The Edmonton Oilers kept learning from their mistakes in first-round series victory
One half of the Pacific Division Final is set, thanks to a convincing series win by one of the most high-powered teams in the NHL.
The Edmonton Oilers are advancing to the second round for the third straight season after vanquishing the Los Angeles Kings in five games. This is the third consecutive playoffs in which the Oilers have knocked the Kings out in the first round, with this year’s matchup being the shortest.
What made this series different from the last two years—which saw Edmonton beat Los Angeles in seven games in 2022 and six games in 2023—is that the Oilers found ways to overcome slip-ups that allowed the Kings to extend the series in years past. This has come from playoff maturity from a core that has been together over the last few seasons, as the Oilers bounced back from losing the second game of the series to win Games 3, 4, and 5.
On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk explain how the Oilers sort of evolved in order to avoid making the same mistakes twice against the Kings.
Frank Seravalli: [The Oilers] clearly outclassed the L.A. Kings, that was one part of this equation. The other part is the Edmonton Oilers, you can tell, really learned something…They could have buckled and rolled over and had this be one of the darkest seasons in franchise history, the way they started this year. As Connor McDavid put it, they “came back from the dead.” They’re stronger for it, and more than that, they’re showing in this first-round series that they’re learning lessons.
It wasn’t just the number of games, it was game-to-game, fixing the mistakes you make…I see lost of positive signs moving forward for Edmonton. Not only does this route to the Stanley Cup Finals or the Western Conference Final set up nicely for them in terms of opponents, it was never going to get easier than the L.A. Kings, but you had to take care of business.
You can watch the entire segment, and the full episode here…