When a team doesn’t get results, one can expect personnel changes, and the Kings made a handful for Sunday’s Game 4. Two lineup changes, one on the back end and one up front, triggered a reconfiguring of the defense corps and top-six forward group.

Veteran Troy Stecher drew in for rookie defenseman Jordan Spence. He paired with the Kings’ most seasoned defender and his former Vancouver Canucks teammate Alex Edler. That meant Mikey Anderson skated on the top tandem with Matt Roy. Olli Maatta, he of two Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh, teamed with rookie Sean Durzi. Stecher scored a goal, his first in a Kings uniform, to earn a 2-0 lead in the first period Sunday.

Winger Alex Iafallo moved up to the top line to start the game, taking the place of the scratched Andreas Athanasiou. Carl Grundstrom, who missed Game 3 with an undisclosed injury, skated on the second line in Iafallo’s stead. He assisted on Trevor Moore’s scoring-opening goal.