Edmonton Oilers vs Vegas Golden Knights preview FT. Louie Debrusk | Oilers Update

Do you think the areas are that Edmonton has the edge over the Golden Knights going into this series? Well, the main one being offense. Even though Vegas is an offensive team, I think that when you look at the regular season, Vegas was the third best defensive team in the league. You’ve got to tip your cap to them in that regard. So, defensive minded. Yeah, that’s the game they play. Similar to Los Angeles Kings, who were second in the NHL. So, they’re up against another team that defends really well and they know that, but they have the offensive power and they have the depth now, which we saw in the first round really come out later in the round where line combinations started to get settled and you started to see guys put up big performances that weren’t named Dry Cidle McDavid, which is really important in the playoffs. I mean, three assists from Dry Cidle McDavid in games five and six. They played great games, but it was other guys that stepped up and got the job done. And that’s really, really important. That is a really empowering feeling for a team to know that everybody’s pulling on the rope. Um, I would I would lean defense for Vegas, offense for Edmonton, and I would give Edmonton the slight advantage in speed, too. And that’s what they’re going to have to play with. They’re going to have to play with a lot of speed against the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas is a big, heavy team that likes to lean on you. For Edmonton, they’ve got to make sure that they go in there and they’re all rolling. They’re all moving. And they’ve got speed on all four lines now. And they’re going to have to use it. They’re going to have to move the puck quickly. let the puck do the work a lot of times. It’s going to be a tough battle, but uh if they do that, I like their chances. Yeah, that Golden Knights blue line is really interesting because you go look at it on Daily Face Off and it’s like all these famous names and it’s like, holy smokes, they have Noah Hannifin on their third pairing. What kind of team is putting Noah Hannifin on their third pairing? But I was going back through some of the numbers against the Minnesota Wild and and they did struggle. Each pairing actually had games it looked like where they struggled against the Minnesota Stars. So like Baldi and Capri off just had their way for a couple of those games. So that’ll be interesting to see if this Golden Knights blue line can sort of find that next gear. It felt like they got it a bit more as that series against Minnesota went on. But man, if you had a tough time with Kappersov and Baldi, and this is not taking anything away from them. They are like legitimate stars in the game, but like if you had a tough time with them, you might have a real tough time with Connor and Leon. Well, they’re going up against number one and two in points per game in the playoffs among active players. That’s what they’re up against and that’s what every team’s up against when they go up against Edmonton. I agree with you. And that switch, Hannah going to the third pairing, Heg coming up to the second pairing was mid mid round and they, you know, Bruce Cassidy shuffled with that a bit. They started to shuffle with things because it just wasn’t working. Petrangelo came back late, hadn’t played down the stretch. There was some things they were trying to mix and they had some struggles in games. They’re big, they’re physical, but here’s the thing. speed against that big and physical play can can do some damage. And I think that’s what Minnesota did. You have to have a combination and Edmonton does. They have physicality on all lines now. They have players that can drive to the net. They have a heavy net presence which they’re going to have to have against that system. Shots from the blue line are going to become ultra important. Moving it back and forth, finding those quiet zones right um in the ice uh amongst the coverage of the Vegas Golden Knights. I thought Minnesota did that pretty well and it was movement. you know, Capri Soft, like you mentioned around the world, similar to what McDavid likes to do. He is he is an elite player, but they’re going to have to handle Connor and they know that. Um, but I do look at it and they did shuffle the lines as well, similar to Abington. They went into that series against Minnesota, they were down 2-1 in the series and they started to tweak lines. They started to shuffle guys around. They loaded up Carlson in the top line with Eel. And I think that’s a little prelude to maybe what they want to go up against Conor McDavid and Leon if they’re together. If Leon and Connor get separated, he’s gonna have to separate that. Carlson most likely gets Connor, I would guess. And probably Eel goes up against Dell or maybe they send their checking line up against Dell and leave Eel to be alone. It’s going to be really interesting to see what matchups Bruce Cast wants. If you remember back to 23 and I covered that series, Edmonton had the lead in every single game of that series. They scored the first goal in five of the six games. They were great out of the gates and they’re going to need to be again. But Vegas, like Edmonton, is