Who doesn’t love a good rivalry? Whether it is on the ice, field, pitch or on the TV or movie screen, most of us love a great rivalry.

But is it great if one side always wins?

Some of the best rivalries include:

Oilers and Flames.
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.
Al Bundy and Marcy D’Arcy.
Red Wings and Avalanche.
Michael Scott and Toby.
Yankees and Red Sox.
Optimus Prime and Megatron.
Seinfeld and Newman.
Gandalf and Saruman.
The Lakers and Celtics.
Homer Simpson and Ned Flanders.

I’m sure you have others that captivated you. Rivalries grab hold of our emotions through excitement, fear, laughter or intensity. In sports, nervousness, frustration, disappointment and elation invade your senses and carry through a rollercoaster of emotions. It is what makes you a sports fan.

And in the playoffs those feelings increase tenfold.

For only the second time in NHL history, since 1967 expansion, the same two teams will meet in the first round for a fourth consecutive season. Montreal defeated Boston in the first round in 1985, 1985, 1986 and 1987. The Oilers are looking to match that and beat the Kings for a fourth consecutive year in the opening round of the playoffs.

Which begs the question. Is it a great rivalry if the Oilers always win?

It must be considered a rivalry, simply because they’ve met four years in a row. The intensity is there. The animosity will be noticeable from the opening shift, but I can’t put it among the best sports rivalries until the Kings win.

Edmonton had home ice advantage the past three series.

The Oilers won in seven games. Edmonton outscored L.A. 27-17.

Game 1: L.A. wins 4-3.
Game 2: EDM wins 6-0.
Game 3: EDM wins 8-2.
Game 4: L.A. wins 4-0.
Game 5: L.A. wins 5-4 in OT.
Game 6: EDM wins 4-2.
Game 7: EDM wins 2-0.

Oilers PP was 37.8% and PK was 87.5%.
Kings PP was 12.5% and PK was 63.2%.
Oilers outscored L.A. 16-12 at 5×5.

Mike Smith had two shutouts in the series.
Connor McDavid led the Oilers with 4-10-14, while Leon Draisaitl and Evander Kane had nine points.
Kane led them with seven goals.
Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci were +8 and +7 respectively.

Phillip Danault and Carl Grundstrom led L.A. with three goals while Adrian Kempe led them with six points.
Anze Kopitar was -6.

The Oilers won in six games. Edmonton outscored L.A. 25-20.

Game 1: L.A. wins 4-3 in OT
Game 2: EDM wins 4-2.
Game 3: L.A. wins 3-2 in OT.
Game 4: EDM wins 5-4 in OT. EDM trailed 3-0 after the first period.
Game 5: EDM wins 6-3.
Game 6: EDM wins 5-4. Kailer Yamamoto scored the goal ahead goal with under four minutes remaining in Game 6.

Oilers PP was 56.2% and PK was 66.7%.
Kings PP was 33.3% and PK was 43.8%.
Oilers outscored L.A. 15-11 at 5×5.

Draisaitl led Edmonton with seven goals and 11 points. McDavid and Evan Bouchard had 10 points.
Klim Kostin scored three goals.
Nurse, Draisaitl and Kostin led the team at +4.

Kempe led L.A. with five goals and eight points while Kopitar and Viktor Arvidsson had seven points.
Drew Doughty and Quinton Byfield were -5.

The Oilers won in five games. Edmonton outscored L.A. 22-13.

Game 1: EDM wins 7-4.
Game 2: L.A. wins 5-4 in OT.
Game 3: EDM wins 6-1.
Game 4: EDM wins 1-0. Oilers outshot 33-13.
Game 5: EDM wins 4-3.
Skinner was very good in Game 4 to give Edmonton a commanding lead in the series.

Oilers PP was 45% and PK was 100%.
Kings PP was 0% and PK was 55%.
Each team scored 12 goals 5×5.

Oilers special teams dominated this series.

McDavid led the Oilers with 12 points. Zach Hyman had seven goals and Draisaitl had 5-5-10.
Hyman led them at +4.

Kempe led L.A. with four goals and five points. Byfield had four points.
Doughty was -4.

L.A. hasn’t been able to stop Edmonton’s PP at any point the past three playoffs. In 18 games the Oilers PP is 45.8% while their PK was 82.5%. If that continues, L.A. has no chance. None. The Kings have altered their PK to be more aggressive this season. Last year they had the second-best PK in the regular season, but Edmonton still lit them up. The Kings PK ranks 8th this season and has been consistent all year long hovering around 81%. If the Oilers PP scores in game one, I wonder how much self-doubt creeps in for the Kings.

