EDMONTON -- The Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers will meet in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third straight season.
Edmonton won the previous two best-of-7 series, in six games last season and seven in 2022, battling back from being down 3-2.
Though most of the rosters from the past two matchups are similar, the coaches are not. In fact, each team is led by a coach who took over during the season and are making their NHL playoff debuts.
Kris Knoblauch replaced Jay Woodcroft for the Oilers on Nov. 12 and Jim Hiller stepped in for Todd McLellan on Feb. 2.
Oilers forward Evander Kane is expected to play after missing the final three games of the regular season with a sports hernia.
Here are 3 keys for Game 1:
1. Closing things out
The Kings have had legitimate chances the past two years to eliminate the Oilers but have come up short each time.
Two years ago, they had a chance to clinch the series at home in Game 6, but didn’t, and then were shut out in Game 7 on the road. Last season, they led the series 2-1 and had a 3-0 lead in Game 4 at home, but they lost 5-4 in overtime and didn’t win another game.
“That’s what the playoffs are all about, when you have them on the ropes you have to finish them off,” Kings captain Anze Kopitar said Monday. “We weren’t able to do that the last couple of years and we’re looking to change that trend this year.”
2. Oilers changing Game 1 trends
Edmonton is 0-7 in Game 1s since defeating the Anaheim Ducks in the opener of the 2017 Western Conference Second Round. They lost that series in seven games.
“The last time we won a Game 1 in the series, we lost the series,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. “It’s a long series, you want to get off to a good start. We would like to do that here tonight, and it would be nice to put in a good performance in Game 1 here.”
3. Special teams
Los Angeles had the second-best penalty kill in the League at 84.6 percent and Edmonton had the fourth best power play at 26.3 percent.
Special teams are again expected to be a big part of the series. Edmonton’s power play was off the charts in the playoffs last year (46.2 percent).
In 12 games, the Oilers scored 18 goals in 39 chances on the man-advantage, and they have the exact same first power-play unit this season with forwards McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman and defenseman Evan Bouchard on the point.
The Kings are very familiar with the Oilers' power play and did a good job against it in the regular season, limiting Edmonton to 23.1 percent (3-for-13) in four games.
“We do prepare them (penalty-kill unit), they’ve seen most of it before, but they (Oilers) are continually trying to adjust as we adjust too,” Hiller said. “There are new things that they’re doing or things that they’ve done against us this year that they haven’t done in the past. We’re in the process of preparing them, but we know what they do well, there’s no question there.”
Kings projected lineup
Alex Laferriere -- Anze Kopitar -- Adrian Kempe
Trevor Moore -- Phillip Danault -- Viktor Arvidsson
Kevin Fiala -- Blake Lizotte -- Trevor Lewis
Quinton Byfield -- Pierre-Luc Dubios -- Carl Grundstrom
Mikey Anderson -- Drew Doughty
Vladislav Gavrikov -- Matt Roy
Andreas Englund -- Jordan Spence
Cam Talbot
David Rittich
Scratched: Aaron Dell, Arthur Kaliyev, Jacob Moverare
Injured: None
Oilers projected lineup
Adam Henrique -- Connor McDavid -- Zach Hyman
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Leon Draisaitl -- Warren Foegele
Dylan Holloway -- Ryan McLeod -- Corey Perry
Evander Kane -- Sam Carrick -- Mattias Janmark
Mattias Ekholm -- Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse -- Cody Ceci
Brett Kulak -- Vincent Desharnais
Stuart Skinner
Calvin Pickard
Scratched: Connor Brown, Ryan Fanti, Sam Gagner, Derek Ryan, Troy Stecher
Injured: None
Status report
Grundstrom will play on the fourth line after being recalled Saturday from a conditioning loan with Ontario of the American Hockey League … Edmonton recalled Fanti, a goalie, on an emergency basis from Bakersfield of the AHL on Monday.
NHL.com independent correspondent Gerry Moddejonge contributed to this report
