May 1, 2026 by Ryan Lotsberg

The Edmonton Oilers fell to the Anaheim Ducks in six games in their first round series. It was billed as a series that would feature a lot of goals and momentum swings, and it lived up to the billing. Both teams struggled to keep the puck out of their net throughout the series.

The Oilers took Game 1, but the Ducks showed why they were to be feared while earning the split in Edmonton in Game 2. The Ducks went home and showed that Game 2 wasn’t a fluke in Games 3 and 4.

Game 4 featured a conversation sparking overtime goal. Ryan Poehling threw the puck towards the crease from the left corner, and it bounced off Darnell Nurse’s skate and through Tristan Jarry’s legs. The puck trickled over the line, but that was difficult if not impossible for the referees to see from boards or the neutral zone. They gathered and called it a good goal despite not being in position to see it. Regardless, the result of the review was conclusive that the puck had fully crossed the line, so the goal stood. It was the right call, but the way they got there made for some interesting conversation.

Related: Call Outs, Standouts, and Shout-outs: Ducks take stranglehold after controversial OT winner

The Oilers gave their fans what turned out to be one last home win in Game 5. They chased Lukas Dostal from the Ducks net by storming out to a 3-0 first period lead, and they won 4-1.

That was followed up by an equally as dominant win for the Ducks in Game 6 in Orange County to seal the series for the Ducks.

Five-on-Five Play

There wasn’t much to choose between these two teams at five-on-five based on the regular season stats. The Oilers got the better of the Ducks on the scoreboard at five-on-five, but the Ducks had the superior underlying numbers. The Ducks outshot the Oilers 154-141 at five-on-five, outchanced them 78-55, and had a 52.95% xGF%. The Oilers didn’t deserve to lead the Ducks by three five-on-five goals.

Special Teams

In my series preview, I pointed out that the Ducks special teams were awful during the regular season. I wrote that the Ducks needed to find a way for the Oilers powerplay to not be the story if they were to win the series. They succeeded.

Related: 2026 Series Preview: Oilers vs Ducks

8/16. That was the biggest factor in the series.

The Ducks powerplay ended up going 8/16. 50%. This was a powerplay that was 23rd in the league at 18.6% during the regular season, and they went 50% against the Oilers penalty kill.

Goaltending

Lukas Dostal is better than Connor Ingram, let’s not kid ourselves. But, their save percentages differed by just .002 in this series. Dostal allowed twenty goals to Ingram’s nineteen.  Dostal got the early yank in Game 5. Ingram played in five of the six games as he ceded the net to Jarry in Game 4. There wasn’t much separating the performance of Dostal and Ingram in this series.

Call Outs

The Oilers penalty kill was absolutely atrocious. They lost Adam Henrique in Game 1, and Jason Dickinson was never fully healthy in this series; but that doesn’t excuse 8/16.

The Oilers held leads in the first five games and only won two of those games. I would expect a veteran team with Stanley Cup Final experience to be able to close out more than two of those games with a lead.

Ultimately, a team needs its best players to be their best players to win. That didn’t happen for the Oilers in this series. When you scroll to the bottom of the list for +/- for the Oilers in this series, you see the best players from the forward and the defence units: Evan Bouchard and Connor McDavid.

Bouchard’s -7 included -3 and a giveaway that led to a back-breaking 4-1 goal late in the second period. I like that he had seven points in the series, but -7 isn’t good enough from him.

McDavid finished with a point per game in the six-game series, which is low by his standards. It’s one thing to struggle at the offensive end, but it’s another if the puck finds its way to the back of your net at the rate it did when McDavid was on the ice in this series. He finished with a team-low -8. He injured his ankle in Game 1, and it clearly bothered him throughout the series; but the Oilers needed better defensive play from their captain.

Stand Outs

Kasperi Kapanen led the team with four goals, and he made an impact in every game. Kapanen’s linemate, Vasily Podkolzin, also stood out to me. He was second on the team with three goals, and he was his usual reliable and physical self.

They were centered by Leon Draisaitl, who led the Oilers with ten points in the series. Included in those ten points were two goals that gave the Oilers separation in Game 5. He was the one Oilers star that showed up for this series.

Shoutouts

Connor Murphy scored two goals in the series. He was outstanding in Game 6, and he was second among Oilers defencemen in goals against per 60. Not bad for his first playoff series in front of fans.

Who had the lowest GA/60 rate among Oilers defencemen in the series? That was Darnell Nurse, who skated beside Murphy. He had two unfortunate goals bounce in off him (as was a theme during the regular season), but he was far from the issue in this series.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins elevated with five points in the six-game series. He struggled down the stretch, but he produced in this series.

Wrap

I wrote that the Oilers struggle against young, fast teams. The Oilers defence struggles to move the puck quickly when under pressure in two areas of the ice in particular: deep in their own zone, and at the offensive blue line.

The Ducks understood the assignment. The Ducks’ speed and aggressive pursuit in those areas of the ice gave the Oilers problems for the entire series. They capitalized on the mistakes that the Oilers made as a result of the Ducks’ aggressive checking.

That was the type of hockey we saw from the Oilers in October. Their puck management was poor, and the Ducks made them pay for it. The only difference between then and this series was that the Oilers could score a little bit.

Even with all of that going on, the Oilers still outscored the Ducks 17-14 at five-on-five in the series and lost in six games.

This is how it feels to be on the receiving end of a powerplay that goes 50% in a series. That was the biggest factor in this series. The Oilers didn’t have a good penalty kill this season, but it was extraordinarily poor in the playoffs.

I’ll have more on the season that was for the Oilers in my post-mortem piece. For now, congratulations to the Ducks on a fantastic season and a well played series.