The puck drops Wednesday night in Dallas for a familiar matchup in the Western Conference Finals of the Stanley Cup Playoffs; the Stars and Edmonton Oilers will face off for the second straight year.

While much is the same — both head coaches, goaltenders, and the Oilers' dynamic duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, to name a few — perhaps the biggest change to this year's showdown is the Stars' mid-season acquisition Mikko Rantanen.

Rantanen is the leading scorer in these NHL playoffs with 19 points, just ahead of McDavid with 17 points and Draisaitl with 16. The Oilers are in their third West final in four seasons after losing last year's Stanley Cup in seven games to Florida.

One player on each side will also be facing his former team. Defenseman Cody Ceci, who the Stars got in a midseason trade from San Jose, was with the Oilers the past three seasons. Veteran defenseman John Klingberg has played 10 playoff games after just 11 regular-season games with the Oilers, his fourth team since beginning his NHL career with the Stars from 2015-22.

Lighting the lamp

With McDavid, Draisaitl and Rantanen, this series has three of the top scorers in NHL playoff history.

McDavid is third on that list at 1.58 points per game, with Draisaitl fifth at 1.46. Rantanen, in his first postseason with Dallas after the past seven with Colorado, ranks seventh at 1.28.

The all-time leader is Wayne Gretzky, who averaged 1.84 points in his 208 playoff games. He won four Stanley Cup titles in a five-season stretch with the Oilers in the 1980s, and this past weekend was in the Stars locker room after they won in the second round.

Between the pipes

Stars goalie Jake Oettinger is already in his fourth consecutive postseason and has won six postseason series. Now he wants his Stanley Cup shot.

"I feel like he is dialed in. I feel like he's on a bit of a mission here," Stars head coach Pete DeBoer said. "I think coming up short two years in a row, or getting that far and then not breaking through ... he's going to do everything he can to try to get us there."

Oettinger has a .919 save percentage and 2.47 goals-against average.

Dallas Stars streaming special

CBS News Texas is kicking off the Western Conference Finals with crews inside and outside of the American Airlines Center for a streaming special starting at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Watch it in the player above, or on the CBS News app, Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus or the Roku Channel.