NHL Notebook: Oilers playing best hockey of McDavid and Draisaitl era, Hiller staying on with Kings, and more

Despite the rainy weather, things are looking bright in Edmonton.

The Edmonton Oilers punched their ticket to the Western Conference Finals for a second consecutive season, with a 1-0 overtime win over the Vegas Golden Knights to take down the group from Nevada in five games.

After a whole lot of ups and downs in the first round, this series looked a lot cleaner for the Oilers, with their offence on fire, blue line clicking, and Stuart Skinner posting back-to-back shutouts.

Edmonton was a hot topic on Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, with Frank Seravalli calling this the best he’s seen them play in the McDavid and Draisaitl era:

“The Oilers really cleaned things up in a significant way, so I think there are multiple things to point to. You just mentioned the unlikely heroes. I think there’s the depth scoring to talk about, at this point in time, last year, through two rounds, Leon Draisaitl had 24 points, and Connor McDavid had 21. This year, they’re at 16 and 17. They’re getting more contributions from other pieces and parts of their lineup.

“Stan Bowman deserves a ton of credit for really saving this team season. There is no chance that the Oilers are in round three going up against the Winnipeg Jets or Dallas Stars. If the Oilers don’t have Jake Walman and John Klingberg, I’m sorry, I just don’t think that they’re able to withstand the loss of Matthias Ekholm, who, by the way, could be back for round three. Then we go to Kris Knoblauch, pushing seemingly every right button … I just think there’s been lots of different facets for this Edmonton team that I think you could make the argument that they’re in the best position that they’ve been in in the McDavid/Draisaitl era.”

With contributions from all across the roster, the Oilers are playing the kind of deep hockey that takes you far in the playoffs. Now they have some time to rest and recuperate before seeing who they will face in the conference finals.

Hiller to remain with Los Angeles Kings

Meanwhile in the Pacific Division, new Los Angeles Kings general manager Ken Holland announced Thursday that Jim Hiller will remain on as head coach.

Hiller has been with the Kings for two seasons, coaching them to back-to-back top-three finishes in the Pacific. Unfortunately, he was unable to improve on his predecessors’ lack of postseason success, as Los Angeles has now fallen to the Oilers in the first round of the playoffs for the last four seasons, failing to even push it to seven games since 2022. It’s now been a decade since the Kings have played in the second round, doing so for the last time in 2014 en route to the franchise’s second Stanley Cup.

With the Kings seemingly stalled, there was questions about Hiller’s job security, but it looks like he’ll get another chance at it next year, when the Kings hope to avoid suffering the same fate for a fifth consecutive year.

Leafs playoff woes continue under Craig Berube

In the Eastern Conference, things are looking all too familiar for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who suffered a crushing 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night, now facing the prospect of elimination.

When Craig Berube took over as head coach this season, it looked like his tougher, more physical style of hockey was helping Toronto become more suited for the playoffs, beating the Ottawa Senators in six games in Round One, then taking the opening two contests against the Cup defending Panthers. Now they’ve dropped three in a row, and have scored only one goal in their last two games, with none of their ‘Core Four’ attackers registering a point in back-to-back games.

It’s just the latest season where the Toronto Maple Leafs have gone quiet in the postseason, specifically when it comes to clutch situations where they need to step up. With Mitch Marner and John Tavares set to hit free agency this summer, we could be seeing a very different Leafs team suit up next season should they fail to bounce back in this series.