Edmonton Oilers open playoffs against skilled, young Ducks team

When the Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Ducks open their first-round NHL playoff series Monday, it will be a complete reversal from 2017, the last time the teams met in the playoffs.

Back then, the Ducks used their veteran lineup to subdue the young, mostly inexperienced Oilers 4-3 in a second-round series. Now the roles are flipped with a veteran, playoff-hardened Edmonton team facing a young, run-and-gun Ducks squad.

Now, the Ducks' top four scorers — forwards Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson and Beckett Sennecke, and defenceman Jackson LaCombe — average 21 years old.

"They have a lot of young talent over there that has led the way through the regular season, so it will be a focus of ours to be hard on them, not give them anything easy," Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said of the Ducks.

"We know in general they want to play a fast game, play on the run and on the go," he said after Friday's practice, which saw backup goaltender Cal Picard return. "That's not how we want to play. We want to play tight defensively and make things really difficult for them and wait for our chances."

The Oilers finished second in the Pacific Division, two points back of Vegas after a 6-2-2 run to close the regular season. The Ducks were third but went 2-6-2 over their final 10 games.

The Oilers, Stanley Cup finalists the last two years, head into the series feeling confident after having found their defensive game in the last few weeks of the regular season.

"The push we had the last month or so, we've played a lot better," veteran defenceman Mattias Ekholm. "We had some big guys go down, and guys come in and fill those spots. The guys in here feel as good as they have all year, going into the playoffs, which absolutely can help our group."