For the second time in less than a week, the Edmonton Oilers play the Anaheim Ducks, as the California club comes to town Friday night.
The first game was an embarrassing loss, as the Oilers were playing the second game of a back-to-back and blew a 3-1 lead. Four consecutive Ducks goals, including one late in the third by former Oiler Ryan Strome to break the deadlock, saw the Ducks take it 5-3.
Without question, the Oilers are a Stanley Cup contender. This season, they are 22-12-3 with 47 points, third in the Pacific Division. Moreover, they are 16-5-2 in their last 23 games and they haven’t even had the dominant second-half they’ve had the past two seasons. The Ducks are the polar opposite though, as they have a 15-17-4 record, well out of the Wild Card race and the second-fewest points in the division.
It wasn’t always like this though, as the Ducks and the Oilers have met in the postseason twice in the two teams’ franchise history. Once in 2006, and again after the Oilers made the postseason for the first time in 11 seasons. Let’s look at those two series, as the Ducks employed Corey Perry for each run.
2006 postseason
The eighth-seeded Oilers traded for Dwayne Roloson before the 2006 trade deadline, squeaked into the postseason, and upset the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Detroit Red Wings in the first round. They then defeated the San Jose Sharks in six games after falling down 2-0 in the series, winning four consecutive games.
On the other hand, the Ducks played a hard-fought series against the Calgary Flames, outlasting the Oilers’ provincial rival in a seven-game series. Their second series was much easier, sweeping the Colorado Avalanche to set up a matchup between the sixth-seeded Ducks and the eighth-seeded Oilers.
In Game 1, Michael Peca scored a late shorthanded goal in the first period to open the scoring in the series. Less than a minute later though, Andy McDonald scored to tie the game heading into the second period. Aleš Hemský’s fourth goal of the postseason midway through the second was the game-winning goal, as Todd Harvey scored an empty netter in the final minute of the game for the 3-1 Oiler win.
Game 2 saw the exact same score for the exact same team. Chris Pronger’s power play goal with about seven minutes left in the period opened the scoring. The Ducks tied it as Jeff Friesen scored six minutes into the second period, but Fernando Pisani’s goal late in the second ended up being the game-winner. Peca iced the game with an empty netter.
With the series shifting to Edmonton at Rexall Place, the Oilers had a stranglehold on the series. The Oilers’ Toby Petersen scored in the first period, with the score holding there until the third period. Peca, Steve Staios, and Pronger scored three goals before the midway point of the third period, before the Ducks stormed back with three of their own. For the second consecutive game, Pisani scored the game-winning goal with just under six minutes left in the period, as former Oiler Todd Marchant scored a late goal to make it 5-4, the final of this game.
The Oilers had a chance to sweep the series on home ice in Game 4. However, future Oiler Dustin Penner scored twice in the first period, followed by Ryan Getzlaf’s power-play goal later in the opening frame. The Oilers’ Marc-André Bergeron scored on the power play, with Ruslan Salei restoring the Ducks’ three-goal lead. Ryan Smyth and Georges Laraque scored to make it a one-goal game, but future Oiler Joffrey Lupul scored a late-minute second and third-period goal as the Ducks found life with a 6-3 win.
It was short-lived though, as the Oilers made it to the Stanley Cup Finals (their first since 1990) with a 2-1 victory in Anaheim. The Ducks’ Francois Beauchemin scored the opening goal, but Ethan Moreau and Raffi Torres each scored in the second period to win the game.
It’s hard to believe that Corey Perry, now 39 years old, was once a young player. The 2005-06 season was his first in the National Hockey League and he scored 13 goals and 25 points in 56 points. His role in the 2006 postseason was limited, as he played 11 games with three assists and 16 penalty minutes.
The Ducks and Oilers took very different routes after this series. Edmonton fell in Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals to the Carolina Hurricanes. As they did all postseason, they fought back from the brink of death, overcoming a 3-1 series deficit in the Finals.
