{"id":626785,"date":"2026-04-25T01:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T01:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/626785\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T01:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T01:53:09","slug":"could-former-oilers-coach-jay-woodcroft-be-playing-a-part-in-ducks-suppression-of-mcdavid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/626785\/","title":{"rendered":"Could former Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft be playing a part in Ducks\u2019 suppression of McDavid?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could former Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft be playing a part in Ducks\u2019 suppression of McDavid?<\/p>\n

Through two playoff games this year, Connor McDavid<\/a> has yet to register a point.So how have the Anaheim Ducks been so successful at keeping the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> captain off the scoresheet so far? That question was top of mind on Friday afternoon\u2019s edition of The Sheet with Jeff Marek.<\/a>From Marek\u2019s point of view, Anaheim\u2019s success in shutting down McDavid has to do with intel gathered by Ducks assistant coach Jay Woodcroft<\/a> from his time as Oilers head coach. Joining as a guest Friday,\u00a0ESPN\u2019s Greg Wyshynski pointed to the strength of Anaheim\u2019s top defenders as the defining factor. Here\u2019s a snippet of their conversation:<\/a><\/p>\n

Marek: \u201cShutting down Connor McDavid, this is the Woodcroft effect, right? This is Jay Woodcroft, assistant coach of the Anaheim Ducks, saying, you know, Joel (Quenneville), I kind of know a thing or two about these Edmonton Oilers, and I kind of know a thing or two about number 97. That\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing here, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Wyshynski: \u201cI think we\u2019re seeing copious amounts of Jackson Lacombe and Jacob Trouba, who played the most minutes against McDavid in the first two games of the series. You\u2019d think that Kris Knoblauch would be more adept at maybe getting him away from that matchup, if they are in fact winning it, and they are in fact winning it. When they\u2019re on the ice against McDavid, the Ducks, I believe, are plus in shot attempts at five-on-five. So it could be the Woody effect \u2026 or it could just be that they\u2019ve got a good defensive pairing that\u2019s been able to play up against McDavid\u2019s line.\u201d<\/p>\n

“You’d think that Kris Knoblauch would be more adept at getting [Connor McDavid] away from [the Jackson LaCombe & Jacob Trouba] matchup.”<\/p>\n

@JeffMarek<\/a> & @wyshynski<\/a> wonder if Jay Woodcroft is the reason McDavid has been neutralized through two games<\/p>\n

Presented by Ninja Kitchen\u00a0Show more<\/a><\/p>\n

Woodcroft served as Oilers head coach from February 2022 to November 2023. He oversaw two playoff runs for the Oilers, and led the team through McDavid\u2019s historic 153-point season. Naturally, he knows Edmonton\u2019s captain well, and this may contribute to his ability to shut him down.<\/p>\n

To Wyshynski\u2019s point, Lacombe and Trouba have evidently been tasked with taking on McDavid. Both Lacombe and Troube averaged over 25 minutes played through the first two games of the series, matching McDavid\u2019s nightly TOI of 24:29.<\/p>\n

Tied at one apiece, the series shifts tonight to Anaheim, as the Ducks host their first playoff game at Honda Center since 2018. The puck drops for Game 3<\/a> at 8 p.m.THE SAUCE PLAYOFF WATCH PARTIES WITH RYDER AND LISA\"TheEdmonton, it\u2019s time to dust off your best game fits\u2014playoff season is here. And for every away game, The Sauce is taking over Greta Bar YEG<\/a> as the official playoff headquarters. There ain\u2019t no party like a Nation playoff party. Expect food and drink specials you can\u2019t beat, t-shirt tosses, giveaways, games, and a few surprises we\u2019ve been saving just for the Nation Citizens. Whether you\u2019re coming for the game, the atmosphere, or just to get a little saucy with the crew, this is where you want to be when the team hits the road. Secure your table by texting Greta\u2019s hotline at 1-587-418-8507.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could former Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft be playing a part in Ducks\u2019 suppression of McDavid? Through two playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-626785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}