Oilers get 2nd shot at Golden Knights: ‘Everything’s magnified when we play Vegas’

Vegas Golden Knights' William Carrier (28) and Edmonton Oilers' Evan Bouchard (2) battle for the puck during third period NHL Stanley Cup second round playoff action in Edmonton on Wednesday May 10, 2023.

The Edmonton Oilers head into an NHL second-round playoff series with the Vegas Golden Knights looking to make up for a series that got away just two years ago.

The two teams also met at this point in the 2023 post-season, with Vegas beating the Oilers in six games en route to winning the Stanley Cup.

It was a wake-up call for the Oilers, who had Cup aspirations that year before running into the Golden Knights. Vegas won Game 1 and never trailed in the series.

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“We feel like we have another good team (and) as good as chance as anyone, so looking forward to getting to Vegas and getting started,” Edmonton captain Connor McDavid said Sunday. “(But we’ve) got to find a way to start the series better. We got to learn from your failures, and that was one of them.

“But it was a good learning experience.”

Vegas will host Game 1 on Tuesday and remains a tough opponent. The Golden Knights’ goals four to goals against differential of plus-56 this season was tops in the Pacific Division and second in the Western Conference

Both teams have issues between the pipes. Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said his Game 1 starter is a game-time decision after Calvin Pickard took over from Stuart Skinner last round when the Oilers fell into a 2-0 hole against the Los Angeles Kings. Edmonton rallied to win in six games.

• Oilers, Golden Knights start second-round NHL playoff series on Tuesday in Vegas

Adin Hill, meanwhile, allowed four goals in back-to-back games as Minnesota took a 2-1 lead last round, but he looked better by the end of the series as Vegas came back to take it in six games.

Both teams bring a wealth of recent playoff experience the Oilers advanced to Game 7 of last year’s Stanley Cup final a year after Vegas won it all.

“Obviously great team,” McDavid said. “So they’re a proven group, battle tested.”

Both teams were able to “test the waters” in preparation for a likely playoff series back on April 1 with the Oilers coming out with 3-2 win after a goal-heavy second period and nothing to follow.

“It was a playoff style game, I guess,” Pickard said. “Two great teams, a pretty tight defensive game. Everything is magnified when we play Vegas.

“Obviously we got to be detailed and limit our mistakes, cause their a well-rounded team with basically everything. So it’s going to be an exciting challenge.”

• Oilers a deeper team than the one Golden Knights beat in 2023 NHL playoffs

Vegas selected Pickard from Colorado with the first pick of the 2017 expansion draft, though he never “really played there.”

“I spent a month there in spring training camp. So I thought I was going to be there, but there’s a lot of moving parts,” said Pickard, who was quickly traded to Toronto then picked up on waivers by Philadelphia that season. “It was pretty short excitement.”

Hyman was part of the Oilers team that lost to Vegas in 2023. While he acknowledges the teams are different now, he says they have a chip on their collective shoulder.

“They beat us then landed the Cup,” Hyman said. “So we definitely want to even things up. (It’s) different teams, different players, but same score, I guess.”

Knoblauch acknowledged there might be some hard feelings against Vegas, but doesn’t believe the Oilers need that for motivation in the playoffs.

“I just see a bunch of guys that are, as always, motivated, no matter who our opponent is, and I don’t know, maybe there was some hatred,” Knoblauch said. “But (from) my perspective, I would think that no matter who we were playing, our guys would be in this frame of mind as they are in right now.”

One area Knoblauch said the Oilers will have to address is the penalty kill. Edmonton had a pedestrian 60 per cent kill rate against the Kings.

“I think the most important thing when assembling who’s going to kill penalties, is who is going to kill the penalty,” Knoblauch said. “But right now, I think it’s most important for us to have the personnel who’s going to work well together, and McDavid and (Zach) Hyman are good together, and they have been out there for some of the kills.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2025.

Caprice St. Pierre, The Canadian Press