Oilers getting healthier following key injuries, find rhythm in Game 3 win

EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Oilers are looking to extend the clock for as long as possible.

They believe the longer the Western Conference First Round against the Los Angeles Kings goes, the better off they will be.

“Definitely,” Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said after a 7-4 win in Game 3 at Rogers Place on Friday. “We have lots of guys that hadn’t played a lot. The longer this goes, you could see [Trent Frederic] coming a little bit tonight, he had his legs going, [Evander Kane] is getting up to speed, and I’ll put myself into that group as well.”

Edmonton limped into the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs with a lot of key players missing games because of injury. The further the best-of-7 series against Los Angeles goes along, the speed, strength and timing of certain individual players for Edmonton will continue to improve.

That will bode well for the team as a whole.

“Sometimes it takes a little bit because it’s intense hockey right off the bat,” Draisaitl said. “We don’t have much time, but the longer we can drag it out, it’s obviously in our favor.”

Draisaitl missed the last seven games of the regular season with a lower-body injury sustained at the San Jose Sharks on April 3. Prior to that, he missed four games with an undisclosed injury sustained against the Utah Hockey Club on March 18.

Frederic was limited to 7:10 of ice time at the Kings on April 5, one month after being acquired in a trade from the Boston Bruins on March 4, because of an ankle injury. He missed the last six games of the regular season.

Forward Zach Hyman was out for the last three games before returning for Game 1. Defenseman John Klingberg was out for the final 10 games of the season with a lower-body injury. And Kane missed the entire regular season before returning for Game 2 against the Kings.

Kane had a goal and assist in Game 3 against Los Angeles.

“For sure myself, I missed a whole year,” Kane said. “Just continuing to get back in the groove and getting into playoff hockey. You get back to Edmonton, there’s some buzz in the city, there was some buzz in the morning (skate) and when you go out for warmup. I think we kind of got reenergized a little bit. I thought the first two games we were still in regular-season mode, but I thought tonight, especially in that first period, we were good to go and had a big push in the third.”

The Oilers expected things to be difficult at the start of the series with players returning to play together for the first time in weeks. Prior to Game 1, Draisaitl and captain Connor McDavid had not been in the lineup together since March 18.

McDavid missed eight games with a lower-body injury sustained against the Winnipeg Jets on March 20 but played in four of the last five games of the regular season.

“I think Game 1, we had some trouble creating some chemistry with just a new look in our lineup with so many injuries down the stretch,” Oilers forward Connor Brown said. “That’s kind of the cards we were dealt, but I really thought we had a great process today. I thought we did a lot of things to control the play and some big goals at some key moments. It was a good win, and I think we’ll only get better.”

Edmonton was desperate for a win in Game 3 to prevent from falling behind 3-0 in the series. Things were good to start the game, but then the Oilers found themselves down 4-3 heading into the third period.

Kane scored to tie the game 4-4 on a scramble in front at 13:18 before Evan Bouchard put Edmonton ahead 5-4 on the power play 10 seconds later at 13:28. McDavid and Brown then added empty-net goals with Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper pulled for the extra attacker for the 7-4 final.

“Any time you trail 2-0 (in a series) you want to extend it as much as you can,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. ‘We knew there was going to be some rust for some of those guys coming back. Klingberg, there is another guy that I mention, that hadn’t played very much and has really given us two good games I believe.”

The Oilers are getting healthier by the day and are looking to push the series even further with a win in Game 4 here on Sunday (9:30 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TBS, truTV, MAX, FDSNW).

By then, defenseman Troy Stecher may be ready to return from an undisclosed injury, leaving Mattias Ekholm as the only player not available. The defenseman was ruled out of the first round with an undisclosed injury.

“It’s not easy not playing, not practicing or practicing very little, coming into an NHL game in the playoffs where the intensity is so high for the first series,” Knoblauch said. “But I’m very happy with those guys and hopefully, which I anticipate, they can just continue to get better.”