{"id":285158,"date":"2026-04-25T06:56:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285158\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T06:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:56:25","slug":"ducks-return-to-playoffs-after-7-years-to-face-connor-mcdavid-and-the-tested-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285158\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks return to playoffs after 7 years to face Connor McDavid and the tested Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) \u2014 The Anaheim Ducks have not won a Stanley Cup playoff series since since 2017, when their team of playoff-tested veterans needed seven games to outlast 20-year-old Connor McDavid<\/a> and the upstart Edmonton Oilers, who had just ended their franchise\u2019s decade-long postseason drought.<\/p>\n

Nine years later, these teams meet again in the first round on Monday night \u2014 and they\u2019ve switched roles completely.<\/p>\n

The young, hungry Ducks<\/a> are back in the playoffs after a seven-season absence with an exciting roster and a chaotic style. McDavid\u2019s Oilers are the back-to-back Western Conference champions trying to make another deep run in search of his first Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a very skilled young team that plays with a lot of energy and creates a lot,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cThey\u2019re really dangerous, so we\u2019re going to have our hands full, and it\u2019s our job to slow them down a little bit. … It\u2019s their first time in the playoffs, (so) they\u2019ll be excited, as they should be. They earned their spot, and they\u2019ll be excited. But we\u2019re excited, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ducks have at least 10 homegrown players who will make their postseason debuts in Edmonton. That group includes Troy Terry, who first cracked Anaheim\u2019s roster late in the 2017-18 regular season, but wasn\u2019t in the lineup for the Ducks\u2019 first-round playoff loss that spring.<\/p>\n

Terry and all of Orange County have been waiting for more playoff hockey ever since, and the 28-year-old forward is thrilled to finally make it after 488 regular-season games and 342 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the goal every season since I\u2019ve been here, and it\u2019s been hard,\u201d Terry said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be my first time going there. Just going through this process that\u2019s been a rebuild, a retool, whatever words we use, it\u2019s been challenging at times, but it\u2019s exciting to be where we are. Everything is coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q\u2019s experience<\/p>\n

The Ducks returned to the playoffs in their first year under Joel Quenneville, who has led his teams to the postseason in 21 of the 23 seasons he has finished behind an NHL bench. Anaheim got off to an impressive start under its new coach and surged into first place in the Pacific Division for a month after the Olympics, only to fall to the third seed with a 2-6-2 skid to end the regular season.<\/p>\n

The 67-year-old Quenneville won three Stanley Cup rings as a head coach and a fourth as an assistant, but he realizes his hungry new team must start from the bottom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to what it feels like, and what it\u2019s going to be like, and we\u2019re playing some experts here,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cSo let\u2019s make sure we get that quick lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tough and tested<\/p>\n

The Oilers have won nine playoff series and played 75 postseason games in the past four years, losing back-to-back Finals to Florida. Edmonton has the top-end talent and the veteran poise to make quick work of inexperienced Anaheim \u2014 but McDavid recognizes the dangers of a high-scoring young opponent with nothing to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayoff hockey is unique,\u201d the six-time NHL scoring champion said. \u201cIt\u2019s a skill to win in the playoffs, and we feel pretty good about having that skill, having been there and won a lot of playoff games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good offense, bad defense<\/p>\n

Expect plenty of goals in this series between two teams with major offensive firepower and significant defensive flaws.<\/p>\n

After a half-decade as the NHL\u2019s most consistently awful offensive team, Anaheim finished 10th this year with a franchise-record 265 goals, led by 22-year-old Cutter Gauthier\u2019s 41 goals and 21-year-old star center Leo Carlsson\u2019s 67 points in 70 games.<\/p>\n

But the Ducks were forced to get 26 comeback wins this season \u2014 tied for the NHL lead and the franchise record \u2014 because of their abysmal defensive play in front of goalie Lukas Dostal. Their 288 goals allowed were the fourth most in the league, and they\u2019re one of just two playoff teams with a negative goal differential.<\/p>\n

Anaheim\u2019s defensive struggles are rooted in both their forwards\u2019 ineptitude in their own end and their lack of quality depth on the blue line. Those are areas where McDavid and the prolific Oilers can capitalize.<\/p>\n

But Edmonton failed to win the Pacific partly because of its goalie problems: Tristan Jarry has been a flop as a midseason acquisition, and Connor Ingram also wasn\u2019t terribly impressive until he made a few strong starts down the stretch \u2014 or maybe his veteran teammates were finally ramping up for the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Essential Oil<\/p>\n

Leon Draisaitl hasn\u2019t played since March 15<\/a> because of a lower-body injury, but the German star has been putting in extensive work at the Oilers\u2019 practices as he nears a return \u2014 likely at some point in this series. Both teams realize the 97-point scorer will alter the matchup.<\/p>\n

Center Jason Dickinson hasn\u2019t played since getting hit with a puck on April 8, but Edmonton\u2019s trade acquisition from Chicago also appears to be close to a return.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/NHL<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) \u2014 The Anaheim Ducks have not won a Stanley Cup playoff series since since 2017,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,7,11839,18693,2070,11508,1719,1716,37614,5498,896,404,1489,127,4634,4626,5573,4862],"class_list":{"0":"post-285158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-ducks","10":"tag-anaheim-headlines","11":"tag-anaheim-news","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-connor-ingram","14":"tag-connor-mcdavid","15":"tag-edmonton-oilers","16":"tag-jason-dickinson","17":"tag-joel-quenneville","18":"tag-leo-carlsson","19":"tag-leon-draisaitl","20":"tag-lukas-dostal","21":"tag-national-hockey-league","22":"tag-nhl","23":"tag-nhl-hockey","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-stanley-cup","26":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","27":"tag-tristan-jarry","28":"tag-troy-terry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285158","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=285158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}