Oilers vs. Kings Game 1 Information

• Date: Monday, April 21, 2025
• Start Time: 8:00 PM MT
• Location: Los Angeles, California
• Venue: Crypto.com Arena
• Watch: Sportsnet (Canada), ESPN2 (USA), Fubo (Stream)

Projected Line Combinations

• Oilers: Injuries have been the theme down the stretch in Edmonton. Mattias Ekholm, Troy Stecher, and Evander Kane will be out for Game 1, while Trent Frederic will be a game-time decision. Leon Draisaitl and Jake Walman will both be back in the lineup for the Oilers after missing the final few games of the regular season. At practice on Sunday, the Oilers ran with Connor McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Adam Henrique down the middle with Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard as the top defensive pairing.
• Kings: There’s only one player on the Kings dealing with an injury heading into the playoffs, as winger Tanner Jeannot has been on the shelf since late March with an undisclosed ailment. Trade deadline addition Andrei Kuzmenko has been a nice pick-up for the Kings, with five goals and 17 points in 22 games playing alongside Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe on the top line. Drew Doughty and Mikey Anderson as the top defensive pairing for Los Angeles, while veteran defenders Vladislav Gavrikov and Joel Edmundson have been split up to play with young blueliners Jordan Spence and Brandt Clarke.

Projected Starting Goaltenders

• Oilers: Stuart Skinner was in the starter’s net at Edmonton’s practice on Sunday, indicating that he’ll get the nod for the Oilers in Game 1. Skinner suffered a concussion in late March and missed a handful of games, but turned aside 35 of 36 shots in two wins since returning. The 26-year-old went 26-18-4 during the regular season with a .896 save percentage.
• Kings: Though it hasn’t been confirmed, there’s no doubt the Kings will go with Darcy Kuemper in Game 1 on Monday. Backup David Rittich started the final two games of Los Angeles’s season after Kuemper picked up a shutout in their 5-0 win over the Oilers that clinched home-ice advantage. The veteran went 31-11-7 with a .921 save percentage in his first season with the Kings.

Thoughts and notes heading into Game 1

• The Kings surely see this as a prime opportunity to finally beat the Oilers after back-to-back-to-back years of losing to them in the playoffs. Los Angeles hasn’t won a playoff series since back in 2014, when they beat the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup Final. In the ten seasons since, they’ve missed the playoffs five times and made it five times.
• Rob Blake took over as general manager in April of 2017 and took the Kings through a quick rebuild, missing the playoffs in 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2021. The plan was to move out veterans for draft picks and prospects in order to rebuild a new core around Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty. Those future Hall of Famers are now 37 and 35 years old and this year could be their best shot at a late-career Stanley Cup run.
• The Oilers cruised past the Kings in last year’s first-round series in five games. The big difference in that meeting was special teams, as Edmonton scored nine goals on 20 power-play opportunities while not allowing Los Angeles to score a single power-play goal.
• After losing last year in five games, the Kings made a few key changes in the off-season. They moved Pierre-Luc Dubois for Darcy Kuemper and they added Warren Foegele and Joel Edmundson in free agency. All three of those players are veterans with plenty of playoff experience and the Kings are hoping that they’ll tip the scale against the Oilers.
• This year’s Oilers are pretty different than the Oilers that hammered the Kings last season. Six players who played for Edmonton in that series left the team in the off-season (Foegele, Dylan Holloway, Cody Ceci, Vincent Deshanrias, Sam Carrick, Ryan McLeod) and two are injured (Ekholm, Kane). There will be seven players making their playoff debuts for the Oilers on Monday (Jeff Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson, Vasily Podkolzin, Kasperi Kapanen, Ty Emberson, Jake Walman, Josh Brown).

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