The Edmonton Oilers came up short in their quest to return to the Stanley Cup Final.
After representing the Western Conference the last two seasons in the NHL’s championship series, the Oilers were eliminated by the Anaheim Ducks in the first round after falling 5-2 in Game 6 of their series on Thursday.
Health and consistency were key issues for the Oilers in their first-round defeat, but captain Connor McDavid is not using injuries as an excuse.
“Too hurt, too soon,” McDavid said after Thursday’s loss, “The first round is always tough, it’s always chaotic. It’s tough to play through things so early on, as many guys did in here. Credit to our staff for making guys available and making sure they were as comfortable as possible.
“That being said, it’s not an excuse, either, we expected to have a longer run than we did. It is what it is.”
McDavid sustained an apparent ankle injury early in Game 1, which appeared to have a negative effect on his play that saw him lead the NHL with 48 goals and 138 points in 82 games.
Superstar centre Leon Draisaitl missed the final 14 games of the regular season with a lower-body injury but still leads the playoffs with three goals and 10 points in six games heading into Friday’s action.
Key trade deadline acquisition Jason Dickinson was also playing hurt after sustaining a lower-body injury in early April after blocking a shot. He only appeared in four games in the series and recorded two goals and three points.
“It’s hard,” Draisaitl said. “Our centers 1, 2, 3 are playing through stuff. But at the end of the day, you have to find ways to win games in any way. You have to grind one out, you have to defend one out. Injuries they (stink) and it hit us at a bad time certainly. But at the end of the day, they were the better team, and we’ll leave it at that.”
The Oilers have played a lot of hockey over the past two seasons, playing late into June in 2024 and 2025. This season, the team had been searching for the consistency that they found over the last two campaigns, using a late-season surge that saw them win nine of their last 15 games to claim second place in the Pacific Division.
While their play was good enough to claim a playoff spot and even challenge the Vegas Golden Knights for top spot in their division, their record of 41-30-11 was the fourth-worst among playoff teams and even fell short of the Washington Capitals’ record of 43-30-9, who missed the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.
“We’ve been searching for consistency all year and obviously we didn’t find it here in the playoffs,” McDavid said. “It’s tough. We were an average team all year; an average team with high expectations, you’re going to be disappointed. We just never found it.”
