The Oilers, defending Western Conference champions, are sure to have a juiced-up crowd trying to will them back into the series on Friday night when they welcome the Kings. Game time is 10 p.m. EDT.

Each day, our writers here at Last Word on Hockey look at the games and give in-depth analysis. Our team breaks down the key matchups, storylines, and stats, then makes predictions based on how they might play out.

In last year’s playoffs (25 games), the McDavid line combined with the Bouchard pairing outscored opponents 23-8 (74 percent) at five-on-five in 347 minutes. That kind of high-octane performance (3.98 GF-60 for the line) turned a five-on-five shift into a power play.