{"id":179500,"date":"2025-09-03T18:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T18:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/179500\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T18:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T18:35:10","slug":"kings-vs-oilers-nhls-hottest-playoff-rivalry-returns-for-fifth-straight-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/179500\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings vs. Oilers: NHL\u2019s Hottest Playoff Rivalry Returns for Fifth Straight Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers are set for what could be their fifth consecutive playoff meeting, according to a recent projection from <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JFreshHockey\/status\/1960779147426296138\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:JFreshHockey;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">JFreshHockey<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This recurring matchup has quickly become one of the most intense rivalries in the NHL playoffs, with both teams battling it out every year, and fans getting in on the action.<\/p>\n<p>Who has the Edge?<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to which team has the star power, the edge goes to the Oilers. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl continue to be a problem for the Kings&#8217; defense to find any way of containing both stars.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Those two alone make the Oilers so tough to beat in any series and always have the edge because of that, which is the reason why they\u2019ve been in the last two Stanley Cup Finals.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, the Kings lack a big star name or a superstar like the Oilers. LA has solid veterans and young stars on the rise, including Anze Kopitar, Brandt Clarke, Quinton Byfield, and Darcy Kuemper.<\/p>\n<p>Kings may have the edge in depth and defense because they have more players that could attack and defend on the ice, but when it comes down to significant moments in the series, the Oilers own LA.<\/p>\n<p>But, still, each time these two teams have met in the playoffs, they\u2019ve been tightly contested games that have come down to the last few possessions.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Each playoff meeting does add more familiarity between the squads, making adjustments and execution even more critical. Many Kings fans argue that the series&#8217; last seasons would\u2019ve been there\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>But if head coach Jim Hiller hadn\u2019t made the obvious coaches&#8217; challenge that wasn\u2019t going to go their way, or failed to make any in-game coaching adjustments, maybe LA wouldn\u2019t have blown the 2-0 series lead and three straight game collapses in the second and third periods.<\/p>\n<p>Final Thoughts<\/p>\n<p>If these projections hold, fans can expect another highly contested and intense series complete with high-speed action and scoring.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The Kings will look to finally overcome their postseason hurdle against Edmonton, while the Oilers will aim to continue their dominance, looking at the top of their throne as they dispatch LA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers are set for what could be their fifth consecutive playoff meeting,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5126],"tags":[367,884,155,368,146,5,186,1760,240,5303,370,793,145,5304,5302,4,1295,8176,4991],"class_list":{"0":"post-179500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-kings","8":"tag-anze-kopitar","9":"tag-brandt-clarke","10":"tag-connor-mcdavid","11":"tag-darcy-kuemper","12":"tag-edmonton-oilers","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-kings","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-la-kings","17":"tag-lakings","18":"tag-leon-draisaitl","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-kings","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-losangeleskings","23":"tag-nhl","24":"tag-quinton-byfield","25":"tag-the-los-angeles-kings","26":"tag-the-oilers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}