Saddled with debt and careening toward bankruptcy, the Ottawa Senators failed to pay their players as scheduled on New Year's Day 2003.

The next night, the Sens thumped the Atlanta Thrashers 8-1, their most emphatic victory in a Presidents' Trophy season. On the ice, the players' motivation to win didn't wither. Off it, there was "more than a chance" the cash-strapped franchise would be sold and relocated to an American market, club owner Rod Bryden warned.

The team the late Eugene Melnyk bought from Bryden for a pittance two decades ago is about to sell for $950 million, according to Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch.

The Senators will stay put - moving out of Ottawa wasn't an option this time - and be governed by Michael Andlauer, the transportation magnate who'll divest his minority stake in the Montreal Canadiens to close the purchase. Andlauer, who also owns the Ontario Hockey League's Brantford Bulldogs, will assume control of the Sens once the NHL approves the agreement.

The transaction, one of the richest in league history, wraps a bow on Melnyk's tumultuous ownership tenure. Occasionally a Stanley Cup contender on his watch, the Senators became a laughingstock at the nadir of the rebuild Melnyk initiated in 2018. His daughters, Anna and Olivia, inherited and opted to sell the franchise following his death last year at 62.

A celebrity bidding war ensued. Snoop Dogg and The Weeknd joined rival consortiums. Senators fans stood to applaud Ryan Reynolds at multiple games this past season, though the actor and marketing maven dropped out of the process recently.

Toronto-based billionaires, Andlauer among them, headlined three of the four groups that submitted bids. Andlauer and his partners will purchase 90% of the team, while the Melnyk estate retains a 10% share.

The Senators were in demand for a few reasons. Big Four sports teams aren't often put up for sale. Rising valuations make them a safe haven for investment. Another Sens bidder, Steve Apostolopoulos, tried and failed to acquire the NFL's Washington Commanders this spring despite reportedly bidding $6 billion.

Ottawa-specific factors resonated, too. Gutted to the studs, the Senators' rebuilt roster now boasts such electrifying talents as Tim Stutzle, a 90-point center at 21 years old. Ottawa could vie for championships if smart additions are made to support the ascendant young core. Most significantly, the franchise has the chance to build a state-of-the-art arena downtown to replace the Canadian Tire Centre, its aging suburban home.

Andlauer's first months in charge promise to be monumental. Early on, he has to clarify the fates of general manager Pierre Dorion and head coach D.J. Smith.

Dorion, the architect of Ottawa's rebuild, is the NHL's eighth-longest tenured GM. Only six head coaches, four of whom are Stanley Cup winners, have held their jobs for longer than Smith, who was hired in 2019. Their four seasons as a tandem have produced a .467 points percentage and no playoff berths.

Dorion's managerial track record is mixed. He acquired Claude Giroux, Alex DeBrincat, and Jakob Chychrun over the past year without trading a player or prospect. He signed Stutzle and captain Brady Tkachuk to long-term deals that should age gracefully. His misfires include dealing Mika Zibanejad in 2016 before the Swedish center's star turn and anointing Matt Murray, then Cam Talbot as prospective saviors in net toward the end of the rebuild.

Smith, a gifted communicator, didn't get to coach a playoff-caliber team until this past season. Those Senators undershot expectations. Ottawa started 6-12-1, was 31st in the league standings on U.S. Thanksgiving, and had to scratch and claw to eventually miss the postseason by six points. Stutzle and Tkachuk blossomed into point-per-game scorers, but DeBrincat, Drake Batherson, and Thomas Chabot endured down years.

The Senators traded consecutive first-round picks to land DeBrincat and Chychrun, swinging big to try to snap their ongoing six-year playoff drought. Only the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings - two Atlantic Division rivals on the rise - are in the midst of longer skids. If Andlauer doesn't have time to instate his own people this offseason, 2023-24 will make or break the futures of Dorion and Smith in Ottawa.

Dealing with DeBrincat is an organizational priority. The two-time 40-goal sniper settled for 27 tallies in his first Senators season. Ottawa was outscored 58-42 in DeBrincat's five-on-five minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick, but went 20-1-2 in games where he found the net.

Set to hit unrestricted free agency one year from now, DeBrincat promised to decide by the draft on June 28 whether he's willing to extend in Ottawa. If he isn't, the Senators could pre-emptively swap him for picks or attempt to orchestrate a Matthew Tkachuk-style blockbuster. Dorion has reportedly explored trade options.

Goaltending is another question mark. Talbot will depart as a free agent after one discouraging, injury-riddled season (.898 save percentage in 36 games). Anton Forsberg tore both of his MCLs in a freak collision in February. If the Sens think Mads Sogaard, the 22-year-old budding goalie of the future, requires more AHL seasoning, they'll need to sign a stopgap partner for Forsberg or shell out to trade for a workhorse like Connor Hellebuyck.

There are bright spots elsewhere in the lineup.

Signed to be a mentor, Giroux potted 35 goals at age 35 this past season on Stutzle's right wing. Acing the eye test, Jake Sanderson seemed to make the right play every time he touched or tracked the puck as a rookie defenseman. The Chychrun trade strengthened Ottawa's defense corps to a degree unseen since the Zdeno Chara-Wade Redden era. Josh Norris will be healthy in the fall after recovering from shoulder surgery.

The city is energized coming out of the lean years. Attendance at the Canadian Tire Centre rebounded in 2022-23 to 89.8% of capacity, per Hockey Reference, which was a seven-year high. The fan base would rejoice if Daniel Alfredsson returned to the fold. Earlier this year, the franchise legend and Hall of Fame forward publicly expressed his interest in assuming a “meaningful role” in Senators hockey operations.

Alfredsson captained and was a top scorer on the bankrupt 2003 team that advanced as far as Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final. In retirement, he rejoined the Senators as a senior adviser, but left the front office in 2017 after two seasons. Maybe he'll get to work for a third ownership regime.

Melnyk, a pharmaceutical billionaire who cheered for his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs before taking over the Senators, bought the franchise and its arena for $92 million in 2003. When the sale closed, he guaranteed the Sens would stay in Ottawa and organized a free Eagles concert for season-ticket holders as a goodwill gesture.

"This is the first time in a number of years I've come to Ottawa without feeling angst and concern," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters at the time, per ESPN's Chris Stevenson.

Bettman added, "If you were going to computer-generate an owner for this market, (Melnyk would) certainly be on the radar screen. This is a great team in a great place, and now it has a great owner."

A powerhouse at the outset of the salary-cap era, Melnyk's Senators reached the 2007 Cup Final, then curtailed spending and started icing lesser lineups. Since losing that final, Ottawa has qualified for six postseasons and won three playoff rounds, most recently in 2017. Casting a pall over a Senators-Canadiens outdoor game on Parliament Hill, Melnyk said during that celebration that he'd consider relocating the team if home attendance cratered.

The roster teardown that followed spawned more lowlights.

Alienated fans installed #MelnykOut billboards around Ottawa to urge him to sell. Melnyk admitted the Senators were "kind of in the dumpster" in a team-produced interview with defenseman Mark Borowiecki. Following his death, The Athletic chronicled the owner's alleged mistreatment of staff and volatility behind the scenes in a bombshell investigation titled "The Eugene Melnyk era in Ottawa: Hopeful, then bizarre and tyrannical."

