Tired? Injured? Oilers stare down long odds, playoff elimination at hands of Ducks

As CTV Edmonton's Evan Kenny reports, the Edmonton Oilers are facing playoff elimination after losing for a third time to the Ducks on Sunday.

Good goal or not, the Edmonton Oilers are facing long odds of getting out of the first round of the National Hockey League playoffs this year.

For more than just statistical and historical reasons.

The Oilers are down three games to one in their best-of-seven, first-round series against the Anaheim Ducks after losing Sunday night’s 4-3 overtime decision.

The clash at Anaheim’s Honda Center was decided by a goal by Ducks forward Ryan Poehling that went through a league review. Televised video replays failed to show conclusive evidence that the puck had completely crossed the goal line as Oilers goalie Tristan Jarry’s skate partly obscured the spot. On-ice officials had signalled on the ice that the goal counted before the NHL reviewed it, even though none were within 40 feet of the puck when the puck reportedly crossed the line.

Ultimately, ‘Toronto’ – home of the NHL’s nerve-centre situation room – ruled the goal stood.

Just 32 times in NHL history have teams come back from a 3-1 playoff series deficit to win it. The Oilers did it once: in 1990 over the Winnipeg Jets in their first-round clash before Edmonton went on to win its fifth Stanley Cup. Thirty-three times, NHL teams have come back down 3-1 in a series to tie it only to lose the seventh game, including the Oilers in the 2006 Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes.

All this is out of several hundreds of playoff series that have been staged since the league was established in 1917.

More recently, the Oilers came back down three games to none in the 2024 Cup Final, winning three in a row before ultimately losing to the Florida Panthers.

The question now is: Are Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Co. up to the task?

They did win those three games in a row in the Cup clash with Florida two years ago, but that was two years ago – and Edmonton, particularly the superstars, have played quite a bit of hockey since then. Throw an Olympics and a 4 Nations showdown in there for good measure.

McDavid has skated in 286 total games the last three seasons (not including preseason action), Draisaitl in 273.

Kris Knoblauch, their head coach, said Monday he believes “the energy levels are still there.”

“I think we’re ready,” he told reporters during an availability at the team’s Newport Beach, Calif., hotel before returning to Edmonton for Tuesday’s Game 5. “Obviously, that has been a lot of hockey, but I don’t think that should be warranted as an excuse.”

Still, fans have yet to witness either take over a game like they’ve done so many times over the last six years -- ever since they returned to playoff action during the 2020 pandemic bubble -- but particularly over the last four years, which featured two Cup Finals appearances and a conference final berth.

And now, if the rumours are true, both McDavid and Draisaitl are nursing injuries – and we’re just four games into this year’s NHL post-season.

Draisaitl, after all, missed the final five weeks of the regular season with an undisclosed ailment and was questionable to even start the playoffs against the Ducks, which he ultimately did. McDavid, while his late-season heroics and scoring prowess did much to help lift the team into the Pacific Division’s second seed to set up the showdown with Anaheim, appears to have hurt his right leg.

After all, the Panthers – the most recent two-time Cup winners and finalist three years ago – finished outside the playoff picture this season, their star captain missing the entire regular season with injuries to two knee ligaments and other key players missing significant time to injury.

Draisaitl does lead the team in scoring, though, with one goal and six assists, while McDavid has registered four points on one goal and three assists.

McDavid didn’t answer questions about his health after Sunday’s game -- no surprise, as players and teams rarely discuss injuries and the like, particularly during the playoffs -- but said the Oilers are “all working and we’re all trying to get it done.”

“We’re all doing the best we can out there,” he said.

And that best needs to include keeping the younger, faster Ducks at bay and staying out of the penalty box, Knoblauch said.

“It’s very important that we stay the course and not give those opportunities,” he said Monday. “And probably the biggest opportunities that we’re giving them are on their power play.”