L.A. has the best home record in the NHL this season at 31-6-4. They’ve outscored teams 142-81 at home. However, they have the worst road record (17-19-5) of the eight Western Conference teams. They were outscored 122-107 on the road. Edmonton is tied with Colorado for the fourth most road wins (23-16-2) and outscored teams 125-115. They were 25-13-3 at home and outscored teams 134-120.

L.A. clearly has loads of confidence on home ice, and the Oilers will need to win one of the first two games. The Oilers are 6-2 in L.A. the past three years. They went 6-4 on home ice.

The Oilers have eight skaters who have played in all three series. McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman, Kane, Nurse, Bouchard, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Brett Kulak.
The Kings have five with Kopitar, Kempe, Danault, Trevor Moore and Mickey Anderson. Drew Doughty was injured and didn’t play in 2022.

L.A. will have their fourth different starting goalie. Jonathan Quick, Joonas Korpisalo and Cam Talbot couldn’t win and now Darcy Kuemper will try. Kuemper has had a great season. He will be a Vezina finalist, likely losing to Connor Hellebuyck, but Kuemper has been very consistent. L.A. is hoping he can avoid getting lit up early in the series, like his predecessors did.

The Kings will start the series with eight players who didn’t play last year: Andrei Kuzmenko, Warren Foegele, Samuel Helenius, Alec Turcotte, Tanner Jeannot/Jeff Malott up front, Joel Edmundson and Brandt Clarke on defence and Kuemper in goal.

The Oilers have Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner, Vasily Podkolzin, Connor Brown (he didn’t play in L.A. series last year) and Trent Frederic (when he plays) up front, Jake Walman, Ty Emberson and Troy Stecher on the blueline. The Oilers defence is much different, and smaller, with Walman, Emberson and Stecher compared to Mattias Ekholm, Cody Ceci and Vincent Desharnais.

I’m expecting L.A. to be aggressive physically this series. They’ve added size in Foegele, Helenius, Jeannot/Malott and Edmundson, and how will a smaller Oilers blueline handle it. **Update. Stecher didn’t skate this morning, and based on the line combinations it looks like Josh Brown could draw in. He doesn’t move the puck as well as Stecher, but he is much bigger.

I keep hearing how the Oilers’ scoring depth is worse, but the numbers don’t match that claim.

Foegele, Ryan McLeod and Dylan Holloway combined for 38 goals last season. Skinner, Arvidsson and Podkolzin scored 39 this year.
Connor Brown and Mattias Janmark combined for only eight goals last season. They had 15 this season, with Brown scoring 13 of them.

The drop in goals came from the top four goal scorers. Last year Hyman (54), Draisaitl (41), McDavid (32) and Kane (24) combined for 151 goals.
This season the top four were Draisaitl (52), Hyman (27), McDavid (26) and Nugent-Hopkins (20) for a total of 125.

Edmonton’s forwards scored 244 goals last year and 217 this season. The reduction came from Hyman, who had a career year last season, which, we outlined at the start of this season, wasn’t repeatable. However, it is important to note that scoring across the NHL was down this season from last.

Last year Toronto (274), Tampa Bay (259), Dallas (258), Edmonton (244), Vancouver (242) and Colorado (240) were the top teams in goals by forwards.
This year Toronto (246), Tampa Bay (254), Dallas (242), Edmonton (217), Vancouver (195) and Colorado (219).

Edmonton and L.A.’s forwards each scored 217 goals this season.
The Oilers blueline scored 42 goals while the King’s scored 32.

The Oilers should get a boost from Kane’s return at some point in this series. At the least he will add some much-needed physicality and intensity, but he also should be able to add a goal here and there. McDavid has looked much better since returning from injury, with 10 points in four games. Same with Trent Frederic, if he gets cleared to play.

Can the Kings contain McDavid and Draisaitl? I don’t think so, and if L.A. is going to win this series, their special teams will need to be much better, and they will have to score. I don’t see them being able to contain the Oilers offence to only two goals every game. The Kings only one won game the past three years when they scored three goals or less. And they only won twice holding Edmonton to less than two goals.

Meanwhile, the Oilers won seven games when holding L.A. to two goals or less and the Oilers won two games when they scored two and one goals. The results don’t match the theory that L.A. will win low scoring games. Maybe Kuemper will help that, but L.A. hasn’t had success limiting the Oilers offence and winning.

And that’s why I am picking the Oilers to win the series in six games.