The Edmonton Oilers face the Los Angeles Kings in Game 1 of the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Monday, April 21, 2025.

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.

And The Last Shall Be First Let’s start at the end of Game 1, which given how this once well-in-hand playoff game that suddenly turned chaotically out of hand finished up, is probably the only place to start for purposes of discussion.