The race to succeed Melnyk as owner heated up on Jimmy Fallon's show. Reynolds, the "Deadpool" leading man who briefly lived in Ottawa as a kid, confirmed to the late-night host that he'd seek a "sugar daddy" to finance his bid. The Sens could have been the subject of a "Welcome to Wrexham"-style peek behind the curtain, taking after the Welsh soccer club that Reynolds and actor Rob McElhenney bought in 2020 and made globally visible.

As the spectacle ballooned, Sacramento Kings governor Vivek Ranadive thought about bidding. The Weeknd aligned with Jeffrey and Michael Kimel, the venture capitalist brothers who used to own part of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Snoop Dogg, a pitchman for entrepreneur Neko Sparks' bid, shared his desire to diversify hockey at every level and end Canada's 30-year Stanley Cup drought during a media blitz in May.

Apostolopoulos, the presumptive top bidder at the May 15 submission deadline, quit the process last week as negotiations dragged on.

Nonetheless, this is set to be the most lucrative recent NHL franchise sale. The Senators commanded a greater windfall than the Penguins did in 2021 ($900 million) and the Nashville Predators did this year ($880 million).

The real-estate opportunity involved explains why the price skyrocketed.

The Canadian Tire Centre, the Senators' home since 1996, was constructed on farmland in the suburb of Kanata about 25 kilometers west of downtown. In 2016, the franchise was awarded the right to build an arena on federal land in the LeBreton Flats neighborhood, within walking distance of Parliament and the city core. Strife between Melnyk and his business partner torpedoed the project.

The Senators struck a new agreement in 2022 with Canada's National Capital Commission. Andlauer has the chance to negotiate a lease in the next several months to build an arena and wider entertainment district on the LeBreton land. Reynolds' financial backer, the Remington Group, reportedly hoped to hammer out an arena deal with the NCC before acquiring the Sens, but its request for an exclusive window to hold those talks was denied.

When negotiations start, Andlauer could ask the NCC to grant him access to more land than the six acres at the LeBreton plot that are earmarked for the arena. Or he could try to build a rink elsewhere in Ottawa, perhaps on city land in another central location. Remaining in Kanata and refurbishing the CTC is a third option. His preference should become evident soon.

Andlauer has already scored one big victory. Ottawa's hockey future is his to shape. His decisions will influence where the Senators play for decades to come and how they perform on the ice. The right moves could propel the core that's already in place to the playoffs annually.

As Bryden once put it, there's more than a chance that will happen.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Players choke in every sport. They brick shots, botch kicks, muff passes, flub catches, blow coverages, forget assignments, and misread the scoreboard at the worst times. Some balk at handling the ball, dishing it off like a hot potato and placing the onus on a teammate to triumph or fail. Coaches perplex and enrage fans with the weird decisions they make as stress mounts and the clock tick, tick, ticks …

Certain kickers and fielders are best remembered for screwing up royally in the postseason. Some player is bound to make a costly mistake in the upcoming NBA Finals or Stanley Cup Final.

Choking is inescapable elsewhere in life too. Public speakers stammer. Test takers freeze. Even monkeys wilt under pressure. Scientists in Pittsburgh found those animals acted cautiously and consequently performed worse when the reward they were offered for nailing a complex reaching task became monumentally big.

Neuroscience explains this is inevitable: Brains are wired to choke.

"If you have a system that works optimally in the usual circumstance, it's going to work suboptimally in exceptional circumstances," said University of Pittsburgh bioengineering professor Aaron Batista, who was part of the research team that studied choking in monkeys.

Choking is a paradox. When the incentive to perform peaks, execution worsens. To probe the roots of this phenomenon, Batista and his colleagues devised a kinematic experiment.

The researchers trained monkeys to control a cursor on a screen, as if the animals were playing a Wii game, and reach when prompted for a small target that appeared somewhere beside, above, or below their hand's starting point. The monkeys were shown a cue that indicated the size of the reward - small, medium, large, or "jackpot," delivered in the form of sips of juice or water - they'd receive if they hit and held the target before a timer expired.

The monkeys' success rate over thousands of trials followed an inverted-U arc, the researchers first noted in the scientific journal PNAS in 2021. Each animal was imprecise with the small reward at stake, often overshooting the target seemingly out of carelessness. Locking in, the monkeys performed better when the medium reward was obtainable. They were maximally accurate with the large reward on the line.

The jackpot reward rattled the monkeys, though: The prize appeared for 5% of the trials, and when it did, their performance cratered. Suddenly, the motivation to succeed was debilitatingly high.

"There's a whole spectrum where incentives can help you dial in precise behavior," Batista said. "But at either end, things go awry."

Every monkey in the study showed the propensity to choke, said researcher Steven Chase, a biomedical engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University. They choked consistently, faltering at the beginning, middle, and end of sessions. The monkeys frequently didn't reach far enough on jackpot attempts, betraying their apparent overcaution, though they occasionally erred for other reasons.

"Some of them would try to cheat toward the target slowly. Some of them wouldn't be able to hold the target when those jackpot rewards came up. They were jittery at the end," said Adam Smoulder, a Carnegie Mellon biomedical engineering PhD candidate who was one of the study's lead authors.

"There were (these) weird little idiosyncrasies that we saw, which is something I like relating to humans."

Concluding that monkeys and people might share neural mechanisms that spur choking, the researchers set out to chart what happens in the brain when a huge reward is proffered.

They conducted more reaching trials, tracking how reward magnitude influenced the activity in a monkey's motor cortex. Their observations, posted online in April, have yet to be peer-reviewed by independent experts. The scientists posit that monkeys choke when reward cues cause a deficit in the information they use to plan their movements.

The researchers reported seeing neural activity conform to the same inverted-U arc as performance. The monkeys' brains processed more information about the target as the reward increased from small to medium to large.

That changed when the jackpot reward surfaced. Motivational signals appeared to overload the system, clouding the information the monkeys used to plan their reach, before they reliably undershot the target.

"On those jackpot reward trials, those planning signals are weaker. They have less information about what's about to happen than if the reward is just large," Chase said. "If the reward is large, those planning signals are as big as they get."

What does this mean for mankind - and for how we perceive chokers?

For one thing, maybe fans ought to be more lenient in their treatment of players who fold in the clutch. Their brains set them up to fail.

On the other hand, a key difference separates us from the animals: Monkeys always choke, but that isn't true of people. Some players, Chase said, seem to be able "to outwit the system - to think of strategies or ways to approach those high-pressure events that allow them to be calmer and succeed."

The scientists' choking research continues. They received grant funding to investigate if dopamine is the neurotransmitter that floods the motor cortex and inhibits motor planning. In the meantime, they'll applaud any athlete who enters the zone and is able to hit the jackpot.

"There's majesty and power and beauty to being someone who's managing all these feelings and still performing at the absolute top of their game," Batista said. As a viewer, he added, "It keeps you riveted."

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Two springs ago, Jesse Puljujarvi scored the icebreaker in the Edmonton Oilers' first playoff game, whirling in the slot to net a rebound off of Tyson Barrie's point shot. The Winnipeg Jets blanked the Oilers for the next 102 minutes. Defenders subdued Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl while shackling their supporting cast to initiate a Jets sweep.

