2023-04-16 19:37:46
A year ago at this time, Phillip Danault and the Los Angeles Kings made life difficult for the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the playoffs. While many did not give much of the skin of the Kings, LA had still imposed its rhythm, before bowing in the final match.
Now 12 months later, the two teams meet once more in the first round, in a similar context. Once once more this year, the Oilers will have home-ice advantage as they finished second in the Pacific Division, just ahead of the third-place Kings.
If there’s one thing that’s even bigger than it was in May 2022, however, it’s obviously Connor McDavid’s outfit. Already dominating last season, McDavid pushed his limits this season with a tally of 64 goals and 153 points to win the Maurice-Richard trophy and the Art-Ross trophy.
McDavid’s 153 points rank him 15th all-time, behind Wayne Gretzky (9x), Mario Lemieux (4x) and Steve Yzerman (1x).
He might well become Danault’s problem for the next few days.
Last year, Danault played the majority of his appearances once morest McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Danault’s success once morest Draisaitl had even forced Jay Woodcroft to pair the German with McDavid to allow them to produce offensively. Danault’s efforts weren’t enough, however, and the Kings blew a 3-2 series lead.
This will be the ninth time the Oilers and Kings have met in the playoffs and history gives the Oilers a big lead with a record of six wins and just two losses.
This season, the two teams have split the honors of the four matchups. The Kings won the first two games, but the Oilers have had the advantage recently with wins over the Kings on March 30 and April 4.
McDavid has been relatively quiet in those four games, with two goals and an assist. In fact, the Kings are one of only two teams to have kept McDavid under one point per game this season, along with the St. Louis Blues. His 0.75 ppg performance once morest the Kings is McDavid’s second-lowest this season, following averaging 0.67 ppg once morest the Blues.
Series schedule:
Game 1 – Monday, April 17, Edmonton
Game 2 – Wednesday April 19, Edmonton
Game 3 – Friday, April 21, Los Angeles
Game 4 – Sunday April 23, Los Angeles
Game 5 (if necessary) – Tuesday, April 25, Edmonton
Game 6 (if necessary) – Saturday April 29, Los Angeles
Game 7 (if necessary) – Monday, May 1, Edmonton
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