![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\nThe Oilers fell to the Florida Panthers in each of the last two Cup finals in series that lasted seven and six games, respectively.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Some Oilers hinted at the beginning of this year\u2019s playoffs that the regular season felt like a chore at times, and that they were relieved to start the post-season again with a view to finishing the job and hoisting the Cup.<\/p>\n
But they didn\u2019t get close.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been searching for consistency all year and we didn\u2019t find it here in the playoffs,\u201d said captain Connor McDavid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough. We were an average team all year. An average team with high expectations, you\u2019re going to be disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDavid\u2019s ankle, Leon Draisaitl\u2019s knee, Jason Dickinson\u2019s lower-body injury, and penalty-kill specialist Adam Henrique\u2019s undisclosed series-ending injury in Game 1 weakened Edmonton up the middle.<\/p>\n
McDavid, who led the NHL in post-season points three of the last four seasons, was hampered by a rolled ankle in the second period of Game 2. Draisaitl missed the last 14 games of the regular season with a knee injury.<\/p>\n
McDavid and Draisaitl spent the last two games of the series as linemates instead of centring separate lines. They battled, but weren\u2019t able to will their team into a higher gear Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo hurt too soon,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cThe first round is always tough. It\u2019s always chaotic. It\u2019s tough to play through things so early on, as many guys did in here. <\/p>\n
\u201cCredit to our staff for making guys available and making sure they were as comfortable as possible. That being said it\u2019s not an excuse either. We expected to have a longer run than we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Draisaitl had three goals and seven assists in six games. McDavid, who was held off the scoresheet with the first two games of the series, finished with a goal and five assists.<\/p>\n
Defence was Edmonton\u2019s downfall in allowing 26 goals in six games. The penalty kill gave up eight goals on Anaheim\u2019s 15 chances.<\/p>\n
Edmonton\u2019s power play started 0-for-6 in the first two games before finishing 4-for-14.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe struggled on the PK all year too. We\u2019ve been searching for consistency there too,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cThe power-play could have been better to start the series.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edmonton\u2019s offence compensated for a bottom-tier ranking in the NHL in allowed goals-against in the regular season. A leaky defence was magnified in the playoffs. <\/p>\n
Edmonton scored the first goal in the first five games, yet won just two of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cPretty much the story for most of the year. We just didn\u2019t defend well enough,\u201d said head coach Kris Knoblauch.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou usually win or lose on your defensive play. It wasn\u2019t good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ducks had puck luck early on a deflection off a body and off a stick on two of their first three goals Thursday.<\/p>\n
Edmonton failed to exploit Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal fighting the puck and giving up rebounds in the first period when the Oilers had nine shots that missed the net.<\/p>\n
Down 3-1 after the first period, the Oilers had time to work their way back into the game. The Ducks gave no quarter, however. They turned a neutral-zone turnover by Evan Bouchard into an odd-man rush and a 4-1 lead before the end of the second period.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as it hurts, I think they\u2019re just a better team,\u201d Draisaitl said.<\/p>\n
How much wear and tear of two long seasons factored into Edmonton\u2019s earliest playoff exit in five years, there was little tolerance for that theory post-game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not an excuse,\u201d said forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. \u201cWe just didn\u2019t get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2026.<\/p>\n
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oilers fell to the Florida Panthers in each of the last two Cup finals in series that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-640688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640688","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=640688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}