What a season eh? What an absolutely incredible season from the Edmonton Oilers. After a ho-hum start to the season, and a kinda-sorta eventful first half, the calendar flips to 2023 and all of a sudden the Oilers are cup contenders and the best team in the NHL. Oh sure, they didn't finish that way, Boston gets those honours, but from January 11th to April 14th, no one in the NHL was better than the Edmonton Oilers. Sadly, Vegas won their final game and Edmonton wasn't able to get the division (and conference) title this year, but still. A 50-23-9 record is nothing to scoff at. And their reward? A first-round rematch from last years playoffs with the LA Kings. Let's take a look.
Oilers vs Kings
Regular season record
Edmonton: 50-23-9 109pts
Los Angeles: 47-25-10 104 pts
Head to Head
Edmonton: 2-2-0
Los Angeles: 2-2-0
Edmonton:
As I said above, the Edmonton Oilers had a ho-hum first half. Not bad, but certainly not great either. They went 7-3-0 in their first 10 games, went 3-7-0 in their next ten (10-10-0 after 20), then went 7-3-0 again going 17-13-0 in their first 30 games. When the calendar flipped to 2023, the Oilers were sitting with a record of 20-16-2. Then came a game on January 9th 2023 (against the Kings no less). That game was, in my mind, the turning point for Edmonton. In that game, Edmonton went 0/6 on the powerplay, the Kings went 4/7, and Edmonton lost 6-3. It was clear to the team, and the fans, that this game showed Edmonton needs to be better. And Edmonton responded to that challenge. After that game, the Oilers would go on to win 6 of their next seven games, going 6-0-1. However, February would bring the sobering reality that help would still be needed, especially on the back end. And on February 28th, help arrived in the form of Mattias Ekholm. Arriving in Edmonton on March 1st in the afternoon, Ekholm played his first game as an Oiler against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Immediately, his impact was felt. He was solid defensively, grabbed an assist on Zach Hyman's goal, as Edmonton beat Toronto 5-2. The Oilers would play 21 games with Ekholm in the lineup, and played to the tune of 18-2-1. They went 14-0-1 in their last 15, and 9-0-0 in their last 9 games of the season. Oh, and I haven't even gotten to McDavid SHATTERING his previous career highs in goals, assists, and points (64-89-153), Draisitl notching another 50-goal campagin (52-76-128), Nuge hitting the century mark (37-67-104), and Zach Hyman setting new career highs for the 2nd-straight year (36-47-83). But there is so much more to this Edmonton team. The defence has been revitalized with Ekholm, Oilers had 12 forwards who scored 10+ goals this year, and Stuart Skinner was rock-solid in net.
LA Kings:
The Kings aren't slouches and shouldn't be treated as such. They also improved their team this year in the form of Vladislav Gavrikov on the back-end, and Joonas Korpisalo between the pipes (at the expense of Jonathan Quick), along with Phoenix Copley. The Kings play a simple, hard-nosed, in-your-face, grind-it-down, brand of hockey. As they lack the high-end talent of other teams, LA relies on trap-style hockey, waiting for their opportunity as opposed to actively pushing for it. And we saw this in their last two meetings. LA lost both, but by scores of 2-0 and 3-1. However, LA does have some firewpower. Victor Arviddson and Kevin Fiala can score.
Overall look:
This is going to be an interesting series. Both teams have improved from the teams that went head-to-head last year (and that went 7). On the one hand, Edmonton has been the hottest team in the league since January 11th, and have won games in all sorts of manners, meaning that they can handle whatever LA is going to throw at them. But by that same token, this is the playoffs and mental mistakes can, and often will, cost you, whether it be a game or a series. I think LA is going to try and continue to play that hard-nosed style of hockey, which is fine. Edmonton can play that way, or open it up if they have to. Of the current roster, only two players on Edmonton are below 6ft in height (Derek Ryan at 5' 10", and Kailer Yamamoto at 5' 8"). Everyone else in the forward core is 6' 0" or above, and nobody on the backend is below 6' 1".
My prediction:
While both teams have improved since the trade deadline, I think Edmonton still takes this series. They've been nigh-unbeatable since acquiring Ekholm, and even in the three losses, it was silly mistakes that cost them the game. They've given up 6 goals in their last 7 games (4 1-goal against games and 1 2-goal against game, plus 2 shutouts), they're bigger and nastier, and they've got a hot goalie. LA will make a fight of it, but finish just short.
Edmonton in 6
