Las Vegas – Speed, skills, robustness, emotions … We saw everything when the Golden Knights of Vegas and the Oilers of Edmonton clashed in the second round of the playoffs in 2023.
Two years later, the paths of the two teams intersect again, once again in the second round, for a series which begins Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena (9:30 p.m.; ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC).
In 2023, the Golden Knights eliminated the Oilers in six games, on the way to the first conquest of the Stanley Cup in their history.
This year, the two teams are again pretending to the championship. The Golden Knights have taken the first row of the Pacific section this season. The oilers, they took third in the section, but rely on two of the best NHL attackers in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in addition to having a victory – and a goal – of the Stanley Cup last year, losing in seven games against the Florida’s panthers in the Grand Florida.
“The spirits were heated two years ago,” recalls the Golden Knights goalkeeper Adin Hill, who came to a succession to a Laurent Brusse was wounded in match No. 3 of this series. “It will be a good series again with great intensity. We will probably see a lot of robustness too. There will be very good players on the ice. »»
The two teams finished the first lion round. Vegas won his last three duels against the Minnesota Wild, while Edmonton has filled a delay of 0-2 in his series against the Kings of Los Angeles before winning four victories in a row.
“Our first -round series was different, in a way, because we were leaving the regular season at the series,” raised the striker of the Oilers Evander Kane. It is not an excuse, but a fact. That said, we understand that getting 0-2 back is not favorable, especially against a team like Vegas. You will certainly have to be ready from match no 1. ”
Historically, the teams won the first match in a series have a combined sheet of 531-249 (68.1 %).
Here is what you will have to monitor during match no 1:
Oilers : The oilers are healthy and were able to find the combinations that suited them best in attack. Kris Knoblauch has kept her trios intact for the last two games against Wild. McDavid and Draisaitl evolve alongside the veteran Corey Perry on the first trio. The two star attackers were injured at the end of the season, but have gone their pace since. McDavid has collected 11 points (two goals, nine aids) and Draisaitl, 10 (three goals, seven aids) since the start of the series.
Golden Knights : Injured in match no 5 against the Wild, the striker Pavel Dorofeyev is not ready to return to the game. Do not surprise yourself if the Golden Knights decide to change their combinations in defense. Bruce Cassidy is never afraid of brewing the soup within his tandems according to the identity of the opponent before him. Vegas relies on strong defenders who have a long range, which could be strongly useful to him in the face of the Oilers.
The key figure: 52.6 (%). It is the effectiveness of the Golden Knights to the circles of put into play since the start of the series, the second highest performance of the NHL; The ilers are 12e With an efficiency rate of 48 %. Vegas must succeed in winning the battle of the players – and the possession of washer – against a team that puts on peak talent like Edmonton.
-Another element to monitor: Match No. 1 should be a real chess game. The Golden Knights have the last change and can therefore decide how they want to counter the first trio of the Oilers. Will they send Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and William Karlsson, three reliable players in each area, against McDavid and Draisaitl?
Planned training of ilers
Leon Draisaitl — Connor McDavid — Corey Perry
Evander Kane — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — Zach Hyman
Trent Frederic — Adam Henrique — Connor Brown
Vasily Podkolzin – Mattias Janmark – Viktor Arvidsson
Darnell Nurse — Evan Bouchard
Jake Walman – John Klingberg
Brett Kulak — Ty Emberson
Calvin Pickard
Stuart Skinner
Entrenched: Joshua Brown, Cam Dine, Max Jones, Kasperi Kapanen, Olivier Rodrigue, Derek Ryan, Jeff Skinner
Wounded: Mattias Ekholm (not revealed), Troy Stecher (not revealed)
Planned training for Golden Knights
William Karlsson — Jack Eichel — Mark Stone
Brandon Saad -Tomas Hertl -Keegan cyclist
Ivan Barbashev — Nicolas Roy — Reilly Smith
Tanner Pearson – Brett Howden – Victor Olofsson
Noah Hanifin — Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore
Nicolas Hague — Zach Whitecloud
Adin Hill
Akira Schmid
Entrenched: Alexander Holtz, Ben Hutton, Kaedan Korczak, Tanner Pearson, Ilya Samsonov, Cole Schwindt
Hurt: Pavel Dorofeyev (nons
