Latest news with #Oilers-Kings
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Connor McDavid's First Post After Oilers-Kings Series Draws Eyes
The Edmonton Oilers appeared as though their playoff mastery over the Los Angeles Kings was coming to an end after they dropped the first two games of the series. But Connor McDavid and the Oilers turned things around, winning the next four games to earn a seat in the second round and leave Los Angeles confounded yet again about its inability to overcome Edmonton in the postseason. Advertisement The Oilers finished their date with LA with a 6-4 victory at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Thursday. Less than 24 hours after that win, McDavid summed up the experience in the first round with a short post on Instagram. "Round ✌️," McDavid wrote as a caption for a two-photo slide that included an image of him and Edmonton goalie Calvin Pickard hugging each other in front of the net. McDavid's post immediately garnered a ton of attention, getting over 11,000 heart reactions within just 15 minutes. Fans also have a lot to say about it. "LETS GOO OILERS!!!🧡💙. My first thought of the day this morning🫣," said a fan. Advertisement "Let's get that CUP!!!!" another one shared. "Connor u are a god amongst men" From another commenter: "Go get that revenge against vegas king ❤️." Via a different comment: "Time to sweep Vegas. let's go boys." "Who let the owner of the Kings post on this account?" another Instagram user said. Kings defenseman Drew Doughty and Oilers center Connor McDavid battle on the ice Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images McDavid played a huge role in the Oilers' success against Los Angeles, as he paced Edmonton in the Kings series with 11 points on the strength of two goals and nine assists. Meanwhile, Leon Draisaitl had 10 points on three goals and seven assists. Looking ahead, the Oilers, who have now sent Los Angeles home four years in a row in the first round of the playoffs, will lock horns with the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round. Related: Camera Catches Connor McDavid's Wife Celebrating in Oilers-Kings Game 6
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Leon Draisaitl's Fiancée Shares Wordless Post Before Oilers-Knights
Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers are fresh off a sensational come-from-behind series win against the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the 2025 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Oilers lost the first two games of that series before finding their groove and stitching together four victories in a row to eliminate Los Angeles in six games. Advertisement While it's a relief for the Oilers that they are still alive in the playoffs, it is not about to get much easier for them in the second round, where they will be facing off against Pacific Division winner Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas topped that division with 110 points in the regular season, nine more than the Oilers, who finished third in the Pacific standings. Before the series between the Oilers and the Golden Knights commences this Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Draisaitl's fiancée, Celeste Desjardins, shared a relaxed photo of the former Hart Memorial Trophy winner wearing a baseball cap and chilling with a dog. The 29-year-old Draisaitl played a huge role in the Oilers' success in the first round, as he racked up three goals and seven assists for 10 points in the Los Angeles series. Advertisement Meanwhile, Connor McDavid led Edmonton with 11 points on two goals and nine assists. Oilers center Leon Draisaitl (29) moves the puck against the Kings. Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images Draisaitl and McDavid will be relied upon by the Oilers against Vegas. The two teams last met in the playoffs in the second round of the 2022 postseason, with the Golden Knights winning in six games before beating the Dallas Stars in the conference finals and the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final. Related: Connor McDavid's First Post After Oilers-Kings Series Draws Eyes
Edmonton Journal
28-04-2025
- Sport
- Edmonton Journal
The Team That Wouldn't Die does it again — Edmonton Oilers win Game 4
Article content Outshot 14-6 in the first period, the Oilers trailed 1-0 at the first intermission on a not-great goal from Trevor Moore at 10:35, which wasn't great news for Edmonton given that in the first 21 games of the Oilers-Kings playoff history, the team scoring first is 19-2. The hole got deeper and darker when Oiler Warren Foegele made it 2-0 early in the second period, and when Bouchard saved up yet another L.A. Kings goal, just three minutes after Corey Perry had closed it to 2-1 on the power play, it looked over. But, once again, Edmonton made the Kings wilt in the third period. A fluke goal from Bouchard cut L.A.'s lead to 3-2 with 12 minutes left in regulation, and once the Oilers smelled blood, it was only a matter of time. Sure enough, with 28.4 seconds left, Bouchard put a point shot inside the post to bring the house down. Draisaitl's winner on the power play sealed the win.
