April 17, 2023 by Josh Boulton

The Los Angeles Kings have a lot of skill. Even the worst NHL teams do. Finishing at 10th in the NHL standings with 104 points, the Kings are above average. So, yes, they are skilled. Do they have the skill to match the Edmonton Oilers? If fans are being honest, they’d have to admit they don’t. In a skill-on-skill contest with the way both of these teams have played recently, that advantage goes to the Oilers.

The Kings will have no choice but to try and eliminate the Oilers’ high-end talent, which unfortunately for them, is more evenly scattered over multiple lines than it was last year when the Kings took the Oilers to seven games before falling. What the Kings were most effective at during the opening round of the 2022 playoffs was to drag it the distance and avoiding penalties.

That’s not to say they excellent at not committing penalties. They committed a ton. They just got away with them. Frequently.

In the first three games, the Oilers outscored the Kings 14-6 and had a 2-1 series lead. After that, the cheap play began, and the officials looked the other way. What should have been a nice five or six game warm-up series turned needlessly into a grudge match with the Kings actually up 3-2 in the series.

In Game 6, Kings’ defender Mikey Anderson infamously hauled down Leon Draisaitl from behind with a questionable slew foot, causing a a high ankle sprain that hampered him throughout the rest of the playoffs.

While the Oilers did persevere, and while Draisaitl did recover enough in round two to set the record for most points in a single series ever with 17 as the Oilers took down the Calgary Flames in five games, amazingly, he was still never the same player last post-season he could have been if healthy.

Related: Could the Oilers be a team of destiny?

While the Oilers did persevere, and while Draisaitl did recover enough in round two to set the record for most points in a single series ever with 17 as the Oilers took down the Calgary Flames in five games, amazingly he was still never the same player last post-season he could have been if healthy.

You can’t help but wonder what might have been had the first round also been the five or six game breeze round two was. And there was no need for the opening round to be the way it was but for the officials deferring to the proverbial “playoff rulebook”.

So, the question is, will the officials afford the Kings the same luxuries as last year? Orr will they let the best hockey team win by playing hockey (whichever one of these teams that ends up being)? We probably won’t find out one way or the other until sometime during Game 3 again, but as a fan of the game, I hope skill wins out.