Tonight’s the night. Up 3–2 in the series, the Edmonton Oilers can advance to the second round of the playoffs with a win over the Los Angeles Kings.

After a pivotal Game 5, in which they played incredibly hard and let the Kings have very little, the Oilers have the opportunity to knock off the Kings for the fourth straight year.

Here’s how the team is expected to lineup tonight.

Edmonton Oilers projected starting lineup tonight

EDM lines – Thurs. Morning Skate:

Draisaitl – McDavid – Perry
Kane – RNH – Hyman
Frederic – Henrique – Brown
Podkolzin – Janmark – Arvidsson

Extras: Skinner, Kapanen, Jones, Ryan

Nurse – Bouchard
Walman – Klingberg
Kulak – Emberson

Extras: Stecher

Pickard
Skinner#Oilers

— Tony Brar 🚀 (@TonyBrarOTV) May 1, 2025

No surprises tonight. After Game 5, the Oilers are running it back again with the exact same lineup. Also unsurprising, the team continues to go with Calvin Pickard in net.

Game 6 lineup thoughts

The Oilers continue to use their two greatest weapons extremely effectively, with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl lined up together yet again. Expect to see them on the ice a lot, especially whenever the Kings ice the puck or there is a key face-off in the offensive zone. The Kings struggled with this group in the last game, and while they didn’t manage to score at 5v5, they did outchance the Kings over and over again.

The second line with Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Evander Kane was perhaps the Oilers’ most dangerous, and they are unsurprisingly together again. This line outshot the Kings, 10–5 on the ice, and had an 11–3 scoring chances edge last game. While the traditional way to shut down the Oilers has been to throw the top shutdown group at the McDavid-Draisaitl line and then hope that the balance can hold their own against the rest, the Oilers’ second group completely ran the Kings ragged that they couldn’t do anything to minimize the threat.

Between these two groups, the Oilers should be in good shape going into the pivotal sixth game. Not talked about enough is just how good the balance of the team was in Game 5, with a goal from Mattias Janmark and four high-danger chances from Adam Henrique highlighting an unbelievable game last game.

If the Oilers can play like they did in Game 5, it should be a straightforward win for the team, but we all know that that’s not how hockey works. It’s going to be a nerve-wracking evening tonight for all of us.

Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire

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