If we step back and compare to last year's series, this is the changes for each team:
Edmonton
Out - Yamamoto, Bjugstad, Kostin, Shore
In - Brown, Henrique, Perry, Stetcher, Carrick, Gagner and Erne
Across the board much more experience and depth, but maybe not straight up talent. Throw in that Desharnais and Skinner are no longer rookies, I think this team is definitely stronger
LA
Out - Iafallo, Durzi, Vilardi, Edler, Kupari, Walker, MacEwan, Korpisalo
In - Dubois, Spence, Laferriere, Englund, Moverare, Turcotte, Talbot, Rittich
I'm struggling to see how this team is better than last year's granted Byfield did take quite a step up. So this year's team may have a little more at the top end, but the depth isn't as scary. Furthermore, two of their best players are starting to get quite old and have lots of mileage on them.
Reality is that Edmonton should win this one, and if they are firing on all cylinders they could make a short series of it. However, they struggled to put these guys away last year when there was a pretty decent gap already and between them and ultimately, it was goals by the three guys that are no longer here that delivered the gut punches that yielded 3 of the 4 game winning goals in that series and delivered 6 goals total in those 3 wins.