Kings Coach Todd McLellan was glib, vague and terse at practice a day before the Kings chartered a flight for Edmonton to begin their first-round series against the Oilers on Monday.

“When they’re ready, they’ll play,” McLellan said of his injured, high-impact forwards Kevin Fiala and Gabe Vilardi.

He was no more forthcoming when it came to his starting goalie for Game 1, though two sets of consecutive starts for Joonas Korpisalo might have tipped McLellan’s hand during the stretch run.

“It’ll be either (Pheonix) Copley or Korpisalo,” said McLellan, enumerating all the available options and having previously hinted at the possibility of alternating his netminders.

Yet plenty was known between McLellan and his protege Jay Woodcroft, who coached Edmonton, and between the two clubs, which squared off last season in a rock ’em, sock ’em seven-game series.

“We’re playing Edmonton again, we’ve ‘only’ played them I think 15 times in the last calendar year, and now four to seven more,” said McLellan, who coached Edmonton from 2015-2018. “There aren’t a lot of surprises between the two teams, there’s only so much you can do in those games.”

The Kings made strides offensively with incremental nudges throughout the lineup, another leap forward for winger Adrian Kempe, the addition of dynamo Fiala via trade and the re-emergence of Vilardi, this time as a winger rather than a center. But they’re missing Fiala and Vilardi at the moment, albeit with No. 1 defenseman Drew Doughty and versatile winger Viktor Arvidsson back in their mix after missing last year’s showdown.

The Oilers’ two-headed monster of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are part of the best-of-their-era conversation, both on the power play and overall. Draisaitl had a career-best point total of 128 and finished heads above the rest of the NHL, save for McDavid. McDavid’s 153 points were two shy of Steve Yzerman’s 155 for the most for a player other than Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux, who between them own the top 13 individual scoring campaigns in hockey history. There hasn’t been a scoring duo like McDavid and Draisaitl since Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. For good measure, 30-year-old Ryan Nugent-Hopkins turned in his first ever 100-point season and the Oilers lineup had a buffet feel with seemingly each teammate getting his fill.

“They got better as a team, we also got better, we’ve got more experience than we did last year. They got better defensively. It will feel like a whole new series,” center Phillip Danault said. “At the same time, we do kind of know each other, but it will be different for sure.”

Near the trade deadline, both teams’ front offices went to work, making changes in goal and adding pieces to get stronger in their own zone. The Kings brought in defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov from Columbus to add a two-way presence on the left side that would slot their other defenders into suitable roles. With him came Korpisalo. He has likely unseated Copley, who’d unseated Jonathan Quick, who’d unseated Cal Petersen in a swift succession that seemed less like that of Kings goalies and more like that of a particularly ornery royal family.

Edmonton had signed former King Jack Campbell as its answer in net, but ultimately rode rookie Stuart Skinner to the hottest finish from March 1 onward by a wide margin. They also made a bold move for defenseman Mattias Ekholm and shored up their depth down the middle with Nick Bjugstad. Doughty noted that Edmonton played a more physical game in their late-season victories over the Kings than they did in a pair of Kings wins earlier in the season. He, like Arvidsson, was unavailable for the entire first-round series last season, and was ready to discard last year’s process and results altogether.

“They’re a different team, they’re better defensively and they obviously still have the high-powered offense,” Doughty said. “We are, I think, better offensively this year than we were last year, and we really picked up our defensive game in the last 40 games of the season. It’s a different series. Last year, really, means nothing.”

Something that is significant to Doughty is that this will be his first postseason action in Canada since 2012. Then, the Kings upset the Vancouver Canucks to ignite their torrid run to the franchise’s first ever Stanley Cup.

“I’m excited. Canadian media will be buzzing, the arena will be buzzing and you guys know how much Canadians love hockey,” said Doughty, a Canadian who has long been a favorite of Canada’s national press. “To beat them would be amazing and winning a couple games in their arena to (tick) off their fans will be great.”

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Doughty and team captain Anze Kopitar, the lone links to the Cup-winning teams of 2012 and 2014, acknowledged it was awkward to be gearing up for the playoffs without the retired former captain Dustin Brown or the unceremoniously jettisoned Quick. Yet both recognized the value of the opportunity before them with a group that was brimming with returners from last season even if it was light on holdovers from the golden age.

The Southern California news media selected Doughty as the team’s top defenseman while recognizing Kopitar as its best all-around defender and most valuable player. Both had their most prolific campaigns since 2017-18, the last time they competed in the playoffs together.

“It’s great scoring points and what not, but the most important thing is that I’m sitting here talking about Edmonton and not about my offseason,” Kopitar said.