It’s official: the Edmonton Oilers and LA Kings will meet in the first round of the 2023 playoffs.

The seeding for the Pacific Division was finalized on Thursday night when the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Seattle Kraken 3-1. It meant Vegas took top spot in the Pacific, leaving the Oilers second.

According to our own Jason Gregor, game one of the series will take place on Monday night in Edmonton, with game two coming on Wednesday. The series will then head to LA for games three and four on Friday the 21st and Sunday the 23rd.

It marks the second time in as many seasons that these two teams meet in the playoffs. Last year, the Oilers got the best of the Kings winning the series in seven games. The Kings took game one from the Oilers in Edmonton winning 4-3, before Edmonton responded with a 6-0 victory in game two, and an 8-2 win in game three. Game four, however, saw the Kings tie the series up at 2 with a 4-0 win. While the Kings took another game in Edmonton 5-4 in overtime in game five, Edmonton responded in the best way you could as for. They took game six by score of 4-2, then won game seven with a 2-0 victory on home ice.

This season, the two teams met four times with the season series split down the middle. The Kings took games one (3-1 win on Nov. 16) and two (6-3 win on Jan. 9), but the Oilers put together some great games against them late in the year. On March 30th, they won 2-0 and then went to LA and put together another win, this time taking it 3-1.

There’s more than enough animosity between these two teams already. Last year, Mikey Anderson hauled down Leon Draisaitl in a scrum early in the series in which the Oilers forward suffered a vicious high ankle sprain. The bad blood continued into this season with a fight-filled game on Jan. 9 that sparked the Oilers to turn their season around. On March 30th, Connor McDavid laid a hit on Anderson that forced him to miss five games late in the season.

This series will likely see more of that bad blood continue.

Buckle up, Edmonton — the playoffs are here.

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