{"id":557938,"date":"2026-04-22T12:39:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557938\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T12:39:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:39:22","slug":"edmonton-oilers-seek-to-hold-serve-at-home-in-playoff-series-against-anaheim-ducks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557938\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Oilers seek to hold serve at home in playoff series against Anaheim Ducks"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON \u2014 Whether their B game continues to be enough to beat the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> in the first round of the NHL playoffs, the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> weren\u2019t worried.<\/p>\n

The Oilers shrugged off their mediocre history in playoff series openers with a 4-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks<\/a>, but it came with a \u201cthey won, but \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmonton won for the first time this season when Connor McDavid<\/a> didn\u2019t score. The captain\u2019s top line was held off the scoresheet, and the Ducks held the NHL\u2019s top power-play scoreless on two chances. Big-producing defenceman Evan Bouchard<\/a> had a quiet minus-one game.<\/p>\n

Edmonton squandered a two-goal lead after the first period. The Ducks scored twice in the first five minutes of the second and led 3-2 in the third.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found a way to win a game, which is what matters at this point,\u201d said veteran Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins<\/a> on Tuesday. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to find ways to win games at this time of year. We did that, but for sure some things to keep improving, but some good take-aways too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oilers host the Ducks in Wednesday\u2019s Game 2 at Rogers Place before the series flips to Anaheim\u2019s Honda Centre for the third game Friday and the fourth Sunday.<\/p>\n

Edmonton improved to 5-10 in the first game of its last 15 playoff series dating back to 2021. The Oilers reached the Stanley Cup final each of the last two years. They lost in Game 6 to the Florida Panthers<\/a> last year and in Game 7 to the Panthers in 2024.<\/p>\n

The Oilers hold a wide edge in playoff experience over Anaheim, which is back in the post-season after a seven-year absence. After a rough first period Monday, however, the Ducks pushed back with speed and tenacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very fortunate to get the win. By no means did I think we were the better team,\u201d Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. <\/p>\n

It was Edmonton foot soldiers Jason Dickinson<\/a> and Kasperi Kapanen<\/a> providing the heroics with two goals apiece Monday.<\/p>\n

Leon Draisaitl<\/a> was able to be a difference-maker with two assists \u2014 lugging the puck into the offensive zone on Kapanen\u2019s game-winner \u2014 despite missing the last 14 games of the regular season with a knee injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always need other guys stepping up,\u201d Knoblauch said. \u201cIt\u2019s not always going to be the same guys. There\u2019s always going to be times when somebody else is the hero. Draisaitl, McDavid, they\u2019re going to be our heroes many times, but they can\u2019t be the heroes every single time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Nugent-Hopkins: \u201cWe have so much experience within our depth that guys understand that sometimes it\u2019s their turn to show up and find ways to score big goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmonton will continue to mine that depth as fourth-line centre Adam Henrique<\/a> has been ruled out of Game 2 with injury. He collided with teammate Kapanen in front of Edmonton\u2019s net in the first period. <\/p>\n

The 36-year-old penalty-kill specialist skated off the ice without assistance, but didn\u2019t return.<\/p>\n

Knoblauch didn\u2019t know Tuesday how long Henrique would be sidelined. Replacement options are rookie Josh Samanski<\/a> or Curtis Lazar<\/a>, who has 17 previous playoff games on his resum\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cSamanski, a little bit more speed to our lineup,\u201d Knoblauch said. \u201cLazar gives you maybe a little more aggressiveness, a bit more physicality, and that\u2019s important in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou knew that there\u2019s going to be some lineup changes. It came a little bit sooner than we would like with an injury, but we\u2019ve got some guys who are very capable to get back in that lineup and contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to NHL stats, a team that wins the first game of a series at home has a .748 winning percentage historically. It\u2019s .882 for the home team that wins the first two games of a series.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game is different,\u201d Nugent-Hopkins said. \u201cThey\u2019re down one right now. There\u2019s going to be a push from them, but the same mindset we had to start the game of being physical and putting pucks deep and establishing that forecheck and just making it a long night of having their (defence) turn. Then we always have numbers above them. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to be key to try to take the life out of them early and build our game from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans at Rogers Place razzed Ducks defenceman Radko Gudas<\/a> at various points of Game 1, instead of the traditional target of the opposing goaltender, Lukas Dostal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Czech blueliner served a late-season, five-game suspension for kneeing Toronto star Auston Matthews<\/a>, three weeks after knocking Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby<\/a> out of the Olympics with a quarterfinal hit.<\/p>\n

Edmonton scored the third-period equalizer when Gudas fell and gave Mattias Ekholm<\/a> an open shot on net, which Dickinson converted on the rebound.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2026.<\/p>\n

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014 Whether their B game continues to be enough to beat the Anaheim Ducks in the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[198,146,5300,5,4,24,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-557938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-edmonton","9":"tag-edmonton-oilers","10":"tag-edmontonoilers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-oilers","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116448406025802809","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}