Golden Knights' Eichel lays outs game-plan to defend Edmonton Oilers superstars
The Edmonton Oilers are in Sin City and are looking to get off to a good start in their second-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Edmonton is feeling pretty good about themselves after stringing together four straight comeback victories to eliminate the LA Kings in the opening round. Now it’s an old foe in the Golden Knights who stand between them and a third visit to the Western Conference Final in the past four seasons.
It won’t be an easy challenge, but they have the two best players in the series with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to help them overcome it.
Vegas will be keeping a close eye on both of those players, with Golden Knights superstar Jack Eichel talking about how to defend that starpower on Tuesday morning ahead of Game 1.
“You do it as a committee… I don’t think it’s one person’s job to do that,” Eichel said. “They’re obviously world-class players, and they create a lot, and they are going to get their chances.
“Connor can create so much by himself with his speed and his ability to play one-on-one. Just trying to have layers to that… It’s a good challenge for us.”
🎥 Eichel: We understand the importance of Game 1 and getting out to a good start, feeling good about our game… just worry about your first shift. That's sort of our mentality now. pic.twitter.com/AJlAEzAE6v
— y-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 6, 2025
This won’t be the first time that Eichel has lined up against McDavid and Draisaitl in a playoff series. The two teams battled it out with each other in the second round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, where the Golden Knights came out on top in six games.
In that series, Eichel notched nine points to lead Vegas while McDavid led both teams with 10 points. Draisaitl had a four-goal Game 1 in that series and ultimately finished with seven points throughout.
So far this season, McDavid and Draisaitl have both eclipsed 10 points while Eichel is sitting at just five through the first round.
That isn’t the only thing that Vegas is keeping an eye on. Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy said that this is a very different Oilers club than the one they played back in 2023.
“That’s their team to me, big bodies that get to the front of the net,” Cassidy said of the Oilers. “Then you’re always kind of automatically deferring to the neutral zone speed of Draisaitl and McDavid, but they are a lot more than that.
“Their backend is probably changed quite a bit from two years ago in terms of [Jake] Walman and [John] Klingberg are much more offensively tilted than maybe [Vincent] Desharnais and [Cody] Ceci so you’re going to see a lot more D up in the play and pucks going low to high to the net with guys that can beat goaltenders.”
🎥 Cassidy: We're ready to go… they just want to play this time of year. It's all about the game. pic.twitter.com/aEPmvIz9iE
— y-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 6, 2025
Cassidy brought up Oilers players like Vasily Podkolzin, Trent Frederic, Evander Kane, Corey Perry, and Zach Hyman by name during his pregame availability. This shows that Vegas is going to have special attention on Edmonton’s knack for getting in front of the net.
Adin Hill will start Game 1 for the Golden Knights, while Calvin Pickard was confirmed this morning by Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch to get his fifth-straight playoff start.
Edmonton ran a familiar lineup in Sunday morning’s practice before catching a plane to Vegas, which should be similar to what we see on the ice tonight.
Puck drop is slightly earlier than usual at 7:30 p.m. MDT.