The Oilers have changed since that meek loss. They traded Puljujarvi, whose Carolina Hurricanes are in the Eastern Conference Final. They swapped Barrie for Mattias Ekholm, grasping that Evan Bouchard could replace his power-play productivity.

Meanwhile, McDavid and Draisaitl flipped a switch. No opponent since Winnipeg has contained them in the postseason. That includes the Vegas Golden Knights, who eliminated the Oilers in six games even though the superstars padded their stats.

Draisaitl's four-goal eruption in the opener against Vegas helped raise his playoff total to 13 in a dozen games. McDavid's 20 points top the league through Sunday's action. Draisaitl is right behind him on the leaderboard, as was the case when both players recorded two points per contest in last year's postseason.

Since the 2022 playoffs started, McDavid paces the NHL with 53 points in 28 postseason appearances. Draisaitl racked up 50 points in this span. The next-closest scorer, Mikko Rantanen of the Colorado Avalanche, collected 35 points in 27 games. Rantanen's numbers are merely great, not stupendous.

McDavid and Draisaitl have competed in nine career playoff series. Certain legends of their era - think Stanley Cup winners like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Alex Ovechkin, and Nikita Kucherov - are considerably more experienced and boast shinier resumes. But on a per-game basis, the Oilers duo's colossal output is unparalleled.

Wayne Gretzky scored 1.84 points per game in 208 playoff outings. Mario Lemieux averaged 1.61 points in 107 games. History supplies no other comparison for what's happening in Edmonton.

Offense has risen NHL-wide - scoring soared to a 29-year high this season - but McDavid and Draisaitl deserve more credit than anyone for driving that boom. Most star players have off-nights or go cold intermittently. These guys rarely slump, though Vegas held Draisaitl pointless in three of six games. At their playoff peak, Edmonton's top dogs toy with elite opposition, resembling ringers who descended from some imaginary better league.

The salary-cap era record for points in a postseason - Malkin tallied 36 in 2009 - might have fallen if the Oilers reached the Cup Final. The Golden Knights nixed that possibility. Stealing the spotlight on Sunday, Jonathan Marchessault's natural hat trick sparked Vegas to a gutsy 5-2 win in Game 6.

Draisaitl was on track to smash the cap-era high for goals (15), set by Crosby in 2009 and matched by Ovechkin in 2018 when their squads hoisted the Cup. He could have become the first player this century to sniff the all-time record.

Moving at half-speed, Draisaitl torched the Calgary Flames for 17 points in five games on a sprained right ankle last postseason. He was the best playmaker in the sport in that window. This spring, he finished lethally throughout the offensive zone.

By blasting one-timers, foraging for garbage goals, and banking in one wrister off of Laurent Brossoit's nameplate, Draisaitl boosted his shooting percentage in these playoffs to 28.9% (his career average is 18.1%). He exits as the league leader in even-strength goals (seven), power-play goals (six), opening goals (three), and hit posts (three). That said, his giveaway behind the Oilers' net Sunday led directly to Marchessault's winner.

McDavid couldn't buy a whistle when the Jets threw sticks and bodies at him in 2021. He drew eight penalties in this postseason and elevated both Oilers special-teams units. Motoring to the net, McDavid poked the puck through Brossoit's legs on a shorthanded breakaway in Game 2 and tapped his own rebound past Adin Hill on the power play in Game 5. McDavid's snipe in the opening minute of Game 6 was his first goal against Vegas at even strength.

He dazzled at times, but his team's inconsistency was vexing.

Poor defensive reads and careless or untimely penalties, like Ekholm's boarding minor Sunday, burned the Oilers in various Vegas wins. Never solid in back-to-back games, Stuart Skinner allowed five, one, four, one, four, and four goals, in that order, and was yanked from the net on three occasions. Vegas responded to four Edmonton tallies throughout the round by beating Skinner within the next couple of minutes, instantly reversing the momentum.

The Golden Knights iced the best line in the series. They outscored Edmonton 15-9 at five-on-five, including by a 7-1 margin when Marchessault skated with Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev, per Natural Stat Trick. Eichel and Marchessault led the matchup in points at even strength with seven apiece.

Edmonton's power play remained laughably good in defeat (39.1% success rate in the round, 46.2% in the playoffs). Bouchard's 15 power-play points in 12 games constitute a new high for defensemen in the cap era. He pulverized the puck and benefited from dishing it to McDavid and Draisaitl on the flanks. Bouchard would have needed nine more points with the extra man to equal Gretzky's record for one postseason (24 in 1988).

This bombardment didn't crush the Golden Knights. They won Game 5, the swing contest in the series, despite conceding three power-play goals. McDavid's scoring rate at five-on-five dipped from 2.71 points per 60 minutes in the regular season to 2.06 against Vegas. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, Evander Kane, and Kailer Yamamoto - four of Edmonton's top six forwards - combined to score once in that phase.

The Oilers went 18-2-1 to end the regular season after Ekholm arrived at the trade deadline. The NHL's hottest team over the final quarter of the schedule was too leaky in May to fulfill its potential.

The four goals Skinner let in Sunday came on 17 shots, lowering his save percentage in the round to .875. Hill - a .934 goalie in the series as Brossoit's injury replacement - whiffed on two shots to open Game 6 before he stoned 38 in a row. Hill's third career playoff start was his greatest to date.

Draisaitl, who turns 28 in October, is signed for two more years at the bargain rate of $8.5 million. McDavid is 26, and his megadeal runs through 2026. Neither player will get worse anytime soon, not after they combined to notch 281 points in the regular season. But several big-ticket teammates - Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman, Kane, Ekholm, and Jack Campbell, to name five - are in their 30s, reducing general manager Ken Holland's runway to build a winner.

This could have been Edmonton's year. The playoff run didn't last long enough to be transcendent. The Oilers have changed, but their story ended the same way.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Edmonton Oilers blasted the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 at home Wednesday to square their second-round playoff clash at two wins apiece. Edmonton needs to tick these four boxes to triumph in the series as it goes down to the wire.

Be cool under pressure

Vegas' tenacity and pace have troubled the Oilers on occasion. The Golden Knights forecheck aggressively, reducing a defenseman's time and space to move the puck, and race up ice to try to strike in transition when those opportunities arise.

Edmonton was prone to blunders in Games 1 and 3. Giveaways, blown tires, and lackadaisical checking produced Golden Knights goals. Vegas scored on numerous three-on-three rushes when the Oilers' defenders got disconcerted and left a man open.

Game 2 supplied the blueprint for Edmonton to stem the tide. Defensemen made short, simple passes that eluded the high forecheckers and sparked breakouts, which stopped Vegas from racking up quick-hit chances and offensive-zone time. Stuart Skinner stoned every rush shot he faced in a 5-1 win.

Edmonton flipped the script on Vegas in Game 4. Forechecking hard, Nick Bjugstad stripped Shea Theodore by the Golden Knights' net before depositing a wraparound. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' snappy release beat Adin Hill at the end of a lengthy cycle shift. The Oilers' puck poise and crisp passing in the D-zone helped them dominate on the shot clock and scoreboard in the first two periods.

Crucially, Skinner cleaned up a defensive lapse. When Mattias Ekholm and Kailer Yamamoto both converged on the puck-handler on one Vegas foray, letting Mark Stone slip to the net behind them, Skinner denied Stone's deke with his pad. Leon Draisaitl teed up Ekholm's blast from the left faceoff dot 20 seconds later.

