Oilers on a scoring heater heading into second round against Golden Knights

The Edmonton Oilers have their wheels under them after a rocky start in the NHL playoffs. 

The Vegas Golden Knights will try to limit an offence averaging almost five goals a game, or outscore it in the second round.

The Knights are coming off a six-game win over the Minnesota Wild. 

Edmonton and Vegas split regular-season meetings 2-2-0. 

They last met in the post-season in 2023 when the Knights eliminated the Oilers in six games in the second round en route to winning the Stanley Cup.

“For the series against Vegas, there’s a team that plays quite a bit different style than L.A. with their systems and the type of personnel that they have,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “It’s going to give us a whole new challenge.”

The Oilers dispatched the Los Angeles Kings in the first round for a fourth straight year with a 6-4 win in Game 6 at home. 

Edmonton dropped the first two games of the series before rattling off four straight wins and outscoring the Kings 20-12 in that span.

The Oilers’ special teams, so crucial in last year’s run to the brink of a Stanley Cup win, went from toothless in the first two games to terrific the rest of the way.

Edmonton held the Kings to two goals on nine power-play chances and went 6-for-9 in the four victories.

The Oilers reintegrated on the fly during the series more than half a dozen skaters who missed time due to injury down the regular-season stretch, or longer.

They included captain Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Evander Kane, Trent Frederic and defencemen John Klingberg and Jake Walman. 

“There were a lot of guys that came in that weren’t in the picture going into the playoffs,” Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse said. 

“You could see some of the chemistry with the lines and guys playing together. That came as the series went on.”

The return of Kane and defenceman John Klingberg in Game 2 after long stretches out of the lineup  — Kane the entire season and Klingberg played just 11 regular-season games — was pivotal.

Kane played his first games since Game 2 of last year’s Stanley Cup final against the Florida Panthers because of sports hernia surgery in September and knee surgery in January.

He produced two goals and an assist in the series, but of equal importance is that he gives Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch more freedom to deploy McDavid and Draisaitl on a line together for an offensive thrust.

“It certainly helps our team the way Evander is playing, and it gives us a lot more options,” Knoblauch said. 

Klingberg signed with Edmonton in January after his double hip surgery. The 32-year-old veteran took over some of the quality minutes lost to the absence of injured shutdown defenceman Mattias Ekholm. 

Knoblauch says Ekholm is “doubtful” for the second round.

“It’s still going to be a little bit longer,” the coach stated.

When the Kings concentrated on limiting McDavid and Draisaitl in Game 6, the depth of Edmonton’s attack surfaced with Frederic, Connor Brown and Adam Henrique chipping in.

McDavid and Draisaitl still had their fingerprints all over the series as the captain contributed two goals and nine assists, and Draisaitl’s three goals and seven assists included an overtime winner in Game 4.

“You need everybody feeling good about themselves, and everybody should,” McDavid said. “We had different guys step up at different times throughout the series, and everybody should feel good and proud of that, and ready to carry that into another tough opponent.

“Solid back-end, solid through the middle of the rink, deep. There are eight teams left. They’re all good. They are left for a reason. So we’ve got our work cut out for us, but we’ll be ready to roll.”

Oilers get a boost from Pickard

Goaltender Calvin Pickard replaced Stuart Skinner in Game 3 and rattled off four straight wins. He’d made his playoff debut in three appearances for Edmonton last year.

The 33-year-old Pickard from Moncton held fast in goalmouth scrambles with enough key saves to bolster the high-scoring team in front of him. 

It would be a surprise if Knoblauch didn’t return to Pickard to start the series against Vegas.

“My evaluation is we’ve got two really good goalies that we have confidence in,” said Knoblauch. “Either one of them can go in the nets and we’ll see how they’re playing.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in Picks right now because of what he has done. He’s won four games in a row, but if we need to change, we’ve got a great second option.”

Pickard, the lone goaltender with a 4-0 record, is among the surprises emerging from the first round of NHL playoffs and Edmonton Oilers fans are likely grateful for it.

The 33-year-old Pickard stepped in for Stuart Skinner when the Oilers were down 2-0 in their series with the Los Angeles Kings. Edmonton won four straight to close out the series Thursday night at home.

“It means a lot,” Pickard said. “Coming in Game 3, you don’t want to chase results. You just want to go out and do your job.”

Pickard’s career was on a downward trajectory after playing 50 games for the Colorado Avalanche in 2016-17. He started just 19 games over the next six seasons for Toronto, Philadelphia, Arizona and Detroit, but spent the majority of those years in the minors.

When he signed with the Oilers in 2022, he spent that season with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors.

“I never stopped believing in myself,” Pickard said. “If you’re not believing in yourself, you’re not going to be successful. I played some good hockey in those years since I played 50 games in Colorado. I was always building that game and that confidence to get back to this level.”

Pickard went 1-1 in the first playoff starts of his career. He replaced Skinner for a pair of games in last year’s second-round series against the Vancouver Canucks.

“I was never doubtful to throw him in because we kind of ripped the Band-Aid off last year,” Knoblauch said. “Put him in a very stressful, almost a must-win game against Vancouver and he responded tremendously and gave us a lot of confidence. This year, it was a lot easier to give him the net.”

Pickard’s 31 starts this season were the most since his last season with Colorado. His record was 22-10-1 with a .900 save percentage and a goals-against average of 2.71. He started eight of Edmonton’s final 11 games of the regular season after Skinner was injured March 26.

“It was good to get into a rhythm towards the end of the season there with Skins’s injury. I was playing really good hockey. It was probably my best hockey of the year heading into playoffs,” he said. “I was ready if called upon and I was called upon pretty early. I just want to keep it going.”