When Connor McDavid talked before the start of the 2026 NHL playoffs, sharing how the regular season has become monotonous, it didn’t come as a surprise.

After all, with back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup Final, the regular season has become somewhat of a formality for the Edmonton Oilers. So did the first round of the playoffs, as last year, it only took them five games to dispatch the L.A. Kings for the fourth straight year.

The only problem was that the Oilers didn’t get to play the Kings this year. They got a young, hungry Anaheim Ducks team that overwhelmed Edmonton night in and night out.

Now, after six games, the Oilers’ hope of a third straight trip to vie for Lord Stanley’s mug has been squashed. The Ducks were relentless Thursday night, pouring it on in a 5-2 win to punch their ticket to the second round of the playoffs.

“It’s tough,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid after the loss. “We were an average team all year. (When you’re) an average team with high expectations, you’re going to be disappointed.”

The Ducks are owed their flowers. Jackson LaCombe had his breakout, their top talent got the job done, and the fourth line was a thorn in Edmonton’s side. But don’t be mistaken — beyond the opening salvos of Game 1 and Game 5, when the Oilers took 2-0 and 3-0 leads, they never really brought anything close to their “A” game. It looked much more like their “C” game more often than not.

It begs the question: did the Oilers ever really have their “A” game this season? All season long, things felt off with this team. Hell, it took them until late January to win three games in a row for the first time this season, and they only had one more, going on a five-game run in late March.

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch was the first to admit the team didn’t take the regular season seriously enough.

“It certainly felt during the season that it was just a formality, the regular season, and everyone was looking forward to the playoffs so much,” said Knoblauch. “We pushed so hard to get into the playoffs, then in the playoffs, we got so many guys injured that we just weren’t ready for it.

“This team has played a lot of hockey — the most games in the last three years, most games in the last five years, and on everybody’s minds was the playoffs. Unfortunately, the timing for us just wasn’t good.”

When it came to the first round, the Oilers had a chance to punch the Ducks in the mouth early — a chance to give them a taste of what playoff hockey looks like. They could’ve opened this series with ultra-physical play, showing the Ducks how little time and space there is in the postseason, and just how difficult it is to play this time of year. It’s not like the Oilers aren’t aware of it, playing very physical series in each of their last two runs to the Stanley Cup Final that left them battered and bruised.

But they just… didn’t. It harkens back to the talk of monotony. It felt like all series long the Oilers just expected this to be easy for them. They expected to get into the playoffs, out of the first round, and make another deep run.

This year, being battered and bruised bit them early. Maybe that played into it, as Knoblauch said there were multiple players dealing with fractures.

“Leon (Draisaitl) was injured for the last four or five weeks heading into the playoffs, and for him to come back after that long stretch, I thought he played really well,” said Knoblauch of the player who would lead the team in scoring with three goals and 10 points in six games. “We got some guys with some fractures that were playing through things that were really difficult to play at their best, but I certainly love their effort and how they dug in. They were absolutely not going to pull themselves out of the lineup. I thought they contributed as much as they could.”

Now begins a long, uncomfortable summer in Oil Country with, at this time, far more questions than answers.

Will Knoblauch, who begins year one of a three-year extension next fall, return behind the bench? Will Stan Bowman fall on the sword for the early exit? What goes on with their goaltending situation, with Tristan Jarry, who lost the starting role, having two years left on his contract? Is this the summer Darnell Nurse gets traded?

The list goes on, and on, and on, but for now, it’s time for these Oilers to rest.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the Daily Faceoff DFS Hockey Report. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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