Some nights, the Oilers author their own demise. When the puck's in their zone, they need to be in sync in man coverage, box out the screener on point shots to deter tips, and avoid handing Vegas possession on a platter. They can't afford to repeat the careless plays that led to backbreaking goals earlier in the series. Game 4 was a positive step, though Game 5 will be tougher if Darnell Nurse is suspended for instigating a late fight.

Swamp Vegas on power play

Edmonton's incandescent power play has started to cool. The Oilers are 1-for-8 since Hill entered Game 3 as Laurent Brossoit's injury replacement. That said, they potted the one goal efficiently. Evan Bouchard accepted Connor McDavid's pass and tickled twine Wednesday nine seconds after Shea Theodore went off for a retaliatory slash.

Edmonton's top unit marries three dynamic talents - Draisaitl, McDavid, and Bouchard - with a complementary 100-point playmaker in Nugent-Hopkins and a skilled worker bee in Zach Hyman.

This quintet scores off Draisaitl's one-timers, McDavid's snipes, Bouchard's bombs from the blue line, and the rebounds and scrambles those clappers create. Six of Draisaitl's playoff-high 13 goals have come on the man advantage. Edmonton's success rates in the series (35.3%) and postseason (45.5%) remain extraordinary.

The NHL's least penalized team, the Golden Knights were shorthanded 2.38 times per game in the regular season and 2.40 times per game in Round 1. That rate has rocketed to 4.25 times per game against the Oilers. The minors they took in Game 4 included a blatant too-many-men offense and an elbowing infraction in the Edmonton zone. Alex Pietrangelo's late, reckless slash to the hands of Draisaitl could trigger a suspension.

Five NHL power plays have scored at a 35% clip over a full postseason (minimum 10 games played) since 1978, when data for this became available. The top team's success rate - the 2021 Colorado Avalanche - hit 41.4%. The Oilers' power play could set a new record in defeat or propel them to the conference finals.

Match Golden Knights' scoring balance

When they click into top gear, any of Vegas' top three lines can dictate tempo and turn defense into offense. They force turnovers, string together nice passing sequences, cycle the puck back and forth, and create openings to pepper it on net. NHL ironman Phil Kessel has been scratched since Round 1 because Vegas boasts so many capable scorers and potent forward combinations.

Six Golden Knights - linemates Ivan Barbashev, Jack Eichel, and Jonathan Marchessault, plus Chandler Stephenson, Michael Amadio, and Zach Whitecloud - tallied goals at even strength in Games 1 through 3. Besides Draisaitl, Warren Foegele was the lone Oiler to score in that phase until Wednesday. It's significant that Bjugstad, Ekholm, and Nugent-Hopkins all lit the lamp at five-on-five.

The Oilers excel if their stars uplift the supporting cast and vice versa, like when Yamamoto shrugged off Stone's huge hit in Game 2 to collect his own rebound and feed Draisaitl to score. McDavid's two assists in Game 4 upped his playoff total to 12, the league high.

At worst, no one produces when the big guns rest. That wasn't a problem in Round 1: Yamamoto, Hyman, Bjugstad, Evander Kane, and Klim Kostin all bagged important goals. Although Hyman and Kane are scoreless in the last five contests, Nugent-Hopkins just snapped his 11-game skid.

Subdue Eichel

Vegas' first-line center was productive in Game 1 (assist, empty-net goal); out of sorts in Game 2 (two defensive-zone penalties); and forceful in Game 3 (two helpers, snipe that chased Skinner from the net). In Game 4, Eichel fired five shots on target and whipped a dangerous no-look pass to Barbashev to no avail.

Forever linked to McDavid as the second guy drafted in 2015, Eichel never lifted the Buffalo Sabres to the playoffs, idling as the Oilers experienced the highs and lows of the Stanley Cup chase. In his first postseason, Eichel has done damage as a shooter and facilitator on the Vegas power play's left flank. The Golden Knights' expected goals share is 62.6% when he skates with Barbashev and Marchessault at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.

Eichel is tied with Draisaitl for the series lead with four points at even strength. He and Marchessault are Vegas' top shot generators by a wide margin. They won't outscore Edmonton's superstars on most nights, but managing it once more would dent the Oilers' Cup hopes. More than anyone, Eichel is the player Edmonton has to quiet.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Vegas Golden Knights topped the Edmonton Oilers 6-4 in a track meet Wednesday, weathering Leon Draisaitl's masterly four-goal night to win the second-round series opener. Keep an eye on these important battlegrounds as the matchup continues.

The big guns

Connor McDavid led all NHL forwards in ice time in Round 1, skating for 25:10 nightly. Draisaitl ranked second at 23:47. Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft leans on his stars, and he played his trump card during the Los Angeles Kings series, uniting Draisaitl with McDavid to stack Edmonton's top line.

Smartly, Woodcroft stuck with the idea Wednesday. McDavid's crafty feeds bookended Draisaitl's epic performance. Exhibiting genius, Draisaitl banked another puck in off of Laurent Brossoit's nameplate as McDavid charged to the net to receive a potential pass.

Draisaitl was the second player in as many nights to pot four goals in defeat, emulating Dallas Stars veteran Joe Pavelski. The Oilers center is the first skater since the dawn of the Original Six era to score 11 goals in seven playoff games. Draisaitl maxed out at seven goals in the 2022 playoffs despite averaging a sublime two points per contest. If the Oilers rally in this series, he might obliterate the long-held NHL postseason record of 19 tallies.

Edmonton's firepower is unparalleled, but Vegas trots out stars, too.

Jack Eichel led the Golden Knights in shots on net and shot attempts in Round 1. Healed from back surgery, Mark Stone produced eight points and eight takeaways to shine at both ends. Vegas outscored the Winnipeg Jets 5-1 and owned 67.7% of the scoring chances when Stone skated with Chandler Stephenson and Brett Howden at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.

Seen laboring at practice this week, Stone absorbed bumps and cross-checks throughout Game 1 but kept venturing to the grimy areas. He beat Vincent Desharnais in a puck battle, then capped the shift seconds later by scoring on a redirect. Eichel, who passed to the point to facilitate Stone's goal, stripped McDavid in the final minute to earn a free shot at Edmonton's empty net. Sliding the puck the length of the ice, Eichel made no mistake.

The secondary scorers

Familiar names (Evander Kane, Zach Hyman) and unsung heroes (Klim Kostin, Kailer Yamamoto) stepped up throughout Round 1 when Edmonton needed a boost. In all, 10 Oilers players scored against the Kings, with seven scoring multiple times to tie the Toronto Maple Leafs for the opening-round high.

That help dried up in Game 1. Hyman's elbow grease and passing touch contributed to two of Draisaitl's goals, but Edmonton's remaining lines were silenced.

The Oilers couldn't contain the Golden Knights' transitional attacks or protect the puck when forechecked. Vegas is clinical in those phases of the game. Michael Amadio and Chandler Stephenson raced into open space off the rush before they buried shots behind Stuart Skinner. Ivan Barbashev induced a Desharnais giveaway when he bagged the first of his two goals.

