LOS ANGELES -- The best home team in hockey took another significant step toward home ice advantage on Saturday, as the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 in Los Angeles.
It wasn't the playoff preview we were all hoping for, with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Mattias Ekholm and Stuart Skinner all out injured, the Kings didn't see anything approaching a full-powered Oilers team.
Regardless, you can only play the team in front of you, and the Kings got the job done to give themselves a crucial four-point cushion over the Oilers.
The Kings have struggled at home in the playoffs recently, even after turning Crypto.com into a fortress after Jim Hiller took over last season, but it's still a crucial change from previous seasons.
If we get the Kings-Oilers matchup again, it will be the first time the Kings have home ice advantage in the matchup and it's impossible to think it won't have any impact at all. Whether it's enough to see the Kings finally beat the Oilers is yet to be seen, but it's a new variable that changes the equation for this matchup.
A slight concern if you're the Kings is going 0-4 on the power play Saturday and the knowledge that you're unlikely to stop a healthy Oilers power play.
The special team's battle will likely determine this series again, and the Kings need to improve both units in the playoffs if they have any hope of taking the series.
On the bright side, Andrei Kuzmenko scored his fifth goal in a Kings uniform and looks like he could be a game-breaker at both five-on-five and on the power play for the Kings.
As I've said plenty in the last few weeks, none of those positives matter until we see it happen in the playoffs, though. The excellent play of Kuzmenko, Quinton Byfield, Kevin Fiala and Darcy Kuemper is great, but it means nothing if those players don't show up in the playoffs.
To flip the script this season, the Kings need everyone to show up in the playoffs, and home ice advantage could be a key to getting themselves going early in the series.