The Los Angeles Kings play their first home game of the 2024 playoffs on Friday and have the opportunity to grab a foothold on the series.
The Kings have been the best home team in hockey since the All-Star break and have turned Crypto.com Arena into a fortress.
Another strong performance at home would not only give the Kings a series lead, but it could put the Edmonton Oilers on their heels.
The Kings took a game on the road, which was especially important for a team that's been terrible on the road since the All-Star break.
If they can continue to dominate at home, they'll head back to Edmonton with a big lead for Game Five.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, first the Kings have to prove they can consistently outplay the Oilers and take two games in a row.
Despite questions about who starts in net and the possibility of returning to the 11/7 alignment, Jim Hiller is set to make no changes for Fridays matchup.
This means, despite playing just one shift in Game Two, Carl Grundstrom remains in the lineup for Game Three and Cam Talbot starts in net.
The latter isn't a surprise and I think it's the right call.
Dressing Grundstrom again is the interesting one, especially if they plan on effectively rolling 11 forwards again in Game Three.
Grundstrom is coming off an injury and maybe he isn't back to 100% speed, or the state of Game Two caused him to see so little ice time. But either way, having a player in the lineup who gets just one shift isn't a good use of your roster.
Forcing yourself to play with just 17 skaters is less than ideal, however, they won the last game utilizing the roster that way so it's hard to be overly critical.
Grabbing an early lead in the series would be massive for the Kings and they have a big opportunity to do exactly that on Friday.