{"id":638851,"date":"2026-04-30T15:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T15:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/638851\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T15:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T15:58:11","slug":"connor-mcdavid-leon-draisaitl-to-stick-together-as-edmonton-oilers-try-to-force-game-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/638851\/","title":{"rendered":"Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl to stick together as Edmonton Oilers try to force Game 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Edmonton Oilers<\/a> will once again lean on their superstars as Connor McDavid<\/a> and Leon Draisaitl<\/a> will continue to play on the same line for Thursday\u2019s must-win Game 6 against the Anaheim Ducks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Head coach Kris Knoblauch moved Draisaitl away from his customary position as second-line centre and gave the Oilers a needed spark in Tuesday\u2019s 4-1 win. <\/p>\n

The Ducks now lead the series 3-2 with a chance to close it out at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cMcDavid and Draisaitl have always been good (together),\u201d Knoblauch said after Game 5<\/a>. \u201cThis year, they have not been outscoring (the opposition) like they usually have. Just a lot of it maybe luck, or things just not going their way, whatever it is they just haven\u2019t been able to outscore.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is definitely some chemistry, and going into an elimination game where we need to change our fate, we ultimately felt we were going to put the game in our two best players\u2019 hands and let them dictate where this game is going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move, in part, was made to help take pressure off of McDavid, who sustained an ankle injury in Game 2 after colliding with teammate Mattias Ekholm<\/a>. He assisted on both of Draisaitl\u2019s goals and now has six points in five games this series, all coming in the past three games after he went scoreless in Games 1 and 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, it would take a little bit of pressure off him having Leon have the puck a little bit more rather than Connor always having to generate by himself with the pucks,\u201d Knoblauch said.<\/p>\n

The Oilers\u2019 captain led the NHL with 138 points (48 goals, 90 assists) this season while Draisaitl added 35 goals and 97 points in 65 games as he missed the final few weeks of the regular season with a lower-body injury.<\/p>\n

The series will now shift back to Anaheim for Game 6, where the Ducks took both Games 3 and 4 by a combined score of 11-7 to put themselves on the brink of moving into the second round for the first time since 2016-17.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still in a tough, tough spot, a really tough spot. We\u2019ve got to find a way to win in a tough building.\u201d said McDavid. \u201cAll we did is survive one more day. The pressure\u2019s on us, but it\u2019s a big game for them too. I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll be feeling that too. Closeout games are tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019re not going to want to come back to Edmonton, so pressure on them, but we\u2019ve got to find a way to survive another day.\u201d<\/p>\n

After taking the series opener 4-3, the Oilers dropped three straight to put themslves in a 3-1 hole heading back home and now have a chance to send the series back to Edmonton for a deciding Game 7. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what it is with us,\u201d Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard<\/a> said. \u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard this a thousand times. When our backs are against the wall, we play good hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers will once again lean on their superstars as Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl will continue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[712,49,48,79553,23752,79560,87937],"class_list":["post-638851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-connor-mcdavid-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8478402","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-oilers-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-22","tag-leon-draisaitl-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8477934"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638851","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=638851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}