Oilers will find out their first-round playoff opponent tomorrow
The Edmonton Oilers will know who their first-round playoff opponent will be as early as tomorrow night.
After the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Calgary Flames last night, the Oilers have no chance of winning the division and will finish the season locked in at second place. This means their first-round playoff matchup will be against whichever team finishes in third place.
Right now, that is a battle between the Vegas Golden Knights and LA Kings, with the former holding the spot by a single point.
NHL.com
Either team can clinch that third-place spot tomorrow night. For the Kings to book a third-straight opening-round date with the Oilers, they will have to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks tomorrow night and hope for the lowly Anaheim Ducks to upset the Golden Knights.
If Vegas wins against the Ducks, then they will clinch third place and play Edmonton in the first round. The Golden Knights are very much in the driver’s seat for this race.
Here are the #Oilers playoff possibilities for round one:
EDM will play LA IF: Kings defeat Blackhawks tomorrow AND Golden Knights lose to Ducks tomorrow.
EDM will play Vegas IF: Golden Knights defeat Ducks tomorrow OR Kings lose to Blackhawks tomorrow
— Preston Hodgkinson (@NHLHodgkinson) April 17, 2024
An opening-round series between the Oilers and Golden Knights is sure to turn some heads. The two teams have a strong rivalry with each other after last year’s second-round series that saw Vegas eliminate Edmonton in six games en route to their first Stanley Cup championship.
This year, the rivalry has only intensified. The Oilers won two of the three matchups this season, but that one Vegas victory ended Edmonton’s historic 16-game winning streak. The Golden Knights were also severely short-handed in the last meeting earlier this month with all of Mark Stone, Alex Pietrangelo, and Chandler Stephenson out with injury.
It’s a good bet that Pietrangelo and Stephenson will be healthy by the time playoffs start and there is an outside chance Stone returns for Game 1 as he has already resumed skating after suffering a lacerated spleen a few months ago.
Mark Stone is officially back on the ice in a red no-contact jersey at morning skate. pic.twitter.com/UX8NRR93Pe
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) April 12, 2024
The Kings are the better matchup for the Oilers on paper. Edmonton won three of four against LA this season and looked fairly comfortable dealing with the team’s infamous 1-3-1 defensive structure. You could make an argument that this year’s Kings team got weaker with less depth at the forward position after the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade in the offseason and an uninspiring goalie tandem of Cam Talbot and David Rittich.
Whether it’s Vegas or LA, Oilers fans won’t have to wait long to find out who they will be playing to open up the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.
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