The Edmonton Oilers are looking to avenge last season’s Stanley Cup Final defeat, with Connor McDavid, Kris Knoblauch, and company stopping at nothing to hoist Lord Stanley this time around. In case the Vegas Golden Knights believe they are in for a walk in the park, McDavid fired a blunt message for the franchise in Sin City ahead of an electric showdown in the NHL postseason.
McDavid and the Oilers weren’t at their best in the first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings, but it was enough to get the job done in six games and extend their streak to four straight seasons with at least one playoff series win, in each season they defeated the Kings in the opening round.
However, the Oilers are far from content with winning one playoff series, as their goal is crystal-clear: Edmonton wants the Cup—but so does every other team in the NHL, including the Golden Knights who will enjoy home-ice advantage during their upcoming matchup with the Oilers.
McDavid and the Oilers have met with the Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Playoffs once in the past, with Vegas eliminating Edmonton in six games during the 2022-23 season. Sin City’s franchise would go on to win the Stanley Cup, defeating the Florida Panthers in five games.
Connor McDavid, 97 of the Edmonton Oilers, skatesagainst the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on March 14, 2025 in Elmont, New York.
The Oilers envision the same fate for themselves, but they must first prevail over one of the most well-rounded rosters in the NHL, in an organization that, though young, has already witnessed incredible success. These aren’t the same Oilers, however, and McDavid made that clear to Vegas with a powerful statement.
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“You learn from your failures and that [Vegas loss] was one of them,” McDavid said about the playoff elimination against the Golden Knights in 2023, per NHL.com. “Definitely we changed some things systemwise from that series, but it was a good learning experience, for sure.”
Facing the odds
The Oilers know they’re in for an uphill battle against the Golden Knights, but McDavid, Knoblauch, and the rest of the team like their odds as they roll the dice at T-Mobile Arena. Edmonton is hunting for its sixth Stanley Cup with the same anxious hunger as if it had never hoisted one before — and for an entire generation, it feels exactly that way.
Head coach Kris Knoblauch of the Edmonton Oilers takes part in practice during the off day between games against the Florida Panthers in the 2024 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place on June 12, 2024 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
They say Vegas doesn’t get built on winners—and that saying translates well to the struggles visiting teams face when taking on the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. But Edmonton has an ace up its sleeve—two, in fact—with the lethal combo of McDavid and Draisaitl, a duo no team seems able to solve when they’re firing on all cylinders.
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Long nights in Vegas
The Oilers are all in, playing with house money after narrowly escaping the Kings, and they now carry the swagger of a team gambling on borrowed time. It might be now or never for Edmonton—and for McDavid to finally hoist Lord Stanley and officially begin his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s legacy in Oil Country.
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What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas—or so they say—but McDavid and the Oilers are aiming to put the entire league on notice as they march into the Strip, where the Golden Knights await.
