Oilers, Golden Knights to clash in battle of last two Western Conference Champions
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The Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights will meet in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second time in the past three seasons.
Both clubs closed out their first-round series and advanced on Thursday night. The Oilers eliminated the Los Angeles Kings for the fourth-straight season, beating their Pacific Division rivals 6-4 to win four straight games and take the series in six. The Golden Knights also took their series in six games, defeating the Minnesota Wild 3-2 in the final game of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury’s career.
The series will be a battle of the past two Western Conference champions. The Oilers advanced to the Stanley Cup Final last season, losing to the Florida Panthers in seven games, while the Golden Knights emerged from the Western Conference the year prior, beating the Panthers in five games to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.
The teams have battled in the playoffs once before, with the Golden Knights beating the Oilers in six games en route to winning the Stanley Cup in 2022-23. Connor McDavid tallied 10 points during the six-game series, while Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Zach Hyman added seven points apiece. However, the Golden Knights got to goaltender Stuart Skinner early and often in the series, averaging 4.33 goals per game and scored fewer than four goals just twice in six games.
“I’m looking forward to it, they’re a great team,” McDavid said. “Obviously, they’ve won. They’re solid through the back end, solid through the middle of the rink, are deep. There’s eight teams left, they’re all good, they’re left for a reason. We got our work cut out for us, but we’ll be ready to go.”
The Oilers and Golden Knights split their season series 2-2, with Vegas taking the first two games and Edmonton winning the last two. Draisaitl led the Oilers with four points against the Golden Knights, while McDavid recorded just one assist in three games against Vegas this season.
Pickard started the final game of the season series between the teams, making 20 saves in a 3-2 win on April 1. Skinner was 1-2-0 with a 2.38 goals-against average and .924 save percentage in three games.
Ivan Barbashev led the Golden Knights with two goals and five points, while Noah Hanafin and Jack Eichel each had four. Goaltender Adin Hill started all four games against Edmonton, posting a 2.82 GAA and .901 save percentage.
Oilers confident in Pickard
Calvin Pickard will likely remain in net for the Oilers after going 4-0 in relief of Stuart Skinner in the series against the Kings.
"It means a lot," Pickard said after Thursday’s Game 6 win. "Coming in Game 3, you don't want to chase results. You just want to go out and do your job. My job is just to hit the ball back, make the saves when I can and I did that for the back half of the game. We have the ability to score a lot of goals and we put a lot in tonight, so my job is to let one less than the other guy."
"Picks gave us a chance every night," said Oilers captain McDavid.
The 33-year-old netminder posted a 2.93 GAA and .893 save percentage in the first round.
"I was never doubtful to throw him in because we kind of ripped the Band-Aid off last year," Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. "Put him in a very stressful, almost a must-win game against Vancouver and he responded tremendously and gave us a lot of confidence.
"This year, it was a lot easier to give him the net."