Leon Draisaitl gives Kings prime bulletin board material

The Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers certainly qualify as rivals of one another, as they've met in the postseason two years straight. And on both occasions, the Oilers have rebounded from deficits to break the Kings hearts and advance to the next round. 

Right now, it's looking like a prime possibility that the two teams could once again face one another in the postseason, but first, they'll have to meet tonight in a regular season matchup at Rogers Place in downtown Edmonton. Currently, the Oilers lead the Kings in the standings by three points, which the Kings can narrow down to just one should they earn two points and keep the Oilers from obtaining any.

Ahead of the matchup, Oilers star forward Leon Draisatl gave what some would consider some good bulletin board material for the Kings to look toward with his comments about the impending clash.

Meanwhile, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, who replaced Jay Woodcroft earlier in the season after Edmonton stumbled out of the gate, views tonight as a dress rehearsal for a potential 3rd straight playoff matchup. 

“I think so. I think the other ones, go back in the season playing L.A., we’ve had little dress rehearsals,” Knoblauch said. “As you get closer to the playoffs, it’s more meaningful. So every game, I think, is a dress rehearsal.

“Yeah, there is a likelihood that we are playing them in the first round, but I don’t think we’ve really thought about that. You look at the standings and, of course, it’s logical that might happen, but we’re just trying to figure out our game, things that we can still get better at. Whether that’s getting through their neutral zone or our defensive zone coverage against any team, we’re always working on those details.”

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