Connor McDavid played through significant pain during the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a fracture to his foot and ankle area, the Edmonton Oilers revealed Saturday.<\/p>\n
McDavid was limited to one goal and six points while posting a minus-8 rating during the six-game series loss to the underdog Anaheim Ducks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy, obviously, guys playing through things,\u201d McDavid told reporters in Edmonton. \u201cIt sucks, really, but everybody does it. We needed to find a way to be better and we didn\u2019t. I didn\u2019t. And that sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDavid started the playoffs with the injury and then collided with teammate Mattias Ekholm while skating through the neutral zone during Game 2. That didn\u2019t help things. The injury prevented him from taking part in practices and morning skates from that point on, and it severely limited McDavid\u2019s ability to use his speed in the remaining games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was more like change of direction,\u201d he said. \u201cChanging of direction was tough. Stops and starts, tough. I\u2019m fast, but my advantage is my speed bursts, that quick step, and I had none of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDavid still managed to average more than 23 minutes per game against the Ducks.<\/p>\n
However, other than a couple of dangerous rushes late in Game 4, the NHL\u2019s six-time scoring champion didn\u2019t pose the threat he usually does.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we all saw it, right?\u201d said teammate Leon Draisaitl. \u201cHis advantage (over) everyone is his speed and the way he attacks, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s still dangerous. He\u2019s still amazing, even with that (injury). I think we could all tell that it took a step out of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Oilers went through end-of-season interviews, Draisaitl revealed that he also played at less than 100 percent during the playoffs after missing the last five weeks of the regular season with a knee injury. He produced a league-best 10 points in Round 1, but said, \u201cI didn\u2019t feel like I had the pop in my step that I would like to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was a theme for the Oilers, who saw third-line center Jason Dickinson come in and out of the lineup against Anaheim because of his own ankle fracture, while fourth-line center Adam Henrique didn\u2019t play again after suffering an injury in Game 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the playoffs, our four centers were all sort of compromised,\u201d Edmonton general manager Stan Bowman said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to overcome that. \u2026 They were trying. They were gutting it out. Dickinson and Connor were fighting through a lot just to get in the lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ducks outscored Edmonton 26-21 in the series on the strength of a sizzling 8-for-16 power play that struck for at least one goal in every game.<\/p>\n
The first-round exit was a major step back for an Oilers team coming off consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final. After Thursday\u2019s decisive Game 6, McDavid lamented that the 2025-26 Oilers were \u201can average team with high expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a very fair comment, especially with the way the regular season played out,\u201d head coach Kris Knoblauch said. \u201cWe never got a roll going. We never got hot. Winning streaks of three and five (games) are pretty pedestrian, so the fact that we weren\u2019t able to be an elite team during the regular season shows that we weren\u2019t an elite team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we could have made some noise during the playoffs, and I liked our lineup, but unfortunately, we had some injuries that hindered us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Draisaitl went a step further Saturday, declaring that the organization had taken \u201ca big step backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n