The Oilers have beat the LA Kings in the first round and will move on. Copy and paste that same statement from 2022 to 2025. The first time these two teams met up in the post-season it felt like a coin flip would decide who won and that was the case as the Oilers won in 7. In 2023 Oilers fans were feeling more confident about their chances and indeed the team would win in 6. By 2024 it almost felt like a first round bye as the Oilers would win in 5.

This year was different though. For the first time in these four matchups, the Kings had home ice advantage and were the team that was surging into the post-season while the Oilers were injured, playing lacklustre hockey, and certainly not the favorite going in. Through the first two games that storyline seemed to be true as the Kings dominated and quickly found themselves up 2-0.

Games 3 and 4 were not the prettiest affairs either for the Oilers, at least in the first period but the team fought back and won two games despite being down in the third period, once by a couple goals. It was slower than fans wanted to see, but Edmonton started to find their way back into this series and you could see the Kings floundering trying to readjust.

Game 5 was the first dominant performance from the Oilers and the first real sign that this team could win this series. If not for Darcy Kuemper that game could have ended with the Oilers scoring 7 or 8 goals. Most impressive the Oilers did that on the road in LA.

---

That brings us to Game 6. The tension in Rogers could have been cut with a knife. There was absolutely a sense that this was the Oilers one opportunity to win this series. A loss in Edmonton, heading back to LA felt like a near certain finishing blow for the Oilers.

It was not a perfect game by either team as both teams traded goals early in the first period but as the game went on, the Oilers started to take control. 5 on 5 scoring chances for the Oilers were 34-29 and high danger chances were 15-10. Calvin Pickard was not perfect by any stretch but he came up huge in the final minutes of the third period when the Kings were throwing everything and the kitchen sink at Edmonton.

The one thing I really want to focus on in this series as a whole is the Oilers depth. One commenter, "prock" on my blog "Predicting the 1st Round of the playoffs" fought back against my statement that the Oilers are a deep team. I'm not specifically calling this commenter out because there are plenty of hockey fans outside of the Edmonton market who still think of this team as the McDavid and Draisaitl show. McDavid and Draisaitl were both good in this series but this series was not won by them single handedly willing the team to victory.

Game 5 was won off goals by Kane and Janmark. In Game 6, Henrique, RNH, Hyman, Nurse, Frederic, and an empty net by Brown were the goals. McDavid had one powerplay assist in Game 6. Draisaitl had no points.

The Oilers started this season with arguably their top defenseman in Mattias Ekholm out. Nurse and Bouchard took on bigger minutes and Brett Kulak, Jake Walman, and John Klingberg all stepped up in a huge way.

Edmonton's starter Stuart Skinner struggled mightily and Calvin Pickard had to step in. Pickard won 4 straight starts for the Oilers. Time and time again through this series it was not the top players but the surrounding cast who ended up being the big difference makers. There has been much written up the Oilers being far too old (much of it written by myself) but these vets certainly rose up and met the big moments in this series.

Here is a quick breakdown of the goal scorers in this series:

4 goals
Oilers - 1: Bouchard
Kings - 1: Kempe

3 goals
Oilers - 3: RNH, Brown, Draisaitl
Kings - 3: Fiala, Byfield, Kuzmenko

2 goals
Oilers - 5: Perry, Kane, Hyman, Janmark, McDavid
Kings - 4: Kopitar, Danault, Moore, Clarke

1 goal
Oilers - 4: Henrique, Nurse, Arvidsson, Frederic
Kings - 3: Doughty, Foegele, Spence

Edmonton had 13 different goal scorers through this series, tied for the most in the NHL playoffs up to this point with the Blues being the other team with 13. This was a full team effort from the Edmonton Oilers.

---

Now Edmonton turns their attention to the Golden Knights, the team they lost to in the second round in 22/23 in 6 games. I will do a more robust primer of this matchup in the next couple days but for now I will just say this should be a great series. As I mentioned above, the Oilers had 13 different goal scorers in their 6 playoff games; Vegas had 12 in theirs.

Based off of the first round, the Oilers might actually have the advantage in net. Pickard finished the series against the Kings with a 0.893SV% while Adin Hill had an 0.880SV%. I will dig a bit deeper into these numbers over the weekend.

For now rest easy Oilers fans and enjoy your weekend. Kudos to the Kings and their fans for making this another memorable series and I look forward to writing more game blogs in the second round and hopefully beyond.

Thanks for reading.

Join the Discussion: » 7 Comments » Post New Comment

» Oilers vs Kings Round 1 - Game 6: Close It Out

» Oilers Tie Series 2-2: On Coaching, Bouchard Rollercoaster, and More

» Oilers vs Kings Game 3 - Hiller vs Knoblauch - No Contest

» Oilers vs Kings Game 2 - Kane Returns + Coaching Blunders

» Oilers vs Kings Round 1 Round 4 Primer