There’s a familiar feud brewing in the Pacific this spring. Once again landing in the division’s second and third slots, respectively, the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings are poised for a first-round rematch.
Last year’s Round 1 battle required seven games to solve, L.A. doing its best to slow down the Oilers’ lethal offensive attack but ultimately falling short because, well, Connor McDavid. This year, naturally, brings out the same stars, many of the same storylines. But there are some key differences, too.
Both squads bring to this rematch a new tandem in net, with the Kings bidding farewell to longtime starter Jonathan Quick after Pheonix Copley stepped up, and bringing in ex-Blue Jacket Joonas Korpisalo. The Oilers, meanwhile, thought they’d solved their goaltending conundrum with the acquisition of Jack Campbell but it’s been the steady play of rookie Stuart Skinner that’s backstopped them this far.
Kevin Fiala brought a much-needed boost of offence to L.A. this year and Vladislav Gavrikov fortifies the blue line, while the Oilers appear to have finally solved their puzzle on defence, the deadline acquisition of Mattias Ekholm unlocking a new level for this core.
The Oilers are fresh off an electric offensive season while the Kings continue to build a solid group ready for contention while sticking to their own structured game. Here’s what to know ahead of this first-round rematch.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD
Oilers: 2-2-0
Kings: 2-2-0
THE BREAKDOWN
We need to talk about Connor McDavid. One year after he posted career-highs across the board with 123 points, the Oilers captain went and blew those numbers away, skipping the 50-goal season and going straight to 64 while adding 89 assists for a whopping 153 points.
Leon Draisaitl, too, put up a career-best 128 points, the two finding incredible chemistry together with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who also broke the 100-point plateau.
There simply aren’t many words capable of capturing this kind of offensive firepower. “Momentum” is one that comes to mind, though, when looking at this Oilers club right now as a whole — a team that won 29 of its final 40 games, 18 of its last 21, and heads into the post-season riding a nine-game win streak to secure 50 victories in a season for the first time since 1986-87… a year in which they started the post-season with a first-round win over the Kings and ended it with a Cup. Hmm.
Not only did Edmonton beat L.A. in their last playoff meeting — their fifth straight series victory over the organizations’ history — they learned from them, taking lessons in leaning not just on their top point-getters to win close games. We saw that play out this season when, as part of their red-hot stretch run, they claimed a pair of wins over the Kings propelled not by the dynamic top trio but the blue line and goaltending — the two thirds of this franchise’s roster that has been subject to the most questions as it’s entered this chapter of contention. Of their four-game season series this year, split 2-2, the Oilers’ victories (2-0, 3-1) were the lowest scoring of the bunch.
They weren’t the only ones to stow away some valuable lessons learned. For a team whose identity is all about low-event hockey, last year’s first round bout between these Pacific rivals was, uh, not exactly uneventful. The same can be said about this year’s Kings offence.
The Kings, still known for their heavily structured game led by two of the best shutdown centremen in Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault, brought a little more juice on offence this year, going from 20th in goals per game in 2021-22 to 10th in 2022-23.
The arrival of Fiala and emergence of Adrian Kempe have made L.A. more dangerous up front while the breakout season of Copley in net is one of the most unexpected storylines of the year and Korpisalo’s arrival solidified a weakness. It’s clear who’s got the edge in the special-teams battle. While L.A.’s fourth-ranked power-play (25.3) is impressive, it’s overshadowed by Edmonton’s top-ranked unit, whose 32.4 per cent success rate is the best this league has ever seen.
ADVANCED STATS
(5-on-5 totals via Natural Stat Trick)
REGULAR SEASON TEAM STATS
Oilers X-Factor: Mattias Ekholm
Yes, the fate of the Oilers is ultimately found in the silky mitts and otherworldly offence of human highlight reels McDavid and Draisaitl, but there’s another reason the league’s hottest second-half team went from great to nearly unstoppable, and he wears No. 14.
Even the most optimistic of projections for how Mattias Ekholm would fit into the Oilers’ mix upon his landing in Edmonton from Nashville at March’s trade deadline didn’t see this coming. Because honestly, Ekholm doesn’t just fit in — he stands out as a difference-maker on a team with no shortage of star power, his presence raising the level of play of his peers. Take his defence partner, Evan Bouchard: The 23-year-old saw an immediate hike in playing time since Ekholm touched down and his production has flourished, he’s on PP1, and nearly half of his 40 points this season have come over the last 21 games (five goals and 19 points).
Stuart Skinner has benefitted big time, too, posting some of his best numbers behind a fortified blue line. In 21 games since Ekholm’s debut, the Oilers have registered an 18-2-1 record, including nine straight wins to close out the regular season. Ekholm’s racked up a plus-28 rating while offensively his four goals and 14 points nearly matches his 57-game output with the Predators this year.
Kings X-Factor: Phillip Danault
The gameplan is simple, even if the execution is not: Slow the Oilers down. If forced to play Edmonton’s game, the Kings’ offence cannot keep up with the kinds of numbers the Oilers have been putting up all season.
Few can, after all.
That was true last year, and even more so this season as we all watched the Oilers top the league in both individual and team scoring stats across the board.
We saw this gameplan play out last spring when the Oilers outscored the Kings by 10 and yet L.A. pushed their Pacific foe to a thrilling seventh game. While Edmonton ultimately emerged, they did not do so unscathed, the wear and tear from that series catching up with them in the Conference Final. With a stronger offensive game among the Kings’ top six this season than the one we saw last spring, can Danault’s shut-down duties be the difference?
BROADCAST SCHEDULE
(all times Eastern)
Monday, April 17: at Edmonton, 10 p.m. (Sportsnet/CBC)
Wednesday, April 19: at Edmonton, 10 p.m. (Sportsnet/CBC)
Friday, April 21: at Los Angeles, 10 p.m. (Sportsnet/CBC)
Sunday, April 23: at Los Angeles, 9 p.m. (Sportsnet/CBC)
*Tuesday, April 25: at Edmonton
*Saturday, April 29: at Los Angeles
*Monday, May 1: at Edmonton
