Kings Talk Home-Ice Advantage in Round 1 of 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs

The stage is set.

Kings versus Oilers, Part 4. But there’s a wrinkle about what’s to come. For the first time in this matchup and the first time in any Kings playoff series since 2016, the Kings will play Game 1 on home ice, at Crypto.com Arena.

The last three seasons have been extremely familiar. The Kings finished in third place in the Pacific Division, with varying point totals between 99 and 104 points, while the Oilers finished in second, with a total that ranked slightly higher. This spring, while the two teams are the same, the roles are officially reversed.

The matchup was locked in on Saturday, when Vegas skated to a 5-3 win over Nashville. With a regulation victory over the Predators, Vegas pulled six points clear of the Kings with three games remaining and command of the regulation wins tiebreaker. With the Kings defeating Colorado on Saturday and Edmonton on Monday, the Kings formally secured that Game 1 will come at Crypto.com Arena.

Looking at both sides objectively, I think the home-ice advantage probably matters more to the Kings than it does to the Oilers. In terms of lineup preparation, it's probably the inverse.

The Kings have their injuries, certainly. But Head Coach Jim Hiller has expressed that he is confident in having defensemen Joel Edmundson and Drew Doughty available for the first game of the postseason. Doughty returned to the lineup on Monday and Edmundson's availability is not believed to be in doubt for the playoffs. The only player of questionable status is forward Tanner Jeannot, who is week-to-week, and was not meant to be included in Hiller’s belief he’d have his team healthy for Game 1. I suppose you could add Quinton Byfield into that mix now, after he left last night's game with an upper-body injury after a dirty cross check to the back of his head from Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse. These three games won't make a difference for Jeannot one way or the other. The Kings have players banged up, certainly, guys who might benefit from a game off. Generally speaking though, the Kings have thrived at home this season and getting the edge in that area is pretty big for a team that has 31 victories from 40 games played in Los Angeles during regular-season play.

For the Oilers, though, the list of players to miss time somewhere along the way is extensive. The Kings defeated an Edmonton team without Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, along with forward Zach Hyman. Defenseman Mattias Ekholm is not expected to be available for the Round 1 series, while forward Evander Kane has still not played a game this season. Defensemen Jake Walman and Troy Stecher also missed Monday's game, while forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and goaltender Stuart Skinner have recently missed time as well. That's a lot of dudes, and important dudes at that. One to continue to monitor heading into Game 1 in Los Angeles.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve asked players what it would mean to get home ice in Round 1. I think there was certainly some excitement around it. The Kings have already set a franchise record for home wins this season with 31. At 31-5-4 in total, they lead the NHL with a .825 points percentage at home. Between being the NHL’s best team at home this season, on top of simply providing a mental change from opening yet another series in Alberta, there is lots of good that comes with getting that first game at Crypto.com Arena.

Mikey Anderson
We know it’s not as fun to have to go start on the road, it’s nice to be able to stay here. We’ve had success at home, we like playing here, it helps having the fans to start Games 1 and 2. The mindset right now is keep winning game, keep building our game and when Game 1 comes around, we’re ready to go.

Brandt Clarke
We want to play here, we want to play in front of our fans, they’ve been great to us all season and obviously we’ve played well here. I think it’s just our time to flip the script a little bit. We’re going to win out, stay on this high and roll right into the playoffs.

Warren Foegele
You want to play at home in the playoffs, with line matching and just playing in front of your fans, your routine of being at home is a huge advantage. Even though we’re locked into a playoff spot, we still need to bring that momentum to finish the year right and bring that momentum into the playoffs.

Adrian Kempe
Obviously that’s something we’ve wanted, home-ice advantage, especially with the way we’ve been playing at home all year. Every game we have left here is going to be really important, it’s going to feel like a playoff game. You want to finish as high as possible in the standings and if you get home-ice advantage, hopefully we can make something good out of it.

Alex Laferriere
Yeah, it’s huge. We love playing in front of these guys and we want to be in front of our fans the whole times. It’s really big to get home ice, especially with how we’ve played here this year. It’s a really big one.

A common theme here is that, while home-ice advantage is important, so is carrying momentum from the regular season into the playoffs. Several players have said they wouldn't want to sit out at all over these next two games. They'd want to keep playing, keep building momentum. Others might differ, though. As a team, however, there seems to be a pretty clear consensus that everyone wants to keep momentum up and wants to keep things going into that first game, whenever it may be.

With the teams now locked into place, assumption would be that the series could open in Los Angeles on Sunday, April 20. One week from today. With the Kings playing on Thursday, the rescheduled game against Calgary, it feels unlikely they'd be asked to turn around and play a playoff game on Saturday. Suppose that is mostly confirmed with the announcement of a Lakers home game on Saturday night. So, that points towards Sunday, but unconfirmed at this time, with Monday also a possibility. With the matchup now confirmed, I'd expect to see those details emerge sooner rather than later regarding both the games at home and the entire seven-game series.

For now, with home-ice in the bank, the focus for Seattle game is simply on preparation. Get ready for that one and go from there.