Connor McDavid says the Oilers, ousted by the Ducks, were ‘average’

Although Edmonton Oilers Two straight trips to the Stanley Cup Finals, star center Connor McDavid Admitted this season’s roster was “an average team” after being eliminated in the preliminary round. Anaheim Ducks.

“It’s been tough. We’ve been an average team all year. An average team with high expectations. You’re going to be disappointed,” he said after the Oilers. 5-2 loss Thursday night game at 6.

Edmonton played in the Stanley Cup in 2024 and 2025, losing twice Florida PanthersThe ultimate champion. But this version of the Oilers, built by general manager Stan Bowman, failed to advance past the first round for the first time since 2021. They had their lowest regular-season points percentage (.567) since the 2018–19 season.

Injury speculation swirled around McDavid all series, as he wasn’t his usual dominant self against the Ducks. He has six points in six games but only one goal. His only two points were scored at even strength. In the Game 6 loss, McDavid didn’t score a point and skated a minus-3, giving up two and losing six of eight faceoffs.

McDavid acknowledged that the Oilers were struggling through injuries.

“Too hurt, too early. The first round is always tough. It’s always chaotic, and it’s tough to play through the game so early like a lot of guys here,” McDavid said. “That being said, it’s not an excuse either. We expected to have a longer run than what we did. It is what it is.”

Oilers star Leon Drysaitl Note that all of the team’s top three centers are injured.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to find a way to win games. Injuries? Yeah, they suck, and it hit us at a bad time. But at the end of the day, they were the better team,” Drasaitl said.

A quick exit from the playoffs led to fan and media speculation about McDavid’s future in Edmonton.

McDavid, 29, signed a two-year contract extension ($12.5 million AAV) last October, giving Edmonton at least three seasons to build a Stanley Cup winner around him. The six-time NHL scoring leader is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2028. McDavid took his time evaluating Edmonton’s contention window before settling on a short-term deal to stay with the Oilers.

“I obviously said I’m committed to winning here, and I meant it when I said it, and two years means a lot,” McDavid said last October. “It gives us an opportunity to pursue what we’ve been chasing here with our core people, and we also have some money to work with.”

After aggressively eliminating the challenge Los Angeles Kings In the first round for four straight seasons, the Oilers faced the high-scoring Ducks, who made the Stanley Cup playoff cut for the first time since 2018 under new coach Joel Quenneville. The Ducks built a 3-1 series lead before shutting out Edmonton 4-2.

The Ducks took a 2-0 lead in Game 6 on a bouncing-puck goal with just 13:43 left on Thursday night. Ryan Poehling A one-timer from and Chris Kreider. defenseman Conor Murphy Cuts the lead to 2-1 for Edmonton, but Cutter Gauthier scored his fourth goal of the series just 1:36 into the first period for a 3-1 lead.

“They played very fast, and we weren’t very fast. They had a good start. We didn’t. We were chasing the game,” McDavid said. “It’s been all year. We’ve been looking for consistency all year. Obviously, we haven’t found it in the playoffs.”

Troy Terry He scored his third goal of the series with 37 seconds left in the second period to give the Ducks a 4-1 lead. of Edmonton Vasily Podkolzin The Oilers were credited with a goal just 1:13 into the game, but the Ducks closed it out with an empty-netter. Leo Carlson.

“That’s a real hockey team over there,” of Edmonton Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said