a team that can come from behind. They don’t go away. They don’t go away through the 60-minute game. And if it takes more, it takes more. So, both of these teams have those intangibles to really, really come back and fight hard in games. It should be a great one. But for me, you know, I look at that series. Bruce Cassidy started his fourth line against the top line of Edmonton to start that series. You remember that? the first face off of that series, they loaded up the top line for Evston and he put out their fourth line. Now, the fourth line isn’t the same as it was. There’s been some changes in Vegas. They lost their MVP Con Smith winner Marshes. Um, you know, and he was a big factor in that g that series against Edmonton in 23. He scored five goals, including a hat-tick uh in one of the games to finish it off. Um, so there’s some different players, but it’s a similar team in the way that they play and their core is still the same. A lot of guys that won that cup in 23 are remaining. So, this is going to be a battle. But, I think Edmonton’s going in here again in the eyes of most people as the underdog, you know, and I think they feel that. I think they understand that Vegas is a team that’s won. Vegas is a team that had the better record in the regular season, albeit a regular season where had some difficulties and adversity they had to face throughout it. But, similar to the LA series, I think they got a little chip on their shoulder. I do. I think they have a chip on their shoulder. And that’s a dangerous team for me when you have a chip on your shoulder when you’ve got Dale McDavid ready to roll. I I know you want to ask about the blue line, but just one more on the forward group. Like thinking back to that series two years ago, if I’m remembering it correctly, it really was Connor and Leon doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Like Leon had that fourgoal game and it was the Stars producing and there really wasn’t all that much outside of it. I think maybe Warren Fogle finally scored in game six. But this year and I guess this last round against the Kings, we saw that second line. N Chimman and Kane come together and then the fourth line chips in offensively and Connor Brown had his best game as an Oiler in game six. He was unbelievable. This year more than ever, the Oilers, it feels like they can load up that top line and actually have help when the two guys aren’t on the ice. Like that to me feels like the biggest difference from two years ago to now is that this Oilers forward group is tough. it’s veteran and they can actually produce for them. I agree. I agree. And it won the series for them against the Kings. Simple as that. It did. We talked a lot about the depth of the Kings coming into the series. And rightfully so. They have three lines that were fantastic during the regular season were fantastic, you know, for three, four games in the series. I mean, they had the lead going into the third period. They could have finished off all those games. They didn’t. They didn’t execute at the critical time. Simple as that. You know, they had chances. They just didn’t execute at the right times where Edmonton did. When Edmonton got their chances, they executed. That was the biggest difference in the series for me. But I do believe, and I’m right on on par with you, that these this Oilers team and this collection of players is deeper than what we saw in 23. It was it’s deeper and they’re feeling good about themselves. And I’ll go back to the last month of the season when Dry Central McDavid didn’t play together for the final 14 games. Both of them missed time. You had other players that were missing time because of injuries in the back end. Kane hadn’t played a game. Trent Fredder had played seven minutes in the regular season against the Los Angeles Kings. All these question marks going into the postseason and nobody really knew what the team was going to look like once the puck dropped for game 83. As the series went on, it just started to morph together. And I’ve been really impressed with guys like Kane stepping in after missing the whole year. Cleanberg stepping in after missing a lot of time. Frederick stepping in and getting better every single game after missing a big chunk of time down the stretch and only playing that seven minutes in Oiler uniform. I just think that this is a team that’s starting to feel it at the right time. What’s up, Nation citizens? If you like that video, then you need to be subscribed to the Oilers Nation YouTube podcast, live shows, exclusive interviews and analysis. Everything you need from your favorite voices at Oilers Nation. And you don’t want to miss any of it. So, hammer that subscribe button.

The battle is back on in the West! The Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights are set to clash in what promises to be a high-octane, hard-hitting playoff series. This series offers a rematch between the two teams after the Knights defeated the Oilers in 6 games back in 2023.

Today, Louie Debrusk joined Tyler and Liam to preview the monster round 2 matchup and what the Edmonton Oilers will have to do to gain the edge in the series.

How do you feel leading into round 2?

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