Kings have a ‘different feeling’ heading into this year’s first-round series with Oilers

Another year, another first-round series between the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings.

But these aren’t the same old Kings that have been shoved aside by Connor McDavid and Co. three years running. The players in Los Angeles believe this is the best version of the team they’ve sent into the playoffs against the Oilers.

Key to that confidence is the fact that the Kings are the home team for the first time, having finished second in the Pacific Division with a 48-25-5 record. L.A. also posted a 31-6-4 record at home in 2024-25, the best of any team in the NHL.

“Going into the playoffs, I would say (this is our best chance as a group) because we have home-ice advantage,” forward Adrian Kempe said. “We feel in the room that we’re a better team than we’ve been in the past.”

It’s been a long time since the Kings had any success in the playoffs. To find their last series victory, you have to go back to 2014 when they beat the New York Rangers for their second Stanley Cup in three seasons.

In the off-season, the Kings added some veterans with playoff experience to their roster. They acquired Darcy Kuemper in a trade, giving them a goaltender with a Stanley Cup to his name. They also added Joel Edmundson and Warren Foegele in free agency, two players who have gone on plenty of deep runs.

“I think we had three guys who had won (the Stanley Cup) in here before that,” Defenceman Drew Doughty said about the team’s off-season additions. “That experience means a ton. They’re not going to buckle under pressure, they’re going to thrive in the occasion when that opportunity hits. We needed those guys. They were all huge additions.”

Doughty, captain Anze Kopitar, and fourth-line forward Trevor Lewis are the only players left from when the Kings won two Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014. Kuemper won with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022, and Edmundson won with the St. Louis Blues in 2019 and nearly did so again with the Montreal Canadiens in 2021. Foegele reached the Stanley Cup Final with the Oilers last spring before signing with the Kings in July.

Beyond those aforementioned veteran additions, the Kings have also seen young players put together breakout seasons. Quinton Byfield scored 23 goals and 54 points as the team’s second-line centre, winger Alex Laferriere set a career-high with 19 goals, and defenceman Brandt Clarke put up 33 points in his first full NHL season.

“It’s a different feeling in this room than last year, in my opinion,” Fiala said. “I don’t think I’ve been on this close of a team before. Everybody is really close with each other, everybody loves each other, believes in each other, and wants to work for each other. There’s going to be mistakes, but all season has been up and down and we never had it out. We’ve been consistent like crazy this season. Hopefully, we can keep it going.”

As good as the Kings look right now, they still have an uphill climb to beat the best one-two punch in hockey. Leon Draisaitl led the league with 52 goals this season and is one of three names in the running for the Hart Trophy, while Connor McDavid scored 10 points over his final four games of the season and appears ready to reach another level in the playoffs.