LA Kings vs Edmonton Oilers Preview: Projected Lineups, Key Points, and More

The Los Angeles Kings return from the holiday break for their first matchup against the Edmonton Oilers.

Look Back at Last Year

The Kings and Oilers met four times during the regular season, with Edmonton winning three of four matchups. Include the playoffs, and LA went 2-6-1 against the Oilers last year. Across those nine regular season and playoff matchups, Quinton Byfield was LA's leading scorer, collecting two goals and eight assists for ten points. Kempe and Kopitar followed up with eight and six points, respectively.

Key Points Against the Edmonton Oilers

1. Home Cooking

After their second seven-game road trip of the season and some well-earned time off during the holiday break, the Kings return home to LA, a place they have made difficult to play in. Since taking over head coaching duties back in February of last season, Jim Hiller has the Kings playing fantastic hockey on home ice, with a record of 24-7-2 and a goals for of 3.39.

Defensively, the Kings have stuck to their identity, allowing under two goals a game on average. Combine this with the energy of the Kings fanbase in the arena, home ice special team success, and line matchups (both things we will go in-depth with below), and the Kings find themselves with many advantages.

2. Special Teams

Nothing has impacted a Kings and Oilers game over the last few seasons more than the special teams battle. Across both the regular season and playoffs last year, the Kings were penalized 34 times, with the Oilers cashing in for 12 powerplay goals, giving them a PP percentage of 35%. On the Kings side, LA went just 2 for 25, for an ugly 8%.

For today, however, this trend might be solvable. Edmonton's powerplay has not clicked at the same efficiency as last season, sitting in the middle of the road at 21.6%, while their PK is down at just 74.6%. For LA, while their overall powerplay numbers are low, that is heavily due to the lack of success on the man advantage on the road. Here at Crypto.com Arena, the Kings powerplay has clicked at over 24%. The PK has been great as of late too, allowing just one powerplay goal against since December 10th. Look for the special teams battle to be a major deciding factor in today's game.

3. Importance of Matchups

Danault and Kopitar vs. McDavid and Draisaitl. These are the center matchups we have come to know between these two teams. By being at home, Jim Hiller can use the last change to his advantage, allowing him to match his top two centers up with the Oilers big lines. Doing this also allows for the Byfield line to shine. Getting Foegele, Byfield, and Jeannot away from the Top 6 of the Oilers can allow them to use their speed against weaker competition, expanding LA's offensive abilities from their whole lineup. Expect the matchup battle to be something Hiller really manages, especially late in the game.

Here is how the Kings lined up at practice yesterday:

Look Across the Ice at the Edmonton Oilers:

Edmonton comes into this one red hot, winning 11 of their last 13 and riding a three-game winning streak. Similarly to LA, the Oilers have been off since Monday. Here is how they lined up during practice this week:

As per usual, the Oilers offense is led by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. With down years for Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, McDavid and Draisaitl sit as the Oilers only two forwards over the 20-point mark. On the backend, Evan Bouchard and Matias Ekholm lead the way, forming a strong top pairing. Stuart Skinner is projected to get the start for the Oilers tonight. Skinner is 13-8-2 with a goals-against average of 2.85 and a save percentage of .895.

How to Tune In

Today's puck drop is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. PST, 4:00 p.m. EST, and is available to watch on FanDuel Sports Network West. An audio-only feed is available on the ESPN LA App. Go Kings Go!