Stephenson and William Karlsson paced Vegas with four goals apiece in the triumph over Winnipeg. Howden (two tallies) and Amadio (crucial overtime winner) emerged as X-factor contributors. That diversity of scoring maximizes the Golden Knights' offensive potential, as their 14th-ranked attack this season trails every remaining team except the Carolina Hurricanes.

Watch out for the defensemen when Vegas pushes the puck up ice. Alex Pietrangelo combined with Shea Theodore to record eight assists in Round 1, though no Golden Knights blue-liner scored. That dry spell continued Wednesday, but Zach Whitecloud's outlet pass and wrister from the point sparked separate Vegas goals, including Barbashev's tip that restored the lead for good in the third period.

The Oilers' power play

The blatant mismatch that could sink Vegas in this series was significant but not decisive in Game 1. McDavid's vision and Evan Bouchard's heavy shot teed up Draisaitl to convert two of Edmonton's three power-play opportunities. The Oilers went 19-2-4 in the regular season when the power play struck multiple times, per Stathead. Usually, it's a winning formula.

Because the Oilers besieged the Kings in Round 1, capitalizing on nine of 16 power-play tries (56.3%), Vegas' penalty kill was spared the shame of ranking last league-wide. The Golden Knights let the Jets capitalize on five of 12 attempts (41.7%).

No team was penalized less than the Golden Knights this season. They never went a man down on the night they bounced the Jets, and they generally minimized the damage of Winnipeg's power play.

They have to avoid the box in this round. The obstruction penalties Nicolas Hague and Nicolas Roy took in Game 1 were excusable, unlike Pietrangelo needlessly roughing up Bouchard after the second-period horn sounded.

The goaltenders

Advantage Brossoit.

Neither goalie was solid in the opener, but the Vegas netminder had less to do and made the requisite saves, denying McDavid's four shots on net and all five high-danger shots he faced at five-on-five.

At the other end, Barbashev neutralized Draisaitl's first and third goals by scoring on Skinner within a minute of the ensuing faceoffs. Five shots eluded Skinner for the first time since March 11.

It's remarkable that one of these guys will be a conference finalist. Brossoit made 20 starts for the Oilers over a four-year span back when Draisaitl and McDavid were finding their footing in the league. He quieted fans of the Jets, his next team, who needled him with "You're a backup!" chants in Round 1. Demoted to the AHL at the outset of this season, Brossoit turned 30 in March and has now started eight games in a row for Vegas, a new career high.

Skinner withstood adversity against the Kings - being yanked a period into Game 4, being scored on when his stick snapped in Game 6 - to win with a meager .890 overall save percentage. Despite the rocky postseason introduction, Woodcroft's faith in the Calder Trophy finalist didn't waver. Seven appearances in, Edmonton's still waiting for Skinner to submit a dominant playoff performance.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Way back in the third period of Game 1, Vladislav Gavrikov dropped to all fours to disrupt Connor McDavid's dish to Leon Draisaitl's wheelhouse. The pass breakup on an Edmonton Oilers odd-man rush changed the direction of the series. Shut out to that point, the Los Angeles Kings surged up ice and scored to spark a multi-goal comeback.

It was only one play, but the sequence threatened to haunt the Oilers. That the Kings took Game 1 meant Trevor Moore's overtime snapper in Game 3 restored their lead in the series. It meant the Oilers were careening toward premature elimination when they trailed with a few minutes left in Game 4. It showed that icing two all-world scorers doesn’t guarantee victory, and it affirmed Los Angeles wasn't a walkover.

The Kings leveled up over the past year, strengthening the lineup that pushed the Oilers to seven games in the prequel to this matchup. L.A. traded for difference-makers at every position: Kevin Fiala up front, Gavrikov on defense, and Joonas Korpisalo in net. Plus, Viktor Arvidsson and Drew Doughty weren't injured this time around.

Plenty of hockey was played after Gavrikov's deflection. Momentum kept shifting. Edmonton bewailed stick penalties that were called and high puck touches that weren't. The noise ebbed when Evander Kane and Zach Hyman buried goals that saved the season, setting up Kailer Yamamoto to flick the floater from above the faceoff circle that bumped the Kings from the Stanley Cup hunt Saturday night.

Fortitude fuels long playoff runs. Being resilient and adaptable helped the Oilers oust the Kings.

Discounting empty-netters, Kane and Hyman had yet to score in the series when they beat Korpisalo to steal Game 4. Promoted to center the second line, Nick Bjugstad caused havoc in the Kings' zone and struck twice in Game 5. Klim Kostin's two-goal eruption and Yamamoto's late winner made up for Edmonton squandering multiple Game 6 leads.

Brilliant all series, Draisaitl recorded 11 points in six games and was on the ice for 19 of Edmonton's 25 goals. Incandescent last postseason, McDavid was slowed by L.A.'s mobile defense corps at times yet put up 10 points himself, including a pair in Saturday's madcap 5-4 win. The supporting cast's timely emergence propelled the Oilers to the second round, where they'll face the Pacific Division champion Vegas Golden Knights.

Before the playoffs started, theScore wondered if Mattias Ekholm, the defensive stalwart who debuted with Edmonton in March, would become this season's best trade addition. Korpisalo held the title for about a week. Unafraid to challenge McDavid when he slipped open into shooting range or drove headlong to the crease, the Kings netminder held him goalless at even strength until Saturday and boasted a .931 save percentage through Game 3.

Korpisalo's steadiness, combined with L.A.'s offensive punch, discombobulated Edmonton. Jack Campbell, the backup goalie whose save percentage cratered to .888 this season, relieved Stuart Skinner when desperation spiked in Game 4.

After Campbell shut the door, ensuring a three-goal deficit didn't snowball, Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft returned Skinner to the net for the commanding Game 5 win and narrow Game 6 closeout. Skinner made 40 saves Saturday, a new personal high in his sixth career playoff appearance.

The Oilers are deeper than they used to be. Skinner excelled as a rookie this season over 48 starts. Evan Bouchard, the NHL's top power-play producer in Round 1, is maturing into a force. Porous defensively in the 2020 postseason and unable to buy a goal in the '21 playoffs when McDavid rested, Edmonton added Kane, Hyman, Kostin, Bjugstad, and Ekholm over a two-year span to assist McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and blue-line workhorse Darnell Nurse.

The defensive effort against L.A. was imperfect. Paced by Adrian Kempe's five tallies, 11 Kings scored in the series, depressing Skinner's save percentage to .890. The average shot that eluded Skinner at five-on-five was fired from 16.5 feet away, per Natural Stat Trick, signifying the Kings did damage in the low slot and by the blue paint. The Oilers blew three multi-goal leads and only killed 66.7% of their penalties.

Conversely and crucially, Edmonton's power play was dominant. Bouchard factored into eight of the Oilers' nine goals on 16 opportunities. Edmonton received 2.67 man advantages per game, the second-lowest average in the playoffs, meaning it could really light up a less disciplined foe.

Power-play goals from Alex Iafallo in Game 1 and Moore in Game 3 bruised the Oilers' record in playoff overtime. They're 3-10 in the situation in the McDavid and Draisaitl era.

Three teams - the 2017 Anaheim Ducks, the '21 Winnipeg Jets, and these Kings - inflicted multiple OT defeats versus the Oilers. Hyman's Game 4 snipe will be applauded in Edmonton for years to come if it reverses this trend.

