The Edmonton Oilers now know their second round opponent, and it is going to an all-Canadian matchup versus the Vancouver Canucks. This is only the third time these teams have met in the playoffs, with Edmonton coming on top twice.
We will have to wait a bit longer to get our Oilers playoff fix however, with the series slated to start on Wednesday. That means that we will have gone six whole days without seeing any Oilers hockey, which is a travesty.
But why not use this time to reminisce a bit about the Oilers last series win over the Los Angeles Kings, which has become a new spring tradition in Edmonton along with jumping on a patio the second the weather goes over 0.
With 22 goals over five games, there certainly were some highlights. Here are the top five of those goals.
Leon Draisaitl, Game 5
Down 2–1 in the second period, the Oilers power play did its thing and Leon Draisaitl scored from his spot.
But this wasn’t necessarily the typical Draisaitl power play goal.
It starts with a give and go with Connor McDavid, where they change positions, followed by a beautiful backhand pass by Draisaitl to McDavid, for which McDavid returns the favour with a pass across to Draisaitl leaving him the wide open net for an easy goal.
David “Big Save Dave” Rittich seemed to make an unbelievable save to keep the lead for the Kings in their do or die game. But, upon further review, Rittich’s glove was completely across the goal line and so Draisaitl did in fact end up tying the game.
Zach Hyman, Game 1
This is on the list not just because it was the first goal of the playoffs, which in and of itself makes it top five worthy, but also because the spin move by McDavid was absolutely so smooth. If the initial pass isn’t deflected and Zach Hyman is able to one time that in the net, I am absolutely positive this one would have been talked about a whole lot more as a highlight reel goal.
Zach Hyman Part 2, Game 1
Luckily for us, the very next period McDavid and Hyman combined for another spin pass goal, this time with McDavid spinning around from behind the net before sending a pass across the ice to Hyman for the one-timer, where this time it was a clean connection.
The spin wasn’t as nice as the first one, but I think I can speak for all Oilers fans when I say that this goal was the one where we were able to finally exhale a bit and know that this was going to be a game without much doubt about the outcome.
Zach Hyman, Game 2
Look, when a guy scores 32% of a teams goals, he is going to be on this list a few times.
While this is on the power play, for once Hyman actually scores from outside the crease area. Clearly no one on the Kings was expecting him to be there, as literally no one notices him drifting to the side, to the point that when Draisaitl makes the pass across they all look surprised because they had no idea there was someone there.
It was also a big momentum goal to tie up the game, even if the Oilers would eventually lose the game in overtime.
Brett Kulak, Game 2
Unfortunately the above video doesn’t fully show it, but this goal is all Kulak from the beginning.
He wins the puck battle as the puck is dumped into the Oilers zone, dumping Trevor Lewis on his butt like he’s nothing, then he side steps Blake Lizotte so badly that Lizotte loses both his footing and his stick, taps a backhand pass up to the zone to start the breakout, and then follows the play up and uncorks an absolute cannon to get the Oilers on the board and back in the game.
So yeah, this goal definitely belongs in the top five.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
