Much is still the same, even though a lot of names have changed for the Dallas Stars and the Edmonton Oilers, meeting in the Western Conference final for the second year in a row.
Coaches Pete DeBoer and Kris Knoblauch are still in charge, so the structures are pretty much unchanged for both teams.
Edmonton still has 100-point teammates Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, while Dallas has its core of young scorers like Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson along with veterans Tyler Seguin and captain Jamie Benn.
“There’s a few different players playing the series obviously. But in a lot of ways, it’s very similar,” McDavid said Tuesday.
“Same coach, same systems. … We haven’t changed much, they haven’t changed much.”
The same 26-year-old goalies will be in net when the series starts Wednesday night — Jake Oettinger for the Stars in their third consecutive West final, and Stuart Skinner for the Oilers, though he had lost his starting job in these NHL playoffs.
“There’s lots of things going to be similar,” Draisaitl said. “They know how we want to play, and we know how they want to play.”
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Still, both the Stars and Oilers had seven players who appeared in last year’s series — won by Edmonton in six games — that are no longer on those teams.
The biggest change is midseason trade acquisitions Mikko Rantanen and Mikael Granlund now on the Stars’ top line with fellow Finnish player Hintz.
Rantanen is the leading scorer in these NHL playoffs with 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists).
He is just ahead of McDavid with 17 points (three goals, 14 assists) and Draisaitl with 16 (five goals, 11 assists), who aren’t alone in scoring now for the Oilers.
They are in their third West final in four seasons after losing last year’s Stanley Cup in seven games to Florida.
“They’ve got the two-headed monster, but just the depth like they brought in, [Trent] Frederic, [Corey] Perry, all those guys,” Oettinger said.
“They’re first in the league in odd-man rushes, but now they’re also like getting to the net, getting traffic to the net. They’re not just kind of run-and-gun, which you need, the all-around game. From my perspective, I think just going to have to expect it all.”
Defenceman Cody Ceci, another player the Stars got in a midseason trade from San Jose, was with the Oilers the past three seasons.
Veteran defenceman John Klingberg has played 10 playoff games after just 11 regular-season games with the Oilers, his fourth team since beginning his NHL career with the Stars from 2015-22.
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With McDavid, Draisaitl and Rantanen, this series has three of the top scorers in NHL playoff history.
McDavid is third on that list at 1.58 points per game (40 goals, 94 assists in 85 games), with Draisaitl fifth at 1.46 (46, 78 in 85 games). Rantanen, in his first postseason with Dallas after the past seven with Colorado, ranks seventh at 1.28 (43, 77 in 120 games).
The all-time leader is Wayne Gretzky averaging 1.84 points in his 208 playoff games. He won four Stanley Cup titles in a five-season stretch with the Oilers in the 1980s, and this past weekend was in the Stars locker room after they won in the second round.
Oettinger is already in his fourth consecutive postseason and has won six postseason series. Now he wants his Stanley Cup shot.
“I feel like he is dialed in. I feel like he’s on a bit of a mission here,” DeBoer said.
“I think coming up short two years in a row, or getting that far and then not breaking through … he’s going to do everything he can to try to get us there.”
Oettinger has a .919 save percentage and 2.47 goals-against average.
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Skinner, the Oilers regular-season starter, was replaced after they fell behind 2-0 in the first round. They won six in a row with Stuart Skinner starting before he sustained an apparent left leg injury in Game 2 against Vegas in the second round.
After a loss in Game 3, Skinner posted consecutive shutouts, including the series-clinching 1-0 overtime win in Game 5.
Dallas went 0 for 14 on the power play in the series in last year’s West final. The Oilers added two short-handed goals in the series, which they clinched with two power-play goals in Game 6.
The Stars have been good on special teams this postseason, ranking third among playoff teams both for converting power plays (30.8 per cent). Their power play is the best among any teams that played more than one round, and the teams better on PKs are Eastern Conference finalists Carolina and Florida.
Edmonton is at 25 per cent on power plays and 66.7 per cent on kills this postseason.
