{"id":282563,"date":"2026-04-23T20:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/282563\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:27:07","slug":"connor-mcdavid-shrugs-off-injury-scare-as-oilers-struggle-in-nhl-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/282563\/","title":{"rendered":"Connor McDavid shrugs off injury scare as Oilers struggle in NHL playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Anaheim Ducks’ Mason McTavish (23) defends against Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid (97) during second period NHL playoff action in Edmonton on Monday.CODIE MCLACHLAN\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Oilers<\/a> captain Connor McDavid 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.<\/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.\u00a0<\/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

Gauthier breaks late tie as Ducks beat Oilers 6-4 to even series<\/a><\/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.\u00a0<\/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, who was attempting to check Anaheim\u2019s Ian Moore.<\/p>\n

He 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, who dished to Ryan Poehling 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 redirected an Ekholm blast to score less than two minutes later and pull the hosts with a goal, McDavid \u2013 standing almost beside Hyman \u2013 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.\u00a0<\/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 and Jason Dickinson on Wednesday with undisclosed injuries.<\/p>\n

Knoblauch said Thursday that Henrique would not be making the trip to Anaheim, but Dickinson, who scored twice in Game 1, could be back in the lineup for Game 3.<\/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 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 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Anaheim Ducks’ Mason McTavish (23) defends against Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid (97) during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[12673,163,165,164,12664,12674,26,12659,12675,12672,12658,12668,12669,12666,12660,12657,383,15,643,5131,12663,12686,12661,12662,405,12665,971,23,12676,2581,12681,12682,12684,12679,12683,12677,12680,3865,6136,12671,13,12670,12678,12447,1970,2422,12667,3586,1880,12685],"class_list":{"0":"post-282563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-anaheim","10":"tag-anaheim-headlines","11":"tag-anaheim-news","12":"tag-arts-news","13":"tag-bc","14":"tag-breaking-news","15":"tag-breaking-news-video","16":"tag-british-columbia","17":"tag-canada","18":"tag-canada-news","19":"tag-canada-sports","20":"tag-canada-sports-news","21":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","22":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","23":"tag-canadian-news","24":"tag-economy","25":"tag-education","26":"tag-environment","27":"tag-federal-government","28":"tag-foreign-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail","30":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","31":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","32":"tag-government","33":"tag-life-news","34":"tag-lifestyle","35":"tag-local-news","36":"tag-manitoba","37":"tag-national-news","38":"tag-new-brunswick","39":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","40":"tag-northwest-territories","41":"tag-nova-scotia","42":"tag-nunavut","43":"tag-ontario","44":"tag-pei","45":"tag-photos","46":"tag-political-news","47":"tag-political-opinion","48":"tag-politics","49":"tag-politics-news","50":"tag-quebec","51":"tag-sports-news","52":"tag-technology","53":"tag-travel","54":"tag-trudeau","55":"tag-us-news","56":"tag-world-news","57":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}