Questions With Rink Royalty- LA and Edmonton Oilers First Round?

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After a couple of big wins against the Los Angeles Kings and Golden Knights the Edmonton Oilers are finally making a move up the standings. That said, there is still a big hill to climb if they want to pass the Vegas Golden Knights in the standings.

As it stands right now the Edmonton Oilers are second in the division and the Golden Knights are first and the Kings sit in third. The Oilers are 2 points behind the Knights and one point up on the Kings. The bad news for the Edmonton Oilers is the other two teams have a game in hand each.

I would rather see the Edmonton Oilers come in first in the division and avoid playing either of the two teams in the fight. Let them beat each other up then face the team that just went through a hard battle if the Oilers make it through the first round.

It is just unless both the Kings and the Golden Knights start to struggle I think that the Edmonton Oilers will end up being either second or third in the division. I think the best way for the Edmonton Oilers to end up in second place is to beat the Kings on Tuesday. This would extend the lead.

I think that it is still most likely that the Edmonton Oilers will be facing the Los Angeles Kings in the first round for the second year in a row. This is the reason why I have reached out to one of the site experts from Rink Royalty to answer some questions from a Los Angeles Kings point of view. I don’t know about you, but I do not watch many Los Angeles Kings games outside of when they play Edmonton.

Make note that all the stats are from before the last game between these two teams. I answered some questions for Rink Royalty before the game on Thursday, that article can be found here.

Mar 30, 2023; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Edmonton Oilers forward Kailer Yamamoto (56) looks to make a pass in front of Los Angeles Kings defensemen Drew Doughty (8) during the first period at Rogers Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports /

Question #1-The Los Angeles Kings have been known since their cup runs to be a strong defensive team that doesn’t score many goals. This year’s team does seem to have the ability to score, They currently are 5th in the league in goals for. What changed from last year to this year to make the Kings a better scoring team?

Rink Royalty Response: “The addition of Viktor Arvidsson two off seasons ago and the addition of Kevin Fiala last offseason has made a huge difference in scoring goals for the Kings. GM Rob Blake knew saw that scoring was a weakness for LA and addressed it with two scoring wings in their primes. Arvidsson has 24 goals and Fiala has 22 goals this season. Both of them have been great since joining LA.”

Viktor Arvidsson is a good player who wasn’t able to play in the postseason last year when these two teams faced. He adds a lot to the lineup when he is in it. Fiala is also no slouch, scoring over 20 goals isn’t an easy thing to do in the NHL.

Question #2-With the standings being as tight as they are in the Pacific Division, who do you think the Kings would match up better against between the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights?

Rink Royalty Response: Preferably, I think the Kings would rather play the Golden Knights because Vegas plays together as a team but their goaltending is questionable. Also, for the storyline of Jonathan Quick playing his old team would be fun to watch. But, Kings fan believe that they would match up better with the Oilers because of their defensive prowess led by Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault.

So far the Kings are both 2-1 against the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights, so this would make sense for it to be more of a coin flip on who they want to play. This is not the case for the Oilers who I think would much rather face Vegas.

Mar 16, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Kings defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (84) moves the puck against Columbus Blue Jackets center Cole Sillinger (34) during the first period at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /

Question #3- The Kings made one of the biggest moves around the deadline acquiring Joonas Korpisalo and Vladislav Gavrikov. Since then the Kings have been one of the hottest teams in the NHL. Which one of these two players has made the bigger difference since they have been acquired?

Rink Royalty Response: Vladislav Gavrikov has been a huge addition to the defense, but I’d have to give the slight edge to Joonas Korpisalo because of how much of a difference he has made in net since Jonathan Quick left. Korpisalo is 4-1-1 with a .931 save percentage since joining the Kings, which is actually insane.

Having just watched both of these players against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday I can say without a doubt that Korpisalo is the better of the two pickups. Sure Gavrikov is a solid addition on the back end, but the way Korpisalo played Thursday it is hard to go against that.

Question #4- The Edmonton Oilers will be faced Joonas Korpisalo in the net last game. When it gets to the playoffs which goalie do you think the Kings will make their starter? Or do you think they are going to play them both in the postseason?

Rink Royalty Response: Since acquiring Korpisalo, the Kings have rotated them for every game as an even tandem. But, it seems like as they head toward the playoffs, Korpisalo could get the slight edge over Copley in net. Although, it wouldn’t be surprising either if Todd McLellan continues to rotate them every game.

See the statement above for my feelings about Korpisalo. No offence to Copley, but how could you not use Korpisalo?

Question #5- I think we all can agree that in this game the Edmonton Oilers will have the two highest-skilled players in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Do you think Todd McLellan will try and match lines? If so who will try and shut down McDavid and who gets Draisaitl?

Rink Royalty Response: If he did match lines, I would expect it to be the Moore-Danault-Arvidsson line. Typically, the forward group is led by the two-headed dragon of Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault. But, typically Kopitar plays on a separate line with Quinton Byfield and Adrian Kempe. So, if anyone can slow them down, I’d say it’d be #11 and #24. But, McDavid and Draisaitl can score at will if they want to.

Let us take a quick look at how they played on Thursday. This is how they just played the Oilers. I would expect to see the way everything was done Thursday carry over to Tuesday.

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