ANAHEIM, Calif. — As shocking as it sounds that the back-to-back Western Conference Champion Edmonton Oilers end their season against the upstart Anaheim Ducks, the writing was on the wall about their possible shortcomings. It just wasn’t as glaring as most thought it would be.
The Oilers had the star power and the offensive potency to take a third stab at the Stanley Cup Finals, but they had just as much of an issue keeping the pucks out of their net as their opponents.
That deficiency proved costly in a six-game bout in the first round of the playoffs, as their season came to an end Thursday night at Honda Center with a 5-2 loss.
“We were an average team all year,” Connor McDavid said. “An average team with high expectations, you’re going to be disappointed.”
Edmonton scored the sixth most goals in hockey in the regular season, but in the same breath, allowed the eighth most goals.
The abundance of goals going both ways made it tough for the Oilers to maintain any consistency throughout the season, as they had only two winning streaks of three or more games, one a three-gamer and the other a five-gamer.
And in this series, the Oilers gave up 26 goals in six games.
“We've got to find ways to keep the puck out of our net,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “It's everybody, it's not just a couple of guys, it's everyone. So, a bit of a theme throughout the season, and to play a team like that, they make you pay.”
This year was Anaheim’s coming-out party.
The Ducks played a much more exaggerated “firewagon” style of hockey than the Oilers this year. They had no problems scoring, but they allowed the fourth-most goals in hockey in the regular season.
Two teams that played a similar all-gas, no-breaks game were destined to be an entertaining series that made life a living hell for the goaltenders. But it was believed that the far more playoff-tested Oilers were going to weather the storm best and use their experience to get by the Ducks.
It just didn’t work out that way.
“We couldn't contain their offense,” Mattias Ekholm said. “Obviously, it was a big factor in the series. It's hard right now to have a much broader view than that.”
Anaheim made life difficult for Edmonton in all six games.
The Oilers had a lead in each of the first four games of the series, and yet were still down 3-1 heading into Game 5.
“They're a fast team, but I also think one thing about their team that's probably not talked about enough, there's been a lot of talk about their speed and their skill, there is a lot of that, but there's also a lot of size to it,” head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “I don't know where it compares around the NHL, but they’re not a light team. They forecheck hard and they win a lot of battles, so they've got a lot of ingredients to be a good team.”
One of the biggest turning points in the series was the power play.
The Ducks were 8-for-16 in the series, which ranks as the best in the playoffs. It’s especially shocking considering Anaheim’s power play ranked 23rd in the regular season at 18.6%.
“Because we weren't very good on the penalty kill,” McDavid said of the impact of the special teams. “We struggled on the PK all year, too. Searching for consistency there, too.”
Injuries also played a factor in this series.
“It’s not an excuse,” McDavid said. “We expected to have a longer run than we did.”
Although none of the injuries have been disclosed yet, it’s clear that a few Oilers are dealing with something.
McDavid never looked like himself in this series and is believed to be dealing with an ankle injury. Leon Draisaitl missed the last 14 games of the regular season with a knee injury. Jason Dickinson missed two games this postseason and even when he played, he didn’t look right.
“We had some holes with our team, but I thought we made the most of it,” Knoblauch said. “Once you get to the playoffs, you never know. We had a lot of confidence going into the playoffs. Unfortunately, we had some injuries that we weren't anticipating, which made it a little more difficult for us.”
The Oilers have also played a ton of hockey over the last few years. They’ve played in 14 playoff series over the last five seasons, including trips to the Stanley Cup Finals each of the last two seasons.
“Obviously, we've played a lot of hockey in the last two years,” Ekholm said. “Did it catch up to us? Maybe. I don't know. I'm not here to look for excuses. It is what it is.”
“You've got to find ways to win games in any way,” Draisaitl said. “You've got to grind one out, you've got to defend one out. Injuries, yeah, they suck and it hit us at a bad time, certainly. But at the end of the day, they're the better team.”
Now, as the focus shifts to next season for Edmonton, players, coaches and front office members will go back to the drawing board on how to finally get over the hump. There are a lot of answers they don’t know right this second, and will take the summer to try to piece it together.
Although the answers they’re looking for are to win in the playoffs, it’s important not to lose sight of the regular season.
“I definitely felt during the season that it was just a formality of the regular season and everyone was looking forward to the playoffs so much,” Knoblauch said. “We pushed so hard to get into the playoffs and in the playoffs, we had so many guys injured that we just weren't ready for it.
“Starting next year, we'll be a little more hungry and ready for the regular season.”