Kings looking for statement win against despised Oilers

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Welcome to the Belly of the Beast.

As a depleted Edmonton Oilers team limps into Los Angeles for a key, late-season divisional, the Beast — also known as the L.A. Kings on home ice — is licking its chops.

On Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. local, with the Dodgers making just their second turn through the pitching rotation and the Lakers coasting into their NBA post-season at 5-5 in their past 10 games, things begin to get real for the Los Angeles Kings.

A win over Edmonton would go most of the way to securing home-ice advantage in their likely Round 1 series with Edmonton, while keeping the heat on a flagging Vegas team for first in the Pacific. But if it were only that, a fight for position, this game would be no different than Tampa playing Florida or Dallas meeting Colorado.

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return { oddsData, visitingTeam, visitingTeamLogo, homeTeam, homeTeamLogo, gameTimestamp }; }

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if (!oddsData) { container.innerHTML = `

Odds data not available

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let gameDate = new Date(gameTimestamp * 1000); const gameDateFormatted = gameDate.toLocaleDateString('en-US', { year: 'numeric', month: 'long', day: 'numeric' });

container.innerHTML = `

BetMGM Odds

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Over/Under

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// Example usage renderBetMGM('block_a0ead84856fdf1957b53ac43c98ee251', 'NHL', 'de0870eb-440f-401e-950f-87ddbe8b59a4');

The guests at this feast are despised, an Oilers team that has not only punted the Kings out of the playoffs for three years running, they’re back standing in the way of Los Angeles winning a playoff round for the first time in 14 seasons.

That’s right.

The last playoff round the Kings won was the 2014 Stanley Cup Final. They’ve made the playoffs five times since, losing to Edmonton three times.

And here we are again, with L.A. game-planning on how to stop an Oilers team that eliminated them seven games, then six games, then five games in each of the last three post-seasons.

We asked Oilers winger Viktor Arvidsson, who played for each of those Kings teams — though he missed the seven-game series with an injury — what happens in an L.A. dressing room as they prepare to face Edmonton in a playoff series.

“A lot of the focus goes to Connor and Leon, and trying to stop them,” Arvidsson said. “They have to play a tight defensive game, but I think we have a lot of more skill than they do. For sure, it’s going to be a tough series if we play them.”

That series won’t begin until about two weeks from now.

Today, the Oilers are two points behind the Kings in the Pacific standings with two meetings remaining. The Kings have the best defensive metrics in the entire NHL and own the best home-ice winning percentage at .833.

A win over the depleted Oilers on Saturday afternoon would go a long way towards securing home-ice advantage in Rd. 1, and with the highlights of Leon Draisaitl limping down the tunnel in San Jose, the Kings know Edmonton is vulnerable. None of Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Mattias Ekholm, Evander Kane or Stuart Skinner will play on Saturday.

However Trent Frederic, it appears, just may don an Oilers sweater for the first time since arriving from Boston at the March Trading Deadline.

“I’m excited to play whenever my number gets put on the board,” he said after practice at the Kings’ facility in El Segundo. “They’re always a good, defensive, hard-playing team. I think it’s going to be a hard game. Might be an ice pack type of game, so it’ll be fun.”

“Your kind of hockey?” he was asked.

“I would like to think so, yeah,” he smiled. “This is a good game, if I get the chance to play. A good one to play as a first time in there.”

Frederic skated at Friday’s workout with centre Adam Henrique and right-winger Zach Hyman. Head coach Kris Knoblauch was coy about the guy they call “Freddy” making his debut, but he’s out of forwards and Frederic was scheduled to play on Monday in Anaheim anyhow.

“He’s a slight possibility,” Knoblauch fibbed, er, said.

Knoblauch could surely use some size and energy in his lineup, though the team he’s been rolling out has been excellent of late, winning three straight 3-2 games in front of battlin’ backup Calvin Pickard.

“I like our attention to detail, the grit that we’ve been playing with,” said Knoblauch. “Also, the power play has been a nice surprise (goals in two straight games). Missing those key guys and being able to score on a regular basis on the power play has really helped us.

“And lately, I like our discipline. We haven’t been in the penalty box.”

“We’re missing Ekky, Davo and Freddie and Leo and everybody that are hurt. We want Stu back and in the net too,” listed Arvidsson. “For sure it’s negative, but it’s positive for the other players that can go on the powerplay, touch the puck more and get more confident.”

Confidence.

Someone is going to leave the rink on Saturday with more than they arrived with.

The Kings, they’re of the belief it’s their turn now.

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