The Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars face off in the 2025 Western Conference Final with a trip to the Stanley Cup Final on the line for the second straight year. Whether it’s the Edmonton Oilers stars like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl or the Dallas Stars’ stars like Mikko Rantanen or Thomas Harley, there is star power abound. Hosts Nick Zararis and Joey Erickson walk through the key series storylines like the Oilers 5-on-5 play, the Stars’ rising alongside Rantanen and the return of Miro Heiskanen. Nick and Joey also discuss series X-factors like Evgenii Dadonov and Zach Hyman, dissect key matchups like Heiskanen against McDavid and pick the series.
0:00 Intro: Western Conference Finals rematch preview
5:13 Stars’ evolution and special teams improvement
8:46 Oilers’ lineup changes and offensive strategies
15:14 Key players for Stars in the series
21:22 X-factors and matchups to watch
26:21 Goaltending unpredictability and series predictions
Edmonton Oilers vs Dallas Stars: Western Final Preview + Bold Predictions | Who wins and why
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16 Comments
I just think it's going to be tough for anyone who already has a cup to dig deep enough to win a battle of wills with Mcdavid and Draisitle at this point. Does Rantanen trying to prove a point match up to the righteous feeling of the Oilers core? Either way, I feel like this series is particularly difficult to attack with analytics with players coming back from injury and how much these teams have decoupled from their late season performance levels.
I hope Carolina gives the Panthers a beating too soften them up before we get there
Great to see you two connect again this year and share your insights on your respective teams. Both teams are a bit different than last year, and both seem stronger. Going to be a fun series to watch. Thanks for connecting and sharing your thoughts for all of us! Good luck to both teams! 💚💙
Many Oiler current players were not on Oilers roster in this seasons Oilers vs Dallas games so will be a wild card unknown challenge for Dallas to predict methods or lines to bring out for which Oilers line, at least in first few games. That provides Oilers with a advantage going in as Dallas's roster has remained more or less + 75 % exact as expected players who also were on Dallas roster in both last year and relatively the same as previous years except for a few player changes Dallas has increased say added 20% with new addition when calculated with expected past consistent lines.
However the Oilers have added over 40% additions that Dallas has not faced yet at all since quite a few were last min additions, except for game footage of past 2 series performance , Dallas has yet to meet the new Oilers as they are now about to for first time and must adjust real time. Where Oilers are for most part already familiar with current expected lines and players except the one new guy, Oilers know Dallas well already and are leaps and bounds far superior to the oilers that Dallas played before or even experienced.
That will allow Oilers to immediately take control and now dominate 4 line aggressive roll, brick wall secure defending and back checking , with Goal tending at a far better and consistent confidence and greater resiliency then the goalie/D currently Dallas has known or expect but will only begin to experience in reality , starting Wednesday.
Absolute Advantage – Oilers , predict a dominant showing even greater than Vegas had to try to overcome but failed to do so and got spanked hard. Dallas will endure same as Vegas but at a x 40x superior dominance level then they used on Vegas and they will dominate Dallas with even higher locked in combined overall increased talent Dallas has yet to meet in real world game play .
EDMONTON OILERS OVER DALLAS IN 4 straight games SWEEP WITH 2 GAMES Going Into OVERTIME
Remember technically Oilers swept Vegas in 5. with only game lost scored by our Draisitl, or Vegas would have been a clean sweep had he not scored on ourselves it would have been 4 clean sweep with 0 goals against Oilers for over 2 games or 127 play mins
Let’s go Stars
Dallas is better this year, more skill, more depth, defence is better, but their playoff record away from home is not that great. They play with more skill this year, rather than relying on a heavy game.
Edmonton on paper, is better this year, older, more experienced, more grit and size on every line, more depth, more hungry. And they are on a roll!
So it’s Go Oilers Go!
Great upcoming series. Hoping we're able to finally beat the oilers.
Get the monkey off our backs. Dallas in 7.
Go Stars 🌟
Oilers in 5
Stars will run out of gas by game four . Oilers in six.
Oilers are going to steam roll them
This will go 6 or 7 games and anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional or new to the sport. The Oil should win if Skinner isn’t skinned and Nurse doesn’t repeat last year’s pathetic performance. Just need to hold Stars to their usual 6-8 shots per period and KK needs to find a way (without home ice advantage to offset DeBoers last second line shifting) and we need to stay out of the penalty box. We aren’t the PK we used to be a 67% and the Stars PP isn’t what it used to be either… it’s way better.
Oil in 7 games, double OT breaking DeBoers 9-0 game 7 winning streak.
Pitter patter let’s get at’er.
stars in 5
Oilers goaltending is super suspect. Give me the team with d and a stud goalie. Defense wins championships. Stars in 7.
When they played the jets both parties skated like their jerseys were so damn heavy. The shut outs dont help either. 😂😂😂 oilers got this series.
Canes fan rooting for the Oilers in this series. Could we see a rematch of 2006? I hope so. Nineteen years later and two very different teams. Still would be a great series. The conference finals will be tough for both teams to get through, but here’s hoping.