Korpisalo and Gavrikov are free agents, but L.A.'s core will return intact for more kicks at the can. McDavid was minimally effective when he squared off against Phillip Danault's line and the Gavrikov-Matt Roy pair. The Kings attacked relentlessly and scored opportunistically, punishing miscues like Skinner's whiffed pass in Saturday's third period. They made the NHL's best offensive club and hottest team since March 1 look vulnerable, though Korpisalo's Round 1 save rate ultimately plunged to .892.

Scarred by past letdowns but bolstered by general manager Ken Holland's wheeling and dealing, the Oilers bounced the Kings without winning any blowouts. Last year, they spanked L.A. by six in back-to-back games. This round started uncomfortably, and that feeling rarely let up, but they finally finished the job, moving four wins closer to the ultimate goal. Vegas awaits.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

By triumphing 4-0 at home Thursday, the New Jersey Devils moved within a win of eliminating the cross-river rival New York Rangers from the Stanley Cup chase. Keep an eye on these four key battlegrounds as the Rangers try to wake up and prolong their season Saturday night in Game 6.

Rangers' shooters vs. Schmid

Of the NHL's 16 playoff qualifiers, only the Devils, Florida Panthers, and Minnesota Wild have started multiple goalies in the first round.

New Jersey's switcheroo was transformative. En route to an embarrassing exit after losing Games 1 and 2 in blowouts, head coach Lindy Ruff yanked Vitek Vanecek and replaced him with the postseason's 22-year-old breakout star. Akira Schmid has stoned 80 of the 82 shots he's faced to rock a .976 save percentage, squeezing the life out of New York's offense while rendering Vanecek's .827 mark irrelevant.

Schmid, the 10th netminder drafted in 2018 at No. 136 overall, was summoned from the AHL this year when injuries befell Vanecek and Mackenzie Blackwood. Schmid's save percentage over 18 games was .922. He pitched a 20-save shutout in relief of Blackwood in the regular-season finale, his first appearance for the Devils in three weeks.

Tapped as Vanecek's backup for the playoffs, Schmid entered the series in Game 3 and narrowly outshone Igor Shesterkin in consecutive goalie duels. His best plays in Game 5 included glove denials of Artemi Panarin's odd-man chance and Kaapo Kakko's mid-air flick. One long Rangers cycle sequence ended when Schmid swallowed Jacob Trouba's point blast, allowing exhausted checker Nico Hischier to slump to the ice.

New York's power play is firing blanks at Schmid. Chris Kreider shelled Vanecek by deflecting in four goals on the Rangers' first seven attempts, but they're now mired in an 0-for-13 slide. Devils penalty killers are rushing Adam Fox at the blue line and bodying Kreider near the net, confident that Schmid will snare any puck he sees.

Shesterkin has been solid in defeat, posting a .924 save percentage across New York's three losses. A dormant offense is his team's issue. Kreider, Patrick Kane, and Mika Zibanejad only generated one scoring chance together at five-on-five in Game 5, per Natural Stat Trick. Slammed by coach Gerard Gallant for their sluggish effort in Game 4, the Rangers were outshot 20-2 in the third period Thursday in a pathetic showing.

Hughes vs. Blueshirts' D

Jack Hughes' hands, shot, evasiveness, and panache have been on display every time he's scored in this round. The 21-year-old center is speedy and stylish, as his breakaway deke of Shesterkin in Game 4 reminded the Madison Square Garden faithful.

Hughes' series-high 21 shots on net include his penalty-shot conversion in the opener and pivotal power-play snipe in Game 3. New Jersey's two-win deficit is a distant memory, but the Devils needed Hughes to drag them into the series at a precarious moment. He chipped in a little in Game 5, drawing the tripping penalty Kane took that led to Erik Haula's tip goal.

Picked first overall in 2019, Hughes already leads his draft class in scoring by a 68-point margin. His rise to superstardom explains how New Jersey, a divisional also-ran for several years, rocketed up the standings this season. Stifling him won't cure all the Rangers' woes, but letting him cook in Game 6 would seal their elimination.

When Hughes rests, Devils defensemen have sparked offense by activating up ice, presenting themselves as threats to shoot as the trailer off the rush. That's how Dougie Hamilton netted the Game 3 overtime winner and Jonas Siegenthaler rewarded Hischier's pinpoint feed in Game 4. Haula, Dawson Mercer, and Ondrej Palat carried the load Thursday to spotlight the Devils' forward depth.

Subdued forwards to watch

Timo Meier, New Jersey's 40-goal sniper and prized deadline acquisition, hasn't recorded a point despite leading the Devils at five-on-five in shots on net and high-danger shot attempts. He paces the team in hits, drawn penalties, and penalty minutes. Meier's been in the mix, teaming with Hischier and Jesper Bratt to cave in the Rangers and post a 79.8% expected goals rate in their shared minutes, per Natural Stat Trick.

Meier endured two four-game pointless skids in the regular season - one with the Sharks in October and one with the Devils in March. He's stuck in his longest drought since November 2019, though it almost ended Thursday. Demoted to the third line, Meier forced Shesterkin to make splendid glove and arm saves and also drew a holding minor, signaling he has the pep in his step to potentially take over Game 6 no matter where he's deployed.

Meanwhile, the Rangers' second line hung on by a thread over the first four games. Outchanced 27-12 when they skated together at five-on-five, Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, and Vladimir Tarasenko somehow held the Devils scoreless and punched in two goals themselves, both when Tarasenko ripped a wrister past Vanecek.

That line's luck waned Thursday. Scored against 39 seconds into Game 5, the trio failed to tap the puck over the goal line during a frenzied third-period scramble. Collectively, those three have accounted for one point over the Rangers' three losses. That's obviously insufficient.

The home-road split

The trend that dictated the outcome of Games 1 through 4 was unpersuasive Thursday. The home team is no longer winless in the series, disappointing the Rangers fans who infiltrated Prudential Center but never had reason to cheer.

Game 5 aside, it makes sense that the hosts have struggled in this matchup. New Jersey's rink is a dozen miles from Madison Square Garden, so travel isn't a slog. The Devils and Rangers both collected more points on the road in the regular season than they did at home. Around the NHL, the visitor has prevailed in 24 of 40 playoff games (60%) contested through Thursday. Four playoff clubs, the Rangers among them, have yet to win at home.

Last year, the road team won a mere 35 of 89 playoff games, triumphing at a 39.3% clip. Road squads went 42-45 (48.3% win rate) in the 2018-19 postseason, the year before pandemic protocols barred fans from arenas. The Rangers bouncing back at MSG is statistically probable, but momentum favors the Devils heading into Game 6.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Seattle Kraken edged the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in overtime on Monday to square their first-round playoff matchup at two wins apiece. These three questions will shape the Avalanche's fate in the series and determine how close they come to repeating as Stanley Cup winners.

Can Avalanche score first and often?

Certain pillars of the Avalanche's 2022 Cup team either signed elsewhere last summer (Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky) or missed the full year recovering from knee surgery (captain Gabriel Landeskog). The Avs reigned atop the Central Division anyway, despite scoring 32 fewer goals than last season.

Colorado's offense was electric in the '22 playoffs. The Avalanche potted 4.25 goals per game over 20 matchups, the most by a team whose run lasted that long since the 1983 New York Islanders. They outscored the Nashville Predators 21-9 in the first-round sweep that initiated the onslaught.

