Kings Coach Todd McLellan was glib, vague and terse at practice a day before the Kings chartered a flight for Edmonton to begin their first-round series against the Oilers on Monday.
“When they’re ready, they’ll play,” McLellan said of his injured, high-impact forwards Kevin Fiala and Gabe Vilardi.
He was no more forthcoming when it came to his starting goalie for Game 1, though two sets of consecutive starts for Joonas Korpisalo might have tipped McLellan’s hand during the stretch run.
“It’ll be either (Pheonix) Copley or Korpisalo,” said McLellan, enumerating all the available options and having previously hinted at the possibility of alternating his netminders.
Yet plenty was known between McLellan and his protege Jay Woodcroft, who coached Edmonton, and between the two clubs, which squared off last season in a rock ’em, sock ’em seven-game series.
“We’re playing Edmonton again, we’ve ‘only’ played them I think 15 times in the last calendar year, and now four to seven more,” said McLellan, who coached Edmonton from 2015-2018. “There aren’t a lot of surprises between the two teams, there’s only so much you can do in those games.”
The Kings made strides offensively with incremental nudges throughout the lineup, another leap forward for winger Adrian Kempe, the addition of dynamo Fiala via trade and the re-emergence of Vilardi, this time as a winger rather than a center. But they’re missing Fiala and Vilardi at the moment, albeit with No. 1 defenseman Drew Doughty and versatile winger Viktor Arvidsson back in their mix after missing last year’s showdown.
The Oilers’ two-headed monster of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are part of the best-of-their-era conversation, both on the power play and overall. Draisaitl had a career-best point total of 128 and finished heads above the rest of the NHL, save for McDavid. McDavid’s 153 points were two shy of Steve Yzerman’s 155 for the most for a player other than…
Read the full article here
