By clobbering the Edmonton Oilers 5-0 at Rogers Place (April 14) on Monday, the Los Angeles Kings clinched second place in the Pacific Division while locking Edmonton into third place. Related: Kings Throttle Depleted Oilers 5-0 to Secure Home Ice in First Round That means that Los Angeles will have home ice advantage against Edmonton when the two teams meet in the first round of the upcoming postseason. The 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs begin on April 19. Oilers Still Had Shot at Second Place Going into action Monday, the Oilers still had an outside chance at overtaking Los Angeles in the standings. Edmonton’s path to second place was pretty straight-forward: defeat the Kings in regulation, then beat the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday (April 16), and hope that Los Angeles only gets one point from its final two games, on the road against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday (April 15) and at home versus the Calgary Flames on Thursday (April 17). That scenario certainly wasn’t probable, but it also wasn’t entirely unrealistic. The Oilers shouldn’t have much trouble beating the last-place Sharks, while Los Angeles faces a couple of tougher matchups: Seattle is always competitive at Climate Pledge Arena, and the Flames might have their postseason hopes hanging in the balance. Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers) But the Oilers effectively handed home-ice advantage to Los Angeles on Monday by dressing a second-rate lineup. The Kings, to their credit, played a strong game and were more than full value for the victory. There was some hope that Leon Draisaitl (52 goals in 2024-25, first on the team) and Zach Hyman (27 goals, second), who are among the many Oilers that have been sidelined recently, would be able to return on Monday. But instead of bringing back their two leading goal scorers, the Oilers doubled down by choosing to rest the greatest player on the planet, Connor McDavid (26 goals, third). The result was predictable, as Los Angeles steamrolled an Oilers team whose lineup included one player making his professional debut (Quinn Huston), another playing his third career NHL game (Cam Dineen), two veterans that have spent the majority of the 2024-25 in the minors (Josh Brown and Max Jones), and not a single skater with more than 20 goals this season. Apparently, home ice advantage isn’t that important to the Oilers, who made a calculated decision on Monday to prioritize rest and recovery. Clearly, the Oilers feel they have a better chance of winning in Los Angeles with a healthier lineup. It’s a valid approach from coach Kris Knoblauch and Oilers management, presuming they had heavy input. The chances of finishing second weren’t favourable, and the Oilers are a banged-up team. Other lineup regulars missing Monday with bumps or bruises included defencemen Jake Walman and Troy Stecher, while blueliner Mattias Ekholm is out for at least the first round of the playoffs. Trent Frederic could possibly return from injury early in the postseason. Breaking Down the Stats on Home Ice Advantage Just how important is home ice advantage in this best-of-seven series between the Oilers and Kings, anyway? That depends on the statistics that you place value in. The Kings have the best home record in the NHL this season: they’re 31-5-4 in the friendly confines of Crypto.com Arena, compared to just 16-19-5 on the road. The Oilers, meanwhile, have a better record this season when they play at Rogers Place (25-13-3), but have been pretty good on the road (22-16-2). Edmonton has beaten Los Angeles in the first round each of the last three postseasons, and held home ice advantage for every one of those series, including in 2022 when Game 7 was played at Rogers Place. But the Oilers also have a better record at Crypto.com Arena (6-2) than at Rogers Place (6-4) against Los Angeles since 2022. Over the last two NHL postseasons, road teams actually have a winning record, but the team with home ice advantage has come out on top in the series far more often than not. Oilers Could Have Rested Stars in San Jose What makes Edmonton’s approach a bit of a head-scratcher is that McDavid is likely to play on Wednesday against San Jose. The centre is sitting on 99 points, leaving him one goal or assist away from his eighth season with at least 100 points. That would tie Marcel Dionne for the third-most 100-point campaigns in NHL history, and there is no way the Oilers aren’t going to let their captain go for it. So why not give McDavid a chance at getting that milestone out of the way by playing him against the Kings in a game that actually has playoff-seeding implications? The Oilers might have already been locked into their spot in the standings by Wednesday, anyway, and therefore could make a more educated decision on whether to rest McDavid, and possibly other players. Instead, it will be San Jose fans that get to watch McDavid go for 100, while Oilers fans who shelled out big bucks with the hope of seeing their hero in Edmonton’s regular season home finale were treated to the sight of a glorified preseason (American Hockey League) lineup getting massacred. But that’s just the nature of the beast. Everyone understands there’s only one thing that matters for the Oilers, and that’s capturing the Stanley Cup. And the roster decisions the Oilers are making right now could have a large bearing on whether they’re still playing in June or even May. In less than three weeks, Edmonton could find itself playing Game 7 against the Kings at Crypto.com Arena. If that’s the case, will the Oilers regret having punted on Monday’s game? Or will the strategy be validated by the performance of their players who might just have a bit more in the tank? Time will be the judge.