Seattle's a pluckier opponent, but Colorado's big guns came to play. The forwards who log the heaviest minutes - Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon, J.T. Compher, Artturi Lehkonen, and Valeri Nichushkin (who remains out for personal reasons) - have bagged 10 of the club's 12 goals to date. Rantanen's Game 4 equalizer was his fifth tally of the series and ended the Avalanche power play's protracted drought. Of course, Jordan Eberle's power-play goal for the Kraken in overtime was bigger.

Winning offensive-zone faceoffs has sparked the Avalanche at times. Lehkonen and Devon Toews scored off draws to power Colorado's Game 2 comeback. Alex Newhook, a 38.6% faceoff taker for his career, snapped one back to tee up Cale Makar's missile from the point in Game 3. Colorado only controlled 44% of the draws in Game 4, a series low.

Per Natural Stat Trick, MacKinnon leads the series in shots and individual scoring chances, predictably establishing himself as a force. He paced all NHL regulars this season in five-on-five scoring per 60 minutes, producing 3.28 points (for context, Connor McDavid's per-60 rate was 2.71). Outshot 43-22 on Monday, the Avalanche didn't drum up any momentum until MacKinnon's sweet backhand feed helped Rantanen score off the rush.

Colorado's depth diminished up front when Kadri and Burakovsky departed, and Landeskog was shelved. The main cast remained formidable through the rash of injuries that sidelined MacKinnon, Lehkonen, Nichushkin, Makar, and Bowen Byram for weeks at a time. The Avs scored the first goal in an NHL-high 54 games this season, posting an .824 points percentage in those contests.

Pouring it on early and consistently is how they'll contend for the Cup again. Credit the Kraken, who've wrongfooted Colorado by striking first in all four games.

Can Avs manage puck in the D-zone?

Puck-movers abound on Colorado's back end. Makar is a wizard, Toews' decision-making is sound, and Byram and Samuel Girard are renowned for their mobility. Despite this strength, careless puckhandling has stung the Avalanche every time they've started slow in the series and dug a two-goal hole.

Many Seattle tallies have stemmed from failed Colorado breakouts, takeaways in the Avalanche zone, or bounces the Avs mishandled behind the net. A few minutes into Game 4, Rantanen's blind back pass wound up on Brandon Tanev's stick, and Will Borgen promptly wired a one-timer over Alexandar Georgiev's mitt.

The Kraken's offensive approach is no-nonsense. They lack superstar creators but send pucks deep, forecheck doggedly, win one-on-one battles, and attack downhill in transition. That happened in overtime Monday when Lars Eller's offensive-zone turnover enabled Jaden Schwartz to race behind two Colorado defenders and compel Josh Manson to trip him.

Seattle's finishing ability is elite, but the stupendous goals in this matchup - both MacKinnon's breakaway burst and undressing of Ryan Donato in Game 3 come to mind - largely belong to the Avalanche. Conjuring highlights is their domain. Taking greater care of the puck would limit glorious chances against and help spring Colorado's stars up ice.

Can Georgiev shut the door?

Last spring, Darcy Kuemper's .902 postseason save percentage was high enough for him to win the Stanley Cup. He saved minus-7.29 goals above expected in the playoffs, per Evolving-Hockey. Injured in multiple rounds, Kuemper ceded the net at points to backup Pavel Francouz. Colorado was the rare champion that never needed its starting goalie to dominate.

Signed to succeed Kuemper, Georgiev's save percentage has slipped from .919 over 62 regular-season starts to .908 so far against the Kraken.

That said, he's been dependable at key junctures. Georgiev thwarted Yanni Gourde's breakaway attempt and Eberle's odd-man chance in Game 2 with huge pad saves, keeping the Avalanche afloat when they trailed in the series. He stoned Jared McCann in Game 4 a beat before Makar injured the Kraken sniper by ramming him into the boards. Georgiev saved 29 consecutive shots and denied 40 overall before Eberle struck in sudden death.

Philipp Grubauer's .895 save percentage this season was poor, but the Kraken netminder has experience shining in the clutch. Grubauer foiled shots at a .920 rate over 29 playoff starts for Colorado from 2019-21. Georgiev was the busier and better goalie on Monday, a silver lining he'll have to duplicate to submerge Seattle.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Edmonton Oilers rebounded on the road Sunday, erasing a large deficit to stun the Los Angeles Kings 5-4 in overtime and tie their first-round playoff clash at two wins apiece. The series is a best-of-three now, and the answers to these Oilers-centric questions will decide which team prevails.

Will Hyman, Kane, RNH step up again?

Besides Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, five Oilers players have fired the puck past Joonas Korpisalo in the series. Evan Bouchard, Klim Kostin, and Derek Ryan all got on the board before Game 4, during which Zach Hyman saved Edmonton from facing elimination and Evander Kane resembled the shooter who menaced the Kings a year ago.

Upstaging Jonathan Quick, Korpisalo's predecessor in the L.A. net, Kane potted seven goals in the Oilers' Round 1 triumph in 2022. Hyman scored twice in that series and added nine tallies over the rest of Edmonton's playoff run. This year, Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins both obliterated their previous season highs in goals and assists.

Quieted for a few games, the stars of Edmonton's supporting cast finally broke out Sunday. Nugent-Hopkins fed Draisaitl in the slot to set up his power-play goal. Kane's equalizer in the third period exposed Korpisalo's glove hand. The Kings outchanced the Oilers 18-10 in Hyman's five-on-five shifts, per Natural Stat Trick, but Bouchard's pinpoint outlet pass in overtime sprung him to beat Korpisalo through the goalie's blocking arm.

It's vital they keep producing. L.A.'s Adrian Kempe (three goals in the series) remains an Edmonton killer. Alex Iafallo, Gabriel Vilardi, and Trevor Moore have provided additional scoring. Viktor Arvidsson has dished four assists, all of them in clutch moments. By supporting Anze Kopitar, the Kings' offensive fulcrum, these players compensated for the absence of point-per-night dynamo Kevin Fiala through the first three games.

Can Oilers triumph on special teams?

Edmonton's record-setting power play paces the playoffs in efficiency. The Oilers have scored on six of 11 chances throughout the series (54.5%), dwarfing their own 32.4% regular-season conversion rate that made NHL history. Bouchard's bomb from the point and Draisaitl's short-side snipe keyed Edmonton's three-goal comeback Sunday.

L.A.'s power play has clicked on five of 17 attempts (29.4%). Avoidable stick infractions have put Edmonton a man down before every crushing goal the Kings have scored, including the tying tallies in Games 1 and 3 and each of L.A.'s subsequent overtime game-winners. Draisaitl might regret slashing Drew Doughty during a goal celebration if the Oilers don't advance.

The Kings are equipped for this battleground. Their power play ranked fourth in the NHL this season. Only six teams league-wide drew more penalties. Arvidsson's seam passes have eluded Oilers sticks and caused trouble throughout the series for Stuart Skinner, who yielded the net to Jack Campbell in Sunday's first intermission after Kopitar deked him during five-on-four play.

If Edmonton is to pull ahead, leveling the penalty differential is imperative. McDavid has drawn a series-high three minors, and he's done damage when L.A. visits the sin bin: Both of his goals came on the power play 100 seconds apart in Game 3 when he ripped wristers past Korpisalo from the left faceoff circle.

