Drew Doughty issues a threat to Connor McDavid ahead of Kings/Oilers series opener
With the opening night of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs starting tonight, tensions are already flaring between the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings. It's not just because of their playoff series, but because of an incident involving Connor McDavid just a couple short weeks ago.
Back to March 30th, the two Pacific Division rivals met in their third matchup of the regular season with the Oilers coming out on top by a score of 2-0. The biggest story of the game was not the final score, but a Connor McDavid hit-from-behind boarding penalty against Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson, sidelining him for about a week and a half.
Drew Doughty, the Kings' longest-tenured defenseman, has not forgotten about the controversial hit from the superstar forward quoting if he gets the chance to "smack" McDavid, he and his teammates will take it.
Doughty seems to be confident that his squad can slow down McDavid whilst using this incident as motivation to make his life difficult in the highly anticipated first-round series. Despite this being a subtle warning shot, the 24th-ranked penalty kill (Kings) will certainly have to be careful in giving the 1st-ranked power play (Oilers) numerous opportunities to cash in.
With the series kicking off tonight, Doughty and the Kings will have to come ready to play against an Oilers team who was 9-0-1 to close out the regular season. These two do have a history against one another as just one calendar year ago, they met in the same scenario in round one with the Oilers prevailing in 7 games.
| POLL | ||
17 AVRIL | 418 ANSWERS Drew Doughty issues a threat to Connor McDavid ahead of Kings/Oilers series opener How many games will this first round series last? | ||
| 4 | 17 | 4.1 % |
| 5 | 97 | 23.2 % |
| 6 | 246 | 58.9 % |
| 7 | 58 | 13.9 % |
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