The regular season is over for the Los Angeles Kings and now the focus turns solely on the NHL Playoffs as they prepare for their meeting with the Edmonton Oilers, which is the fourth consecutive year the two teams are meeting in the first round.
This time around is a little different than the previous three years as the Kings are the team with home-ice advantage in this series. By finishing second in the Pacific Division, they not only get four home games (if the series goes seven games) but also will start the series with consecutive home games.
While the Kings have not been great at home in the playoffs against the Oilers in previous series, they have been one of the top home teams in the NHL this season. If they are able to jump out to a 2-0 lead, it will be a major boost to their chances to advance to the second round for the first time in roughly a decade.
LA Kings get a little break before starting their playoff series with the Edmonton Oilers
The first game of the series will be Monday night at 7 PM PT at Crypto.com Arena so the Kings have a little break before they jump into the playoffs. After the game on Thursday night, Jim Hiller gave his thoughts on how they plan to approach the next few days:
"We can take a day off and just get away from it all, get the relief that we’re talking about. Then, two good days of practice. I think that it’s important. We’ll have one day that we focus in on some Edmonton stuff and then one day where we just go and then the marathon starts all over again. I don’t mind this, I don’t mind the three days. I think we can use a break."
The focus, and this has been the focus for about a week now, is making sure everyone is healthy and ready to go for this series. The Kings secured second place fairly early and the coaching staff has done a good job of giving players rest when needed.
Once the series starts though, there won't be as much rest as they have one off day scheduled between each game. Below is the full schedule with dates and times for the first round of the playoffs.
Game 1 (4/21): at Los Angeles - 7:00 PM PT
Game 2 (4/23): at Los Angeles - 7:00 PM PT
Game 3 (4/25): at Edmonton - 7:00 PM PT
Game 4 (4/27): at Edmonton - 6:30 PM PT
Game 5 (4/29): at Los Angeles - TBD
Game 6 (5/1): at Edmonton - TBD
Game 7 (5/1): at Los Angeles - TBD