Will McDavid burn L.A.'s defense?

A lot of the offense McDavid creates stems from his charges into the offensive zone. Handling the puck on a string, the Oilers captain dangles defenders at top speed to create space to score. To emerge unscathed from those terrifying sequences, a team has to get sticks and bodies - ideally five at a time - in his way.

The opposing goalie is the last line of defense. Korpisalo, whose save percentage for the series remains solid at .918, has denied all 11 of McDavid's shots at even strength. Some were tuck-in attempts off solo rushes that would have expanded McDavid's highlight reel.

Poised and fleet of foot, the Kings' defensemen have mostly stayed in sync with each other and in front of McDavid when he pressures them in transition. The notable exception was Mikey Anderson in Game 1. Kempe and Kopitar slipped up late in regulation of Game 4, letting McDavid gain the zone and sneak the puck through their sticks to facilitate Kane's equalizer.

McDavid's 30:22 of ice time on Sunday led the team and was his highest mark this season. Edmonton has effectively played with 10 forwards in back-to-back games, scratching one more than usual and benching Kostin for prolonged stretches. For the first time in the series, head coach Jay Woodcroft deployed McDavid with Draisaitl throughout Game 4, and the Oilers outscored the Kings 3-0 during their shared five-on-five minutes.

Can Edmonton sustain a lead?

No lead is safe in this series.

The Oilers bagged two rapid goals to open Game 1 but failed to preserve the advantage and fell short in OT. Edmonton squandered another 2-0 edge in Game 2 before Kostin's third-period winner made the difference. Game 3, the first contest to see the Kings hold a lead, went back and forth until Moore struck in sudden death. The clubs exchanged three-goal periods in Game 4 to set the stage for Hyman's heroics.

Like most teams, the Oilers rarely lose when they score first (32-8-4 in the regular season for a .773 points percentage) or lead entering the third frame (34-1-5, .913). They ranked first in the NHL in both first-period goals (1.12 per game) and second-period tallies (1.56 per game). Controlling the game from wire to wire, as they're capable of doing, reduces angst and demoralizes the opponent.

Composed and dogged, the Kings don't fret when they start slow, trail late, or lose a lead at any point. Coolheadedness helped them rally to tie the opener, tighten up in Game 3 following McDavid's power-play eruption, and score in two of three overtime sessions.

The Oilers laughed last on Sunday. If they net the icebreaker in Game 5, maybe they'll maintain the lead this time and push L.A. to the brink.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Golden Knights bounced back at home Thursday, topping the Jets 5-2 to knot their first-round playoff series at a win apiece. Keep an eye on these seven important players when the matchup moves north for Games 3 and 4.

Mark Stone

The downside of activating a star from long-term injury reserve as the playoffs begin, conveniently enabling his team to blow past the salary cap, is the player may need time to ramp up to his peak.

Stone looked rusty in Game 1, his first appearance in three months following back surgery. He forced some giveaways, flashing his signature defensive skill, but Vegas was severely outplayed and got outscored 2-0 in his five-on-five shifts.

Game 2 was different. Stone shone in the third period, firing a smart feed that led to Chandler Stephenson's winner before he drove the net and slipped open in the slot to pot a pair of insurance goals.

Stone scored efficiently this season before he went under the knife. He ranked third on the Golden Knights in points per 60 minutes at five-on-five and almost cracked the top 50 league-wide. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Stone building on his Game 2 breakout in his hometown would be massive for Vegas.

Pierre-Luc Dubois

Adam Lowry's three goals lead the series, but it was Dubois who set the tone for Winnipeg's opening 5-1 win.

The top-line center threw eight hits, saucered passes into scoring areas, and either set up or tallied the Jets' crucial first two goals in Game 1. Feeling himself, Dubois chirped Vegas goalie Laurent Brossoit as he left one celebration circle.

The most noticeable Jet in the opener was quieter Thursday, though Dubois, Kyle Connor, and Mark Scheifele did create 11 of Winnipeg's 20 scoring chances at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick. The Jets owned the neutral zone in the first period and attacked with speed, enabling the Dubois line to pelt Brossoit with shots during the squad's finest spell of play.

Dubois has been a beast in the playoffs before. Bullying the Maple Leafs in the 2020 bubble, he scored a hat trick in one memorable Blue Jackets win but entered this round mired in an 11-game playoff goal drought. Dubois oozes confidence when he's at his best, supplying the swagger the Jets lacked as they slid to eighth place in the Western Conference.

Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault

The Golden Knights' offensive headliners personify the two phases of the franchise's growth. An original Golden Misfit, Marchessault's star turn in the 2017-18 expansion season helped Vegas knock off Winnipeg to reach the Stanley Cup Final. Eichel was a blockbuster trade addition brought in to make Vegas a perennial contender.

Lacking urgency, Eichel posted poor shot metrics in Game 1, his career playoff debut. Marchessault produced a secondary assist but didn't put a shot on target. The agitated home crowd booed a futile late power-play attempt when Eichel and a few teammates cycled the puck aimlessly.

Eichel awakened on Thursday. He scored on a dexterous tip, his drives to the net induced multiple penalty calls, and he rang a slapper off Connor Hellebuyck's mask that cut the goalie on the eyebrow.

A dozen Vegas skaters netted 10-plus goals this season, but besides Reilly Smith, only Eichel and Marchessault bagged more than 20. It's vital they drive play when head coach Bruce Cassidy deploys them together.

Josh Morrissey and Dylan DeMelo

Morrissey, Winnipeg's power-play conductor and most dynamic defenseman, scored 76 points out of the blue in 2022-23 to double his previous career high. DeMelo, the Jets' top pair's defensive conscience, helped tilt the ice (53.7% expected goals share) when he skated with Morrissey at five-on-five over the past two years.

Steady in the series, they've only been on the ice for one Vegas goal apiece. Both defensemen have recorded an assist. Beautifying the little things, Morrissey dislodged pucks from sticks and completed short, savvy passes that sparked Jets breakouts, but he didn't bend either game in Vegas to his will.

Vegas' defense corps is big, battle-tested, and fairly skilled. Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore earned downballot Norris Trophy votes in recent seasons. That Morrissey leveled up to vie for the award himself this year means he's capable of being this matchup's best blue-liner. Now's the time to make it happen.

Connor Hellebuyck

Back when Brossoit was Hellebuyck's teammate, he received all of 45 starts over his three seasons as the Jets’ backup goalie. Durable and dazzling, Hellebuyck denies his partners regular playing time and can win a series practically by himself.

Hellebuyck’s .920 save percentage was fourth-best this season among NHL regulars, per Natural Stat Trick. However, his save percentage on the penalty kill (.884) was pedestrian and his save rate on high-danger shots (.828) ranked 28th league-wide.

The Golden Knights need to exploit those vulnerabilities. They're 0-for-7 overall with the man advantage, but they lit up Hellebuyck in Game 2 by continually getting the puck to the goalmouth or other dangerous areas.

Hellebuyck is credited with every postseason win in Jets franchise history. No Western Conference playoff goalie is as experienced or formidable. By the standings, the Jets entered this series as 16-point underdogs, but it won't feel that way if Hellebuyck rebounds to dominate on home ice.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.