{"id":625721,"date":"2026-04-23T12:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625721\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:49:10","slug":"edmonton-oilers-captain-connor-mcdavid-labouring-to-start-nhl-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625721\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Oilers’ captain Connor McDavid labouring to start NHL playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON \u2014 Oilers captain Connor McDavid<\/a> continued to fight the puck, and Edmonton\u2019s vaunted power play had yet to strike to start the NHL playoffs.<\/p>\n

McDavid, the league\u2019s regular-season points leader, was held off the scoresheet a second straight game Wednesday at Rogers Place. He had four shots and went minus-2 in a 6-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He weathered an injury scare early in the second period to continue playing, but his giveaway later that period led to Anaheim\u2019s short-handed goal and a 4-2 lead.<\/p>\n

Edmonton takes a 1-1 split to Anaheim after a 4-3 win in Game 1 in the best-of-seven series. <\/p>\n

The Ducks host the Oilers on Friday in the first playoff game at the Honda Centre since 2018. Game 4 is Sunday.<\/p>\n

McDavid raced the puck into the offensive zone only to turn it over or be stripped of it several times in the first two games of the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s putting a lot of pressure on himself,\u201d said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants the team to do well. He\u2019s a leader and usually when we have success, he\u2019s a big part of that. There\u2019ve been stretches during the season that he hasn\u2019t been the best player, nights where he hasn\u2019t been outstanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t happen very often and I\u2019m certain that he\u2019s going to find his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDavid\u2019s lower right leg appeared to buckle when he collided early in the second period with teammate Mattias Ekholm<\/a>, who was attempting to check Anaheim\u2019s Ian Moore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McDavid finished his shift in discomfort before heading to the bench and down the tunnel. The centre returned to test his ankle and resume play in the second period.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just rolled up on it a little bit. It\u2019s fine,\u201d McDavid said after the game.<\/p>\n

His backhand toward the blue line was picked off by Anaheim\u2019s Alex Killorn<\/a>, who dished to Ryan Poehling<\/a> for a redirect and a short-handed goal at 15:50 of the second period.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a little bit of a miscommunication,\u201d McDavid said.<\/p>\n

When Edmonton\u2019s Zach Hyman<\/a> redirected an Ekholm blast to score less than two minutes later and pull the hosts with a goal, McDavid \u2014 standing almost beside Hyman \u2014 lifted his right foot protectively.<\/p>\n

But the captain walked into the Oilers dressing room in his bare feet and spoke to media after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the playoffs and we\u2019ve got to start going,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hand in hand with McDavid\u2019s struggles was Edmonton\u2019s power play that failed to convert four chances and went 0-for-6 to start the series. <\/p>\n

The Oilers were a league-leading 30.6 per cent successful in the regular season.<\/p>\n

The Ducks were winning the special teams battle with a 3-for-5 power play over the first two games, plus Wednesday\u2019s short-handed goal.<\/p>\n

The Oilers were minus penalty killers Adam Henrique<\/a> and Jason Dickinson<\/a> on Wednesday with undisclosed injuries.<\/p>\n

Edmonton\u2019s power play generated cleaner entries Wednesday than in Game 1, but still wasn\u2019t able to cash in a goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still thought we got looks. I still thought we had chances,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to find a way to score. Can\u2019t give up a shorty either. It\u2019ll come.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed out that power play linemates Leon Draisaitl<\/a> missed the last 14 games and Hyman sat out the last five games of the regular season with injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs good as the power play is, it\u2019s still a work in progress,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t ran our normal routes and had our normal looks for some time. It\u2019s not just a light switch, so we\u2019re working at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oilers reached the Stanley Cup final each of the last two years. Edmonton lost in Game 6 to the Florida Panthers<\/a> last year and in Game 7 to the Panthers in 2024.<\/p>\n

McDavid and Draisaitl co-led the playoffs in points in 2025 with 33 points in 22 games each.<\/p>\n

Edmonton needs McDavid to find his scoring touch again to produce another long post-season.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014 Oilers captain Connor McDavid continued to fight the puck, and Edmonton\u2019s vaunted power play had yet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-625721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}