The Edmonton Oilers made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals a year ago, but as they begin their first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings, it doesn't look as if this year's team can make it back to the championship round.

The Oilers and the Kings are meeting in the first round for the fourth consecutive season. Edmonton has been victorious in the three previous meetings, but the Kings have home ice advantage this time around. Nevertheless the Oilers are minus-132 favorites to win the series.

That is largely because feature the explosive duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. But one player the Oilers won't have when the series gets underway is forward Evander Kane. The power forward has been a key playoff performer for the Oilers in each of the last three playoff seasons.

He had 4 goals and 4 assists in 20 postseason games last year. That performance came two years after he scored 13 postseason goals and added 4 assists for 17 points in just 15 games.

However, Kane has been out all season after undergoing major surgery in training camp as a result of multiple injuries. He also underwent knee surgery after the initial medical intervention.

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Kane has been skating in recent weeks with the idea that head coach Kris Knoblauch would be able to ramp up his work and that would lead to his participation in the playoffs. That idea appears to be something of a longshot at this point.

The Oilers could have their work cut out for them in this difficult first-round assignment. Start off with the Kings being motivated to come out with their best performance against the team that has tormented them in the last three postseason meetings.

The Kings finished in second place in the Pacific Division behind the Vegas Golden Knights. The Kings had 105 points, and that was four more than the Oilers.

Draisaitl finished the season with 106 points to lead the Oilers, six more than McDavid. Draisaitl led the league with 52 goals during the regular season, while McDavid had just 26 goals.

McDavid scored 64 goals two seasons ago and his fall-off has been dramatic. The 26 goals were the fewest that McDavid has scored since his rookie season of 2015-16 when he had 16 goals.

Adrian Kempe led the Kings with 35 goals and 38 assists during the regular season.