EDMONTON - It will be the same dance partners for the first round of playoffs, but the opening venue will be different this time.
The Los Angeles Kings beat up the depleted Edmonton Oilers 5-0 on Monday, officially earning home-ice advantage for the opening round of the NHL playoffs as the two Pacific Division rivals will meet for the fourth consecutive year in the post-season.
Edmonton had home ice the previous three post-season encounters and won all three series.
Kings defenceman Mikey Anderson said itsa国际传媒 a "big deal" for his team to finish ahead of Edmonton in the standings this time and earn home-ice advantage.
鈥淚tsa国际传媒 a big accomplishment, obviously we haven鈥檛 had it yet, so itsa国际传媒 fun, itsa国际传媒 a good push,鈥 Anderson said. 鈥淵ou want to get first, everyone does, but we鈥檙e happy with what we鈥檝e done so far, itsa国际传媒 a good step and now we just keep plugging along and get ready for the next one.鈥
Adrian Kempe had a goal and two assists and Warren Foegele and Kevin Fiala each had a goal and an assist for Los Angeles. Quinton Byfield and Vladislav Gavrikov also scored for the Kings (47-24-9) who have won seven of their last eight.
Kempe said starting the series against the Oilers at home is a big deal, especially considering the Kings鈥 31-5-4 home record this season.
鈥淚t means a lot. We鈥檝e established our home game well all season, we have really good confidence there and we鈥檝e shown over the last couple of weeks that we can play better on the road as well,鈥 he said.
鈥淚 think considering they were missing a lot of guys tonight, we still played to our strengths and played a consistent and solid game. We weren鈥檛 cheating for offence and special teams have been really good over the last couple of weeks too, which is going to be really important going into the playoffs. I think we鈥檙e pretty happy with our game right now.鈥
Mondaysa国际传媒 game isn鈥檛 likely to be much of an example of what the Oilers truly have to bring to the table.
The Oilers rested star forward Connor McDavid and were also without the likes of Leon Draisaitl (undisclosed), Mattias Ekholm (undisclosed), Trent Frederic (ankle), Zach Hyman (undisclosed), Evander Kane (hip, knee), Troy Stetcher (undisclosed) and Jake Walman (undisclosed).
With so much star power out of Edmontonsa国际传媒 lineup, Kings forward Phillip Danault was quoted in a second period intermission TV interview as saying: 鈥淚 think they just have their B squad in trying to hurt us.鈥
Oilers veteran forward Corey Perry was ticked off when he heard the comment after the game.
鈥淲hat the (expletive)!? Excuse my language, but what do you want us to do?鈥 he said. 鈥淒id he not see what has happened (to our team) over the last couple of weeks? What does he want us to do? We鈥檙e not out there to hurt anybody. Letsa国际传媒 move on.鈥
The Kings were upset after Byfield left the game and didn鈥檛 return after being cross-checked to the ice by Oilers defender Darnell Nurse and then again to the head while he was down, a play that might merit a suspension.
Oilers forward Connor Brown said the bad blood on the night, with 14 power plays awarded between the two teams, just shows that the upcoming playoff series is going to be wild.
"Everyone knows whatsa国际传媒 ahead of us, a gruelling series, it was a rough one, but the refs did a good job keeping everything under control, they didn鈥檛 really let anything go,鈥 Brown said.
鈥淚tsa国际传媒 a good team over there, itsa国际传媒 a good team in here. Itsa国际传媒 going to be a good series. Itsa国际传媒 exciting. Obviously a bit of a frustrating one (tonight), but come next week itsa国际传媒 going to be exciting.鈥
The Oilers needed seven games to knock out the Kings in 2022, eliminated them in six games in 2023 and were victorious in five games in 2024.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2025.
