Edmonton Oilers superstar forward Connor McDavid has his eyes on the prize.
A year after falling just a win short of raising the Stanley Cup with the Oilers, the three-time Hart Memorial Trophy winner will look to lead his team again to the top of the NHL, as Edmonton kicks off its campaign in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs this coming Monday against a familiar postseason foe, the Los Angeles Kings, at Crypto.com Arena in LA.
McDavid certainly is ready to go at it again, as he dropped a short but clear message about the playoffs via his official Instagram account.
“Almost time,” wrote McDavid, who finished the 2024-25 NHL regular season with 26 goals and a team-leading 74 assists for 100 points through 67 games played.
The Oilers and the Kings have met each other in each of the last three editions of the NHL playoffs, with Edmonton coming out on top each time.
In the 2024 playoffs, Edmonton sent the Kings to an early vacation after five games in a first-round matchup before eliminating the Vancouver Canucks and the Dallas Stars to reach the Stanley Cup Final, where the Oilers lost in seven games to the Florida Panthers.
This time, the Kings have home-ice advantage that McDavid and company will look to overcome. Moreover, the Kings won the regular-season series against Edmonton, 3-1, including a 5-0 win over the Oilers on April 14 at home.
The playoff trend, however, is on the side of the Oilers, who have emerged victorious in eight of the last 10 postseason series versus the Kings.
