{"id":559626,"date":"2026-04-26T02:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T02:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/559626\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T02:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T02:21:14","slug":"oilers-face-familiar-playoff-deficit-against-youthful-ducks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/559626\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers face familiar playoff deficit against youthful Ducks"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANAHEIM \u2014\u00a0The fast, young Anaheim Ducks<\/a> are giving the playoff-tested Oilers fits.<\/p>\n

Anaheim leads the NHL playoffs with an average of 5.33 goals per game, and the \u201ctrack meet\u201d hockey they play is making Edmonton look like Donovan Bailey in the 2028 Olympic Final.<\/p>\n

Out East, the Canadiens are giving the veteran Lightning all they can handle, leading a series that has seen every game go to OT. In Philly, Pittsburgh\u2019s aging stars are being pushed aside by the Flyers\u2019 rebuild, while the young speed in Utah \u2014\u00a0a team playing only its second playoff round in 13 springs \u2014\u00a0might already be too much for the old dogs in Vegas to handle.<\/p>\n

The rebuilds aren\u2019t exactly waiting their turn in the NHL, respectfully pausing for the incumbents to step aside.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll focus on the Oilers: A, because we\u2019re in Anaheim; and B, because of all those series, the two-time Cup finalists were not seen as a team that was vulnerable to upset.<\/p>\n

But Anaheim, we would venture, is the poster child for what a rebuild can is supposed to be. They\u2019re big, fast and skilled, with a franchise goalie in Lukas Dostal, a future No. 1 defenceman in Jackson Lacombe, a No. 1 centre in Leo Carlsson, and excellent support players in Cutter Gauthier, Beckett Sennecke and about six other guys who any GM in the NHL would snap up in a hurry.<\/p>\n

And Edmonton? Their competitive arc will end one day, sure.<\/p>\n

But now? Against a Ducks team stocked with playoff newbies?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a lot of speed, a lot of skill. They’re a good team over there,\u201d conceded Darnell Nurse<\/a>, who has been in some tight spots over the years with this Oilers team.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re down 2-1 to the Ducks and things look bleak heading into Sunday\u2019s Game 4. How\u2019s the mood inside the Oilers\u2019 dressing room?<\/p>\n

\u201cOur group is just calm all the time and ready for each moment,\u201d Nurse said. \u201cYeah, we’ve faced adversity and been able to overcome it. We’ve also been in good spots and found ways to play good hockey too. So for us, it’s a big game, an important game for us tomorrow, and we\u2019ve got to be ready to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oilers have contested 10 playoff series over the past three springs. They\u2019re trailed in seven of them, and of those, they\u2019ve won four.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been down 2-1 and won more than once. They\u2019ve been down 3-2 twice and won. They\u2019ve been down 3-0 and forced a Game 7.<\/p>\n

So, Edmonton comes by the confidence that it can win a Game 4 and re-jig the balance of this series honestly. They\u2019ve earned that confidence, we\u2019d say.<\/p>\n

But in order to do that they\u2019d have to rediscover a proper, responsible playoff-style defensive game, replacing the loose, giveaway-prone game that has allowed Anaheim to average five-plus goals per game thus far.<\/p>\n

And here is the Oilers\u2019 dirty little secret: They\u2019ve been searching for that game all season long, and never quite got their hands around it.<\/p>\n

They Oilers have found a proper game for spurts, but there is a reason it has just two winning streaks of three games or more all season long: Because the Oilers haven\u2019t been abler to sustain a winning style of hockey, all season long.<\/p>\n

Why has that been so elusive, we asked head coach Kris Knoblauch?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I’ve got a lot of thoughts on that,\u201d he began, pensively. \u201cI don’t know. I think just having the\u2026 Yeah\u2026 No.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think I have an answer for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translation: Knoblauch has a few ideas as to why the Oilers have been absolutely inconsistent all season long. But this isn\u2019t the time to share them.<\/p>\n

Let the record show, however, that Nurse does not agree with our observation that Edmonton has been chasing a winning game since October.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I think we’ve hung on to it for significant part of the end of the year,\u201d countered Nurse. \u201cYeah, it hasn’t been perfect. There’s no perfect season. But we’ve been better defensively over the last third of the season. It was pretty consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vasily Podkolzin put it all together, as only a player speaking in his second language could: \u00a0\u201cObviously it wasn\u2019t an ideal season,\u201d Podkolzin said. \u201cNow, it’s good time to fix everything. Clean our minds and play our best hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s be clear: We\u2019ll credit the Oilers with having the experience to know what has to happen here.<\/p>\n

As a team that has allowed five-plus goals per game, they know what has to happen. As individuals \u2014\u00a0Connor McDavid<\/a> and Evan Bouchard<\/a> are both a team worst minus-6 \u2014\u00a0Edmonton doesn\u2019t need a chalk talk to know how their game has to be altered.<\/p>\n

But, they\u2019ve known that this is the kind of hockey that is required for the Oilers to have success since October, and they\u2019ve basically put together about one consistent month in a seven-month season thus far.<\/p>\n

Now the pesky Ducks arrive, a whole different form of fowl when it comes to challenging an aging Oilers roster.<\/p>\n

Edmonton knows what to do. If they don\u2019t start doing it in Game 4, like so many older teams across the NHL being challenged by young rebuilds, then we\u2019ll assume the obvious.<\/p>\n

That they can\u2019t anymore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM \u2014\u00a0The fast, young Anaheim Ducks are giving the playoff-tested Oilers fits. Anaheim leads the NHL playoffs with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5125],"tags":[198,146,5300,5,4,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-559626","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"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116468625129433842","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559626","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=559626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}