3 things Edmonton Oilers must do to win their second-straight Western Conference final against Dallas Stars

The Edmonton Oilers are back in the Western Conference Finals for the third time in four years and are looking to win it for the second-straight season.

The Oilers will play the Dallas Stars, and Dallas has home-ice advantage. Entering the series, the oddsmakers have it as a pick'em as both teams are -110 to win the series.

Ahead of Game 1 on May 21, here are three things the Oilers need to win the Western Conference Finals.

3 things Edmonton Oilers must do to win Conference Finals

#1, McDavid & Draisaitl to play to their standards

The Edmonton Oilers have two of the best players in the NHL in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

If Edmonton is going to win the series, the Oilers will need McDavid and Draisaitl to continue to be dominant and take over games to help Edmonton win the series.

This season, McDavid and Draisaitl are second and fourth in scoring with 17 and 16 points, respectively. The Oilers do have better depth, but Edmonton still needs these two players to be the best two players in the series for the Oilers to advance to the Stanley Cup.

#2, Good goaltending

Edmonton will start Stuart Skinner - Source: Imagn

The Edmonton Oilers will start Stuart Skinner in the net, as Skinner took back the net after the injury to Calvin Pickard.

There is no question that Dallas has the better goalie in Jake Oettinger, so Skinner needs to play at a high level. He did have back-to-back shutouts against Vegas to eliminate the Golden Knights.

However, Skinner has had his struggles throughout the playoffs and season, as he was benched for Pickard before he got hurt.

In the playoffs, Skinner is 2-3 with a 3.05 GAA and a .884 SV%, but he needs to be better than that for the Oilers to advance to the Cup Final.

#3, Continue to get depth scoring

Dallas will look to try and shut down McDavid and Draisaitl, which means the depth players will need to step up.

So far in the playoffs, Edmonton had done a good job of getting depth scoring. The Oilers have 16 different goal scorers, while Corey Perry is tied for the team lead with five goals.

About the author

Cole is an NHL, NFL and College Sports reporter at Sportskeeda with over 7 years of experience writing for publications like CBC, USA Today, SMG, BJPENN, Sherdog and SB Nation.

An NHL fan his whole life, Cole played rep hockey in Canada from age 5 until 17 and grew up rooting for Martin St. Louis and the Tampa Bay Lightning. His all-time favorite players are Vincent Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos, while Jon Cooper is his favorite coach of all time.

Cole attended Sheridan College and received his journalism degree in 2019. After decades of watching and reporting, he considers his knowledge of sports as his primary strength. He ensures that the same story has been reported by at least two reputed reporters before creating it.

Cole enjoys playing golf and spending time with friends and family when not reporting breaking stories. His favorite sports moment is from the 2010 Olympics, when Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal in overtime to beat Team USA for the gold medal.

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Edited by Cole Shelton