New York Times
20-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Mackenzie Blackwood, revamped Avalanche leave slow-starting Stars with no margin for error
DALLAS — The air conditioner inside American Airlines Center was blasting, desperately trying to stave off the hot and humid Dallas air doing its best to seep through the cracks in the doors and windows. A frigid rink on a hot day is a sign of spring in the NHL, one of those harbingers of the playoffs that let you know the stakes have been raised. There are all sorts of little things like that around the rink — a more cramped locker room, a cryptic coach hiding his lineup from the press, every player using the phrase 'this time of year' in every answer, an empty arena with 18,532 little white towels meticulously draped over the seats. Advertisement 'I love the towels,' Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger said Saturday morning. 'Makes it look great. Even the morning skate with all the towels just makes it feel like a big game.' Oh, one more sign of spring: A player in a green hat standing in front of his locker stall, speaking softly, trying to explain — to reporters, to himself, to the heavens — that being down 1-0 in a series really isn't a big deal. Yes, the only certainties in life are death, taxes, an Oilers-Kings first-round matchup, and the Dallas Stars losing Game 1. Saturday's 5-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche was the eighth straight opener that Dallas dropped. Eight hours before the puck even dropped, Stars coach Pete DeBoer was already playing defense, almost trying to preemptively calm everybody down — maybe even his own players — if the thing that always happens happened again. 'Absolutely,' he said when asked if winning Game 1 was important. 'But we've also shown that it hasn't slowed us down in the past. If you're trying to get me to say Game 1 is a must-win for us, it's not. We've shown it hasn't (been). You always want to make your path easier and winning Game 1 makes your path easier. But our group has a real resiliency to them, and they haven't always traveled the easiest path. While we haven't had ultimate success, we've had a lot of success around here.' It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you. And it's not defeatism when it's inevitable. And so we heard all the usual things from the Stars on Saturday. It's first to four, not first to one, Thomas Harley said. We've come back before, we can come back again, Roope Hintz said. We rebounded to beat Colorado a year ago, Wyatt Johnston said. It's all true. So was Harley's assertion that this was the best game Dallas had played 'in a month or two.' The score was hardly indicative of the game, as Dallas was inches away from tying the game 2-2 late in the third period before Devon Toews crashed the net and put in a Josh Manson feed. The Stars looked cohesive and dangerous. They had more high-danger scoring chances. They played pretty darn well. They're worthy opponents for the Avalanche. Advertisement The problem isn't the Stars. It's the Avalanche. Dallas keeps bringing up last year's six-game win over Colorado in an apparent effort to buck up themselves and their despondent fans, who are rending their garments over a meaningless seven-game losing streak to end the season. But those Avs aren't these Avs. General manager Chris MacFarland's daring and dramatic midseason overhaul of his roster has remade, reinvented and reinvigorated the Avalanche. Colorado dressed a staggering 50 players this season. We've never seen a contender run through players like this. The Avalanche's goaltending was terrible early in the season, so MacFarland swapped out his entire battery — out went Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen, in came Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood. The Avs had brilliant top-line players but were tissue-paper thin, top-heavy and easily handled by deeper teams. So MacFarland went out and added not just a second-line center in Brock Nelson, but a third-line center in Charlie Coyle and a fourth-line center in Jack Drury. He bolstered the blue line behind Cale Makar and Devon Toews by nabbing Ryan Lindgren from New York and steady old pal Erik Johnson from Philadelphia. It'll be years before we can properly assess the shocking Mikko Rantanen trade, but Marty Necas has produced at a similar rate on the top line, and Drury has stabilized the bottom six. Colorado-Dallas used to be megastars versus mega-depth. Now it's depth versus depth. 