BLOG: Oilers to leave no room for Kings' revival in Game 5

EDMONTON, AB – The Oilers have no doubts about who they think the better team is in their first-round series against the Kings and will want to end that debate on Wednesday night in Game 5’s elimination scenario at Rogers Place.

But despite all their recent success in these types of situations against Los Angeles over the past three seasons, there’s one important detail for the Oilers to remember about the playoffs, and it’s something they’ve grown to understand from experience:

There are no bad teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“A great opportunity here on home ice to close out the series,” said Edmonton's captain Connor McDavid. “You never want to give a team life. You never want to give them an opportunity to get themselves going again, so it’s a big game for us.”

The Kings, as they did in Game 4, will certainly have their moments tonight – as expected from Head Coach Kris Knoblauch and his players – and will be even more hellbent on following up their best effort of the series on Sunday to keep their season alive and prevent their run of defeats in the first round to Edmonton from reaching three straight seasons.

That makes what was already a challenging task for the Oilers on Wednesday that much harder, and they’ll want to leave no doubt about their superiority in the series in what they hope to make the final act of the first round with a rousing victory on home ice to advance to the Western Conference Second Round.

“This is always the hardest game is to knock a team off,” said Oilers’ leading playoff goalscorer Zach Hyman. “We never had the opportunity to do it against LA in Game 5, so this is a big game for us.

“You don't want to give a team life, you don't want to give them hope. They're a really good team, so we’ve got to come out and have our best game.”

The Oilers aren’t going to let the Kings dictate the play early in the game, having recorded three-out-of-three wins in this series when they score the first goal, including in Sunday’s Game 4 at Crypto.com Arena which was a product of Evan Bouchard’s lone power-play goal and a stellar defensive effort from everyone involved to back it up, including 33 saves from Stuart Skinner in goal.

It was by no means a masterpiece, but it's what was required to win on that night in the Stanley Cup Playoffs where it's notoriously difficult to do so, and Wednesday night will be no different for the Oilers with the opportunity to move on to the Second Round at the expense of LA once again.

“In the playoffs, a win is a win. You take them any way you get them,” McDavid said. “Winning 1-0 or 6-3, there’s really no difference. I thought LA played a really good game, but I thought we played a really smart, mature, patient game.”

“Intensity, focus and execution of details,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. “I don’t think we want to be playing passive. We want to get at it and I think the more we slow things down, it just doesn't work out for us. We want to be playing fast and tense, but being able to use our skills, I think that's probably the biggest thing.”

Edmonton is putting extra emphasis on their starts that’ve helped them gain early traction on the Kings this series, with the Oilers holding a 10-1 advantage over LA – both in the regular season and postseason – in games where they score the first goal.

“Starts are big. Starts are always big,” McDavid said. “We've said that, especially against LA in the series, just with how they play and stuff, so we want to come out of the gates and feed off the crowd, feed off the energy of our building and put them on their heels in the first 10 minutes.”

With Los Angeles having their backs against the wall, McDavid doesn't foresee any reason why Edmonton can't turn that desperation right back on their opponents.

"They're going to be a desperate group, but we're desperate to close up the series," he said. "We're excited about the opportunity here on home ice and excited to play. It's been a couple of days off, so there shouldn't be any reason for us to not come out of the gates well."