“We were an average team all year. An average team with high expectations, you’re going to be disappointed.”

Connor McDavid’s comments cut like a knife when he stood in front of assembled media after his Edmonton Oilers were eliminated in the first round of the 2026 playoffs on Thursday night.

The Oilers had just been dispatched 5-2 at the hands of the Ducks in Game 6, ending another season in disappointment. But this year, the team didn’t seem to have the same jump, lacking cohension.

General manager Stan Bowman agreed with parts of what McDavid said during the team’s exit interviews on Saturday morning.

“Just looking at the way the team played, I think it was one of those years where we were average for a lot of the year. The way I took that comment was, in previous years, we’ve had stretches where we’ve been able to really get our game going and dominate and win five, six, eight, 10 in a row. And also have some losing streaks,” said Bowman.

“This year was strange in the sense that, other than I think twice, we never won more than two games in a row. I think we did it twice; we won five and three in a row. We never lost five in a row, either. It was really one of those things where we just stayed kind of around that mid-point all season long.”

Anaheim was the opposite of that during the season, said Bowman, a group that went on multiple long winning streaks, and winless streaks. Bowman said the Ducks were able to find their game quickly, while the Oilers never did.

Bowman highlighted the steady drip of injuries right from training camp and throughout October and November. The Oilers never really had their team together, he said.

“It wasn’t what we wanted. We wanted to try to find our game. When you listen to what some of the players said, I agree that we weren’t ever able to get our momentum during the season to establish that, I guess, swagger that you need in order to be able to overcome the adversity that you’re going to face.

“That was an accurate portrayal of our year. It kind of goes back to the start of the season. We were never really able to get our group together. If you remember back, you know, [Zach] Hyman missed the beginning of the year, and then [Kasperi] Kapanen got hurt, [Jake] Walman got hurt. And then when they came back, [Ryan] Nugent-Hopkins got hurt, [Jake] Roslovic got hurt.”

Bowman said the Oilers aren’t special in that respect, but it did impact their season.

“Every time somebody was coming back, someone else was getting hurt. And that’s probably common for a lot of teams. We were not unusual. But we only had a couple of games all year when we actually had our full group. And then we made our additions at the deadline. We were looking like things were starting to trend in a positive direction, then Leon [Draisaitl] gets hurt, and then other players get hurt.

“We finally felt at the start of the playoffs we were going to get some health, and then some other guys get hurt. So, it was just a year that was a lot of stops and starts. That all adds up to it feeling like just an average year. For those reasons, I understand kind of what he was trying to say. I think I do. We felt the same way as well.”

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