If you watch this series from a wider goal, you would probably wonder what could have changed.
I mean, these are the kings and the oilers once again, for the fourth consecutive season. The Oilers won the first three clashes, increasingly short, taking a series of seven games in 2022, up to a five -game victory in 2024. On paper, you would see the same two clubs, with the same star players on the Edmonton side and you would probably be quite confident that the oilers are gaining once again, even if you do not find their racing more short.
It is true that many things are the same on the side of Edmonton and no matter how you turn it, a match with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl will always be difficult. But the Kings would tell you that it is wrong to say that it is the same team of the former Kings. And this is really not the case.
First of all, it is a team of Kings who will open the series in Los Angeles, as opposed to Edmonton.
While the Kings have in fact won more matches in Alberta than California in the last three series, this year’s team has won 31 home games, a franchise record, with the best percentage of NHL victories in their own building. The advantage of home ice cream is certainly higher during the regular season, when the teams are on unbalanced travel schedules, but having match 1 on Crypto.com Arena certainly adds an element of confidence in the group before the match.
“Upon entering the playoffs, I would say (this is our best chance as a group), because we have an advantage of the ice at home,” said striker Adrian Kempe. “We think in the locker room that we are a better team than in the past … Everyone is quite confident in the way we play at the moment and it seems that we are a better team than in the past.”
Although he took a while to build, the team we see in match 1 of tomorrow evening, as Kempe noted, is different from any Kings team that we have seen since these two teams started their regular clashes. It is a team of Kings which is, above all, deeper on all the ice that we have not seen during past seasons.
What is interesting for me is that it is in fact the strategy that the team of last year had in summer, when optimism was probably as high as it was. Kings simply cannot rule out McDavid and Draisaitl, 2 for 2. No team from the League can. But can they win in the aggregate, with three lines which are of top-six caliber, creating a gap elsewhere? They tried to achieve this this year but could not do it.
Now they have done it.
With improvements on the Blueline and in a net to complete and an astonishing season in the Darcy Kuemper net, it is the deepest team of the Kings that we have seen since they returned to the image of the qualifiers in 2022. And there is something to say for that.
“Our goalkeeper is very solid this year, I think our D-Core has become more solid this year and I think our attackers have become deeper, throughout the programming,” said defender Drew Doughty. “All these things make us a much better team this year and I have the impression that we have much more confidence.”
Doughty is certainly equipped to talk about what is different, because it is here during the four seasons.
Anze Kopitar too, who has played each eliminatory match in the past three seasons. He echoed that Doughty said, pointing to a more “stable” group in Los Angeles, especially in advance, with younger players and new additions to strengthen the team.
“I have the impression that we are more stable throughout the range and a lot of credit to young people for bringing this stability,” added Kopitar. “We are going to need everyone from now on to play our game.”
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In addition to the young players who take steps forward, there are also those who are new this season, including three players who won the Stanley Cup or who were there during the last handful of seasons. Kuemper’s Vezina caliber season is obviously in the lead, but Joel Edmundson ensured calm and stability on the Blueline while Warren Foegele turned out to be the perfect stylistic adaptation in advance, establishing best goals and points in the process.
There have been times in the last three years when I think the greatest moments have overwhelmed the kings. At times. It was not always for longer stretches. But could a more experienced group have seen a 3-0 lead in match 4 in 2023? Or capitalized in a 2-2 match in the third period at home in 2022? Or did you find the breakthrough of a 0-0 game they dominated at home in 2024?
In each setting, they were swing games. Could the series could have won the series in 2022. Could have taken a 3-1 lead in 2023. Could the series be sent to Edmonton 2-2 last spring. The Kings lost these three games, which were all very winning. Not to paint everything about inexperience, but no more experience could certainly not have harm their chances.
They have much more in the mixture and the team leaders believe that it could help.
“We needed this, I think we had three guys who had won here before that, no,” added Doughty. “This experience means a ton. They will not complete pressure, they will prosper occasionally when this opportunity strikes. We needed these guys, they were all huge additions.”
These three players are perhaps the least equipped to talk about the differences between the kings of yesteryear and the kings now.
Kuemper and Edmundson, certainly, although Foegele had the first -hand look on the other side of the ice. But still, they were not in the room last year or both before that. They were not part of what finally saw these teams fail. As such, they cannot compare and contrast. What they are, however, is a new set of eyes on what is here right now.
“I can’t talk about the last three years, I don’t know what the group looked like, but we have a good thing in this locker room,” said Edmundson. “We care about each other and we play for each other. These are the things you have to do that can take you deeply in the playoffs. We have something special here and we are looking forward to match 1.”
Something special, you might say is maybe an X factor.
You cannot quantify it. It does not appear on a depth table or a sheet of statistics. This is something that you hear a lot of teams say and which means that many teams that do not reach the ultimate destination have said and lost it. I’ll say this, however. You did not hear it last year. If you did, you didn’t feel it.
I don’t think it’s a section to say that this group feels differently. They believe differently, in each other and in the structure, culture and approach of the team.
“It is a different feeling in this room that last year, in my opinion,” said striker Kevin Fiala.
But what exactly does that mean?
Fiala said it was more positive this time, of course, but many teams probably believe in a different feeling, right? But do they believe to believe, to steal one from the great Ted Lasso? This team certainly does it. And although it is a capricious thing to measure, it is something that kings certainly think in their corner.
“Just belief,” said Fiala. “I do not think I have been so close to a team before, everyone is very close to each other, love each other, believes towards each other and wants to work for each other. There is no doubt.
There are a lot in this quote that I think many people say. But Fiala is right since the Kings have several ups and downs this season and they tended to pass on the other side better for that. This does not mean that it is an infallible plan. But a hard, united and more experienced group that sees adversity in this series is better equipped to overcome it than we saw in the past seasons.
Because, as indicated above, the Kings have had their chances in the past three years to swing the series that we have finally seen going in the other direction. An every year that has really stood out. And they didn’t do it.
There is a good chance that they will again have this chance here this spring. Will it be tomorrow in match 1? Probably not. It is too early. But a strong performance in game 1 could set the tone at this time to come later in the series.
Jim Hiller said it was an area that is preferable for players to answer that he. He and coaches staff are in the room and they have a good pulse, but ultimately the players would know better what a team believes. If they say, however, he feels confident that, before match 1, there is something.
“Each year, the team is different and it takes a mind,” added Jim Hiller. “You hope that the mind will develop, these are the best teams, when it continues to grow. Sometimes it does not grow at the levels you would like or think you need.
In the end, the proof will be in the hen. Kings could be deeper in all areas, more experienced in the collective and better equipped to believe …… and always lose. It is in the range of results.
But they will have this moment, perhaps more than once, to take control of the series in a way that they have not done in the past. When presented with this test, it is a conviction at the team scale that this group is best equipped to grasp the moment when it is presented. This time tomorrow, it will be time to show it on the ice. Difficult not to be excited to think about it.
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