Forwards: Advantage Oilers
Defense: Advantage Kings (By a LARGE margin in my opinion)
Goaltending: Advantage Kings (Also by a LARGE margin)
Special Teams: Advantage Oilers*
* Without Ekholm, the Oilers PK should be worse than usual and the Kings PP has been much better since adding the KuzMONSTER
It's really even. There are things you can point to for the Kings that you can use to make an argument they're clearly the better team. But then you have 29 and 97 suiting up for the Oilers which kind of just throws a huge wrench in everything.
I do think the Kings finally take them out this year though. I know many others are saying the same and that optimism makes me uneasy given the last 3 years, but I think the difference between the two teams is too clear at the moment. Oilers got older, slower, and smaller from last year to this year (AND they're coming into the playoffs already banged up) - Meanwhile the Kings got younger, faster, and bigger.
I have the Kings taking this series in 5 or 6 games. These guys are going to be extra motivated - It's insanely rare in professional sports for a team to lose to the same opponent 4 (!!!) years in a row. Connor and Leon are going to be hard to stop but the Kings team defense is PHENOMENAL and now they finally have an excellent goaltender to anchor their defense.
And they should have enough firepower on offense - Byfield is a different player this year and should be a HUGE factor. Fiala, Laf, Kempe, Kuzmenko, Kopi, Clarke, Foegele, etc - These guys will be able to chip in and pot some goals.
It feels weird being this optimistic heading into a series against an opponent who's eliminated your team 3 years in a row - but I genuinely really believe in this group. The locker room feels incredibly close (and strong) and you can tell this is a team that genuinely really believes they can beat anyone and that they're never out of a game. Regardless, pumped for some playoff hockey soon
