The 2025-26 season is rapidly coming to an end.

It’s all but certain that the Edmonton Oilers will make their seventh consecutive postseason. That said, their first round opponent has yet to be determined, with the two likely options being the Vegas Golden Knights or the Utah Mammoth. The former is the team that the Oilers play on Saturday, and would be in a scenario where the Edmonton finishes second in the Pacific Division.

Being in the same division, the Oilers and Golden Knights have met in the postseason before, once in 2023 and again last year. In this edition of Flashback Friday, we’ll take a look at how those two series went.

2023 series

The p were a fun team. That season saw Connor McDavid set a career-high 64 goals and 153 points in 82 games, which happened to be his most recent Hart Trophy. Leon Draisaitl hit the 50-goal mark for the second time in his career, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had one of the most surprising seasons in recent history, finishing with 104 points.

On top of that, the depth scoring of the team was the best it’s been in the McDavid era, leading to a 50-23-9 record and 109 points, two behind the Vegas Golden Knights. In the first round, they took on the Los Angeles Kings for the second time in as many years (the first of four, maybe five) first round matchups. It took six games, but the Oilers moved on to the second round, where they met the Golden Knights.

Game 1

Game 1 was on May 3, 2023. Just four minutes into the game, Draisaitl scored his eighth goal of the postseason, this one on the power play. However, the Knights scored less than a minute later, the first of three unanswered goals. With 11 seconds left in the first period, Draisaitl cut the Knights’ lead to one.

After a scoreless second period, it took just 95 seconds into the second period for the Oilers to tie it. Once again, it was Draisaitl, but the Golden Knights fired back with two goals in the following two minutes. Draisaitl scored his fourth of the game with about 11 and a half minutes later, but the Oilers were unable to find the game-tying goal, with Jack Eichel icing it with an empty-netter.

Game 2

Still in Sin City for Game 2, Draisaitl scored his fifth goal of the series on the power play just over two minutes into the game. Evan Bouchard added another power play goal seven minutes into the first, then Connor McDavid scored a shorthanded goal midway through the first. But it didn’t end there, as Draisaitl scored again to give the Oilers a 4-0 lead heading into the first intermission.

That was more than enough for the victory, but McDavid added a power play goal of his own midway through the second, with the Golden Knights ending Stuart Skinner’s shutout bid just 96 seconds into the third. In the end, the Oilers won 5-1.

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Game 3

Again, the Oilers scored first thanks to an early goal in the........

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