'I cannot say enough about the moves that (McFarland) made to revamp our team,' Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. 'We came back with a lot of the same guys. … As a coach, we're really lucky. We revamped the most major parts of our lineup. The two goalies right away, strength down the middle of the ice when you get Drury, Coyle, and Nelson. Added some grit and determination on the back end with Lindgren. All the pieces, including depth pieces, served a purpose. It's never easy winning (in the) regular season; playoffs, it gets even harder every single round. They've put us in the best possible chance to succeed. We feel like we have a good team, and it's up to us now to go play our best hockey for two weeks at a time for as far as you can possibly go and reward the organization for giving us those players.' Dallas was dangerous, but Colorado looked more dangerous. Blackwood, making his playoff debut, outdueled Jake Oettinger, only giving up a goal when he lost his stick during a penalty kill in the third period. Nathan MacKinnon successfully lobbied for a critical high-sticking double-minor on Hintz that the officials initially missed late in the second period, then scored on the ensuing power play for a backbreaker of a goal, his first of two on the night. Throw in a little puck luck — Artturi Lehkonen's accidental soccer goal while being hauled to the ice by Mavrik Bourque opened the scoring, with another goal deflecting in off a Dallas glove — and that's how you win a Game 1, something the Stars haven't done since the 2020 Western Conference final. Advertisement Blackwood was the real revelation. His quickness getting across the crease, his evident athleticism, more than made up for any lack of experience. If Colorado was going to have an Achilles' heel in this series, it was in goal, simply because Blackwood was so untested. Well, he's been tested. And he aced it. 'He's an amazing goalie,' MacKinnon said. 'I have a lot of trust in him, obviously. He made some huge saves tonight. It could have easily been 2-2 and all of a sudden it's 5-1. It's a completely different game with his saves.' And so the Stars are left to wonder. Can they do it again? Will Miro Heiskanen, who was a surprise participant in Saturday's morning skate, return in time to make a difference? Will Jason Robertson, who was spotted limping his way out of the arena after the game in a knee brace that covered his right leg from ankle to thigh, have any hope of returning before the fall? Will Rantanen step up and be the postseason monster he was for Colorado, or does he need MacKinnon by his side to reach that level? The Stars are good. But are they good enough? They're deep. But are they deep enough? They're resilient. But are they resilient enough? 'Obviously, losing Game 1 is something we're getting used to,' Harley said. 'It's not an enjoyable feeling, but we've been here before.' 'I guess the good news is we've come back and won more than our share of series,' DeBoer added. They have. But not without Heiskanen. Not against this version of the Avalanche. The margin for error is just excruciatingly slim. So if this wasn't a must-win for the Stars, Monday's Game 2 now is. Otherwise, they won't be able to lose another Game 1 until next spring.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Edmonton Oilers kick off Stanley Cup Playoffs Monday in Los Angeles
For the fourth year in a row, the Edmonton Oilers will be facing the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and now we know when the quest for Lord Stanley's coveted trophy will kick off for the Orange and Blue. Given the Los Angeles Lakers are taking up residence at the Arena on Saturday night in NBA action, Game 1 in the Oilers-Kings matchup will go Monday, April 21, at 8 p.m. Mountain. Game 2 will be Wednesday, also at 8 p.m., with the series returning to Edmonton for Game 3 on Friday at 8 p.m. Game 4 goes Sunday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m. No word yet on any watch party plans by the Oilers for road games, or outdoor viewings for home games. Playoff action gets underway Saturday, with the Blues-Jets series kicking off in Winnipeg at 4 p.m. Edmonton time, and the Avalanche and Stars facing off at 6:30 p.m. Best thing about the Edmonton Oilers regular season: It's finally over Warren Foegele is on other side of fence now in Edmonton Oilers-Los Angeles Kings playoff battle You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.
