Los Angeles Kings vs. Edmonton Oilers: The Opposition

Everyone knows about Connor McDavid. He’s shattering records left and right this season. This year, McDavid became just the sixth player in NHL history to reach the 150-point threshold. He’s set to win his third consecutive Art Ross trophy as the league’s leading scorer, which will be his fifth overall. He also led the league for the first time in goal scoring, beating out David Pastrnak by three goals.

But there has to be more to the Oilers than just McDavid, right? There are other players on the ice – like Leon Draisaitl, having the kind of season that would be getting him showered in accolades if it weren’t for McDavid, or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who’s shattered previous career highs this year.

To understand the current state of the Edmonton Oilers – beyond just the “wow, that Connor McDavid, huh” level of understanding, I turned to reporter Tom Gazzola, who’s covered the Oilers for over 12 years. You can hear Tom on the Oilers pre- and post-game shows on TSN 1260, as well as on The Oil Stream and Hello Hockey. Tom was kind enough to answer a few questions to help us understand what we’re getting into tonight.

1. We all know how great Connor McDavid is but this season has been truly special. How has he reached these great heights this year?

A couple of reasons why McDavid has reset the bar even higher. First, he has entered his prime at 26 years of age and has played eight NHL seasons. He knows the league inside and out and continues to push himself to be the best player in the world. The other motivator for McDavid, in my opinion, is the disappointment of reaching the Western Conference Final and being swept by the Avalanche as well as being snubbed for the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award last season. He’ll never admit it, but I guarantee it fuelled his fire all season.

2. What does the goaltending situation look like? Is Stuart Skinner going to start game one?

Stuart Skinner is Edmonton’s #1 goalie, no questions asked. The Oilers have developed him methodically and didn’t rush to thrust him into the spotlight. When Jack Campbell faltered early in the season, Skinner stepped up. He had an incredibly solid season, with a few blips here and there, but finished incredibly strong by going 14-1-1 since March 1st. He also set a franchise record for victories in a rookie season with 29, surpassing Hall of Famer Grant Fuhr’s previous high of 28.

3. Assume the Kings manage to shut McDavid’s line down. (This is a hypothetical, just go with me here,) Who do they have to keep an eye out for on secondary scoring?

If the Kings find a way to neutralize Connor McDavid, they would then have to make sure they can also stop Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman & Evander Kane. Nugent-Hopkins set a new career high in points with 104, so did Hyman with 83. Draisaitl and McDavid have played the majority of the season on seperate lines as well. Add to that, the Oilers got a healthy dose of offense from the blueline. Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard each had 40-point seasons. Deadline week acquisition, Mattias Ekholm, chipped in with 14 points in just 21 games, going a staggering +28 in that stretch. Edmonton has also received consistent scoring from its third and fourth lines – Mattias Janmark, Ryan McLoed and Derek Ryan combined for 7 shorthanded goals as well.

4. What weaknesses, if any, do the Oilers have?

One thing that continually plagued this team for the first few months of the season was its defensive zone play. Miscommunication, sloppy attention to detail and unforced errors were a nightly topic on my post-game show on TSN 1260. However, things improved in January. The team played better in front of its goaltenders and started to iron bad habits out of its game. Then the trade for Ekholm occurred and that settled everything down. Darnell Nurse had someone to share the workload with on the left side while Evan Bouchard all of a sudden and a calming veteran presence to guide him along, the same way Duncan Keith was able to last season. The emergence of hulking right shot d-man, Vinny Desharnais has also been a boost. Edmonton’s penalty kill also struggled in the early going of the season, but in the last month of the year saw an impressive improvement. The PK was perfect in seven of the team’s last eight games of the regular season.

5. Anything else Kings fans should know about this matchup?

I fully expect Todd McLellan and Jay Woodcroft to throw up smoke screens and try to one-up each other from the get-go. Having spent ample time and getting to know both of these coaches, I know that they are both ardent students of the game who are also schemers. It’s the game within the game that these two, I believe, have already been playing against one another since the March 30th matchup in Edmonton.

6. Give me one reason the Oilers will win this series (NOT named Connor McDavid, we already know he’s a human cheat code).

One reason why Edmonton will win this series (even though I think it could be a toss up) would be Edmonton’s hunger to get back to where it did last year and push themselves even further. They have a better team overall than they did last year, they know it and the desire to take advantage of that is strong.

Thanks so much to Tom for chatting Oilers with me! Give him a follow on Twitter to keep up with his work and coverage of the first round of the playoffs.