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Bring it on: the Oilers should want to face the Kings once again
Edmonton Oilers Connor McDavid Los Angeles Kings Drew Doughty
Photo credit: © Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
Tyler Yaremchuk
Apr 15, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 15, 2026, 11:46 EDT
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You can fire coaches, trade for new goaltenders, load up at the deadline, and it simply doesn’t matter.
The Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings meeting in the first round is seemingly inevitable.
As we enter the second-to-last day of the NHL’s regular season, the most likely first-round opponent for the Oilers is once again the Kings.
All jokes aside, it’s basically a coin clip at the moment but there are two different scenarios that could lead to the fifth straight playoff meeting between the two clubs. Here are those Game 82 scenarios:
  • Oilers win (or lose in OT), Golden Knights win, Kings win, Ducks lose (regulation or OT)
  • Oilers lose (regulation or OT), Golden Knights lose, Kings win, Ducks lose
  • Oilers lose (regulation only), Kings win, Ducks lose (regulation or OT), Golden Knights (doesn’t matter)
Loser points could technically complicate things but those are the two basic paths that exist. The third path would actually mean that the Kings get home ice over the Oilers in round one.
The Oilers could still technically catch the Golden Knights for the top spot in the Pacifici Division, but they would need Vegas to lose to the Seattle Kraken tonight to make that a possibility.
The Oilers could still finish as low as the second wild card seed if they were to lose and both Anaheim and Los Angeles were to win. That would mean that Edmonton would have to play Colorado in the first round of the playoffs.
Not ideal.
I know Oilers fans are going to groan at the idea of playing the Kings once again… I’m here to say: bring it on!
If you’re an Oilers fan who is tired of seeing the Kings in the first round, let me ask you this: how could you be tired of winning?
Last year was the Kings best shot at beating the Oilers. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead, had the defending Western Conference Champions on the ropes… and choked it away.
That series illustrated the biggest difference between these two teams. The Kings don’t have the same level of elite, high-end talent that the Oilers do. 
Even when the Oilers aren’t at their best, they can get a few big plays from McDavid, Draisaitl, Bouchard or Hyman and boom, they’re right back in the game.
The Oilers may not look as scary as they have in the past, but this is definitely the weakest iteration of the Kings team that we’ve seen over the last number of years.
Their 25th in the league in 5v5 scoring, 28th in xGF/60, and their powerplay ranks 29th.
It’s the same old story with the Kings: they can’t score and they thrive when it comes to playing in low-event, low-scoring hockey games.
If you want to play that style against the Oilers, you’re going to lose. If there are only going to be 10-15 scoring chances in a hockey game, I like the odds of the Oilers finishing off more of those chances than the Kings.
Also, outsiders like to call the Oilers a top-heavy hockey team who rely too much on their stars, but let’s not forget that last year a major storyline in their series was that the Kings were basically stuck rolling three forward lines.
The Kings’ depth doesn’t look much better on paper than it did a year ago.
The other thing I’d add is that the Kings’ blueline is nowhere near as good as it was last season. They lost Vladislav Gavrikov over the summer and really didn’t replace him. Drew Doughty is another year older and had some really rough stretches over the season.
They have players like Cody Ceci, Brian Dumoulin, and Joel Edmundson, but those aren’t players who can move the puck well.
Brandt Clarke has been good this year, but I don’t think a team with just one or two good puck-moving defensemen can beat the Oilers. Their blueline isn’t mobile enough and that will lead to turnovers and second chance opportunities for the Oilers.
Darcy Kuemper has regressed this season and while Anton Forsberg has been giving them some really good start, the Oilers may have found a solution of their own between the pipes with how well Connor Ingram has been playing.
Offence? Advantage Oilers. Blueline? Advantage Oilers? Goaltending? Way closer to a coin flip than it has been in the past.
The Oilers are the Kings’ kryptonite. Their boogeyman. And I love it.

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