Leon Draisaitl can thrive for Edmonton Oilers in Anaheim against Ducks

The top two teams in the NHL’s Pacific Division face off starting Wednesday night in the Western Conference Semifinals as Edmonton visits Anaheim in Game 1 in the best-of-7.

(AP Photo/Tony Avelar). Edmonton Oilers left wing Anton Slepyshev (42) celebrates after scoring a goal with teammate Benoit Pouliot (67) during the second period against the San Jose Sharks in Game 6 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Saturday, . Pittsburgh ousted Washington in 6 games last season and the Capitals will be looking to not only avenge that series loss but do something they have failed to do in the Alex Ovechkin era since 2006 and that is advance past the second round of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. Thanks in part to a $76,000 rollover, the 50/50 jackpot at the Oilers’ first home playoff game was $336,995. Letestu was able to take advantage of a 5-on-3 power play, which became 5-on-2 ½ when Getzlaf broke his stick on a faceoff.

The Anaheim Ducks second round matchup against the Edmonton Oilers will nearly certainly produce the favorite to advance to the Stanley Cup Final out of the west.

“We were in it”, Letestu said. “They’re dominant and they’re going to keep keep coming”. Zack Kassian has two game winning goals. A team that has been to not only the second round, but the third round on many occasions. Anaheim could be a bit rusty with a week off as it hasn’t played since last Wednesday. Mark Letestu leads Edmonton with three goals, Leon Draisaitl has five assists and Connor McDavid has 17 shots on goal. Those still looking to justify the deal from last summer that sent Taylor Hall to New Jersey for the 24-year old Swede will emphatically be reminding everybody about this game, as he scored early in the third to lift the Oilers up 3-1, then knocked home the eventual game victor seven minutes later – after Anaheim had rallied to tie things up. Milan Lucic has all but disappeared from the Oilers’ offensive attack. Lucky for the Ducks, there is no 3-on-3 overtime during the playoffs, where the Oilers had an obvious edge during the regular season. And again, as they did against San Jose, they find themselves facing a veteran team that boasts all kinds of big-game experience. “They are going to want to engage us physically”. Some of the Sports Channels they have access to include Fox Sport 1 and 2, NBCSN. If you look at this chart, organized by weighted average age of National Hockey League teams, you will see that the Oilers are the seventh youngest group. But their penalty kill is succeeding just 61.9 percent of the time (13-for-21).

Just as the first period was evenly played, so was the second.

On Tuesday, Anaheim’s Randy Carlyle labelled the proposition that the Oilers are a young team “a pile of crap”. These two situations have gotten the team to rally around each other and I think it’s something that may carry the Ottawa Senators a long way and at least carry them past the NY Rangers here in the second round.

Getzlaf is often compared to Hall of Famer Mark Messier because they both play the big power forward role on the team, and also because of the quiet leadership, they exude on the ice.

Oilers coach Todd McLellan said he doesn’t view their method of success so far as defying the odds.

All three had more than 20 goals.

“We have to be better at that”, Yeo said.

“I don’t think anybody could have thought or planned for an incident like that with Kevin”, said Laviolette, who did not provide an update on Fiala after the game. Leon Draisaitl deserves a ton of credit for being one of the better creators of offense in the series.

The Ducks are banged up and could be missing Sami Vatanen for even more time, but the Oilers’ Oscar Klefbom has reportedly come down with the flu.

The Oilers finished just behind the Ducks in the regular-season standings but won the season series between the teams.

Two goals that largely silenced a sellout Honda Center crowd showed that they’ve got a lot of work ahead of them.

But ask Draisaitl about his success against Anaheim, he almost goes as silent as Donald Duck at the nearby theme park.

Four goals in 4:24 in a wild opening game. It is all pretty heady stuff for a team that finished 29th among 30 teams a year ago.