Hockey fans in Southern California will be getting a taste of the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the NHL playoffs after all.

But it won’t be those who cheer for the Los Angeles Kings, as with the Oilers securing second place in the Pacific Division and the Anaheim Ducks third, the two teams are set to face each other in the first round. Edmonton, sprung by Matt Savoie’s first NHL hat trick, beat the Vancouver Canucks 6-1, while the Ducks beat the Nashville Predators 5-4 to secure the final two in the division.

Game 1 between the Oilers and Ducks is set for 8 p.m. MT on Monday, April 20.

For the Oilers, the playoffs have been an annual affair in each of the last six years, but in the last four, the Oilers have squared up — and beaten — the Kings in the first round of the playoffs. They did it in seven games in 2022, six games in 2023, five games in 2024, and six games in 2025.

But now Edmonton, who has home ice advantage in the series, will get a taste of a franchise that’s been starved of the playoffs since 2018. It’s been an arduous road for the Ducks, who got swept by the San Jose Sharks in the first round that year. The franchise has since went into somewhat of a tailspin, bottoming out while getting a chance to pick in the top-1o of each NHL entry draft since. They’ve stocked the cupboards over that team, selecting Trevor Zegras (ninth overall, 2019), Jamie Drysdale (sixth overall, 2020), Mason McTavish (third overall, 2021), Pavel Mintyukov (10th overall, 2022), Leo Carlsson (second overall, 2023), Beckett Sennecke (third overall, 2024), and most recently Roger McQueen (10th overall, 2025).

Beyond McQueen, who has yet to make his NHL debut, all but Zegras and Drysdale remain on the team, with the pair having been traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in separate deals that brought back Ryan Poehling, Cutter Gauthier, and draft picks.

The Ducks have largely built their team through the draft, with other players like Jackson LaCombe and Olen Zellweger being drafted, and even goaltender Lukas Dostal, who was taken in the third round of the 2018 draft.

But Anaheim ramped up their efforts to improve in recent years, hiring Joel Quenneville as head coach and Jay Woodcroft as an assistant while supplementing their roster with some bigger trades. They acquired Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider from the New York Rangers in separate deals and had the biggest deal at this year’s deadline acquiring John Carlson from the Washington Capitals.

The Oilers, meanwhile, will look to do something they haven’t in the last two years: win the Stanley Cup.

These two teams have some playoff history, too. They first met in the 2006 playoffs, with the Oilers beating the Ducks in five games in the Western Conference Final, before meeting again in 2017, when the Ducks beat the Oilers in the second round of the 2017 playoffs.

Buckle up. The playoffs are back in Edmonton.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the Daily Faceoff DFS Hockey Report. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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