The Tampa Bay Lightning played in three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals in 2020-2022. The Florida Panthers followed that up with three appearances of their own in 2023-25 and the Edmonton Oilers’ quest for a third consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearance begins tonight against a young, fast, and inexperienced Anaheim Ducks club.

The 82-game regular season can be a grind, especially for veteran teams with significant playoff experience and a belief that they can play well when the games matter most. The Oilers are that team and while their regular season lacked consistency, the Oilers are playing very well entering the playoffs.

Edmonton allowed 22 goals in its previous 10 games. Only Colorado and the New York Rangers had a lower GAA, as they each allowed 20. When the Oilers commit defensively, they are very tough to beat because they have more offensive skill than most teams. They have Connor McDavid, the NHL’s leading scorer, and my source tells me Leon Draisaitl will return to the lineup tonight. McDavid has 150 points in 96 career playoff games, and Draisaitl has 141. They rank third and fourth all time in points per game in the playoffs among players who have played 50+ games. Add in Evan Bouchard, who has the second highest points/game among defencemen in NHL history at 1.08 (81 points in 75), and no team in the league has a three-headed monster this productive in the postseason.

Offence isn’t a concern. The Oilers had six 20-goal scorers this year, tied for second behind Carolina (7), and the Oilers and Hurricanes were tied for the most 18-goal scorers with eight. The Oilers can score, and they’ve proven that when they commit to defending they are a juggernaut. The last 10 games were an example of that.

“I think structurally we have been better,” said Mattias Ekholm. “But I also think it just comes down to between your ears. Just the dedication and playing defence first. Knowing if we keep your goals against down you are going to have a great chance to win games. It is a mental thing.

“Everyone knows what time of year it is and there’s no better time to start doing it. We know the recipe that we need to put out there to be successful, and of course we want scoring, but for us it starts on the defensive side and when we dial that part in it usually leads to success.”

The Oilers can defend — when they commit to it — and the past few weeks we’ve seen the Oilers reduce odd-man rush chances and scoring chances in the slot, and when they have given up good looks, Connor Ingram has made key saves. Ingram has started eight of the past 10 games, and he’s been excellent, posting a 1.94 GAA and .924 Sv%. Ingram hasn’t had to carry the Oilers, but when they’ve had breakdowns he’s made some timely saves. Tonight will be his fourth career playoff start, and I’m sure there will be mixture of excitement and nerves, but if Ingram keeps his calm, consistent demeanour, the Oilers will win.

— Matt Savoie and Colton Dach will make their playoff debuts tonight. Connor Murphy will play his first playoff game with fans in the stands, and he is pumped. Meanwhile, Mattias Ekholm will play in the playoffs for the 12th consecutive season, the longest streak of any active NHL player. It will be his 120th playoff game. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will all play in their 97th playoff games, while Zach Hyman will skate in his 101st game.

— The Ducks do have some veterans with playoff experience in Jacob Trouba, Chris Kreider, Radko Gudas, Alex Killorn and Mikael Granlund, but for Lukas Dostal, Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson, Beckett Sennecke, Mason MacTavish, Troy Terry, and Jackson Lacombe, this will be their first playoff experience. Trouba was laughing about his first experience in 2015 as a member of the Winnipeg Jets when they played the Ducks. “It was so much quicker than I expected it to be. We could barely get out of end to make a change (laughs). It was awesome though, and I’m excited to see how our guys adapt.”

The Ducks are huge, and in the future they are going to be handful, but this year, the Oilers’ skill and experience will be a challenge for the young Ducks. It will be a great experience for them, and they will learn a lot, but for them to win the series, they will need to play very good defensively and that has been an issue.

— The Ducks limped into the playoffs going 2-6-2 in their last 10 games and allowed 41 goals. Edmonton will be very aggressive on the forecheck, and if they can force the Ducks to play defence for long stretches, their inexperience will lead to some breakdowns and good scoring chances for Edmonton.

— McDavid scored 22 points in his first 21 games over his first three seasons in the playoffs (2017, 2020 and 2021). Since then, he has 128 points in 75 games over the past four seasons. He’s become an absolute force in the playoffs and I expect another productive postseason from him. I won’t be surprised if he improves on his career average of 1.50 points/game in the playoffs.

— Draisaitl returns to the lineup tonight after missing 14 games. He too is elite in the playoffs with 141 points and the fourth best (1.41 points/game) average among players with at least 50 playoff games played. He has pushed himself hard in practice to ensure his conditioning is back to where he wants it.

— I love the passion of working in a passionate hockey market. It is one of the rare places where people will freak out over the fourth line centre. I get why Adam Henrique is starting Game 1 over Josh Samanski. Here’s a look at their last 10 games at 5×5.

Player SF-SA GF-GA xGF-xGA

Henrique: 42-32 3-3 4.45-3.79

Samanski: 35-44 5-5 3.36-3.69

Henrique had more D-zone starts and takes more faceoffs. Samanski could get in later. Connor Brown and Kasperi Kapanen didn’t start last two years, but made big impacts as the playoffs progressed. The Oilers will need more than the 12 forwards dressed tonight to make an impact on a deep playoff run. I don’t expect the fourth line to be much different with Henrique, because much of their success came due to the tenacity from Dach and Trent Frederic.