After the end of the series, the decade of darkness started, with the first big transaction seeing the Oilers trade their star defenceman, Chris Pronger, to the Ducks. On the other side, the Ducks won the 2007 Stanley Cup after defeating the Ottawa Senators and were consistently in the postseason from that year onward.
Perry himself became a great player, even the league’s best player in 2010-11, scoring 50 goals and 98 points in 82 games while winning the Hart Memorial Trophy and the Maurice Richard Trophy that season. The Ducks missed the 2010 postseason and the 2012 postseason – the only two years they missed the playoffs until their current streak, but Perry’s season in 2011 was a big reason why they made it in 2011.
By the 2017 postseason, the Ducks’ core of Perry and Getzlaf were in the twilight of their careers, well, at least Getzlaf was, while the Oilers had a 20-year-old generational talent in Connor McDavid. Let’s look at the lead-up to that series and what happened in it.
2017 postseason
The Oilers’ decade of darkness ended in June 2015 when they selected Connor McDavid first overall. Of course, they missed the 2016 postseason, due in large part to McDavid’s broken clavicle. However, they went 46-26-9 with 103 points in 2017, just two points behind the Ducks for the division lead. This set up a first-round matchup against the San Jose Sharks, who they had previously beaten in the 2006 postseason in six games.
It was the same result in 2017, as the Sharks opened the series with a win before the Oilers took the next two. San Jose won 7-0 in Game 4, making it a best of three, with the Oilers winning the next two games, including a Game 5 overtime goal from David Desharnais.
On the Ducks’ side of things, they opened their postseason against the Calgary Flames as they did in 2006. However, the series was far less competitive than their seven-game series 11 years ago, as the Ducks swept the Oilers’ provincial rivals.
In Game 1 of the 2006 rematch, Ryan Getzlaf opened the scoring early in the second period, with Mark Letestu scoring on the power play to tie the game. He scored at nearly the exact same time (6:22 compared to 6:23) in the third period to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead, followed by Adam Larsson’s first goal of the postseason less than two minutes later. Goals from Patrick Eaves and Jakob Silfverberg tied the game, before Larsson scored his second of the game, with Leon Draisaitl icing it with an empty netter.
The second game of the series saw far less scoring, as the Oilers rode out a 2-1 victory thanks to 39 saves from Cam Talbot. Andrej Sekera opened the scoring earlier in the game, with Patrick Maroon scoring an insurance goal in the second period. Silfverberg was the only player to beat Talbot, scoring about four and a half minutes left in the second period.
This series is remembered for what happened in Game 5, as the Oilers blew a late three-goal lead. But in Game 3, the Ducks did the same thing. Rickard Rakell, Silfverberg, and Getzlaf scored to give the Ducks a 3-0 lead, followed by a late Maroon goal with just 40 seconds left in the opening frame. Anton Slepyshev and Connor McDavid scored in the second period to tie it up a three, just for Anaheim’s Chris Wagner’s shot from the half wall to beat Talbot 48 seconds later. In the third period, the Ducks scored twice more to double up the Oilers.
Game 4 also saw the Oilers having a chance to put the Ducks in the danger zone, as Milan Lucic and Connor McDavid scored twice in the second half of the first period. However, the Ducks fired back with three goals of their own in the second period. Thankfully, Drake Caggiula scored with less than two minutes left in the third period to send the game to overtime. It took just 45 seconds for the Ducks to win it though, as Silfverberg scored his seventh of the postseason to send the series back to Anaheim for the best of three.
I’m not alone when I say Game 5 still haunts me. I started cheering for the Oilers in 2008 so this was my first postseason of actually being a fan. It looked for a second that the Oilers would win the much important Game 5, as Draisaitl, McDavid, and Caggiula each scored to make it 3-0 in the second period. However, with 3:16 left in the third, disaster struck, as the Ducks fired off three goals to send it to overtime, including a controversial “good” goal with 15 seconds left in the game. Kesler held the pad. To make matters worse, now-Oiler Corey Perry scored the overtime winner to give the Ducks a 3-2 series lead.
It’s a big what if. What if the referees made the right call and the Ducks third goal was considered no goal? What if the Oilers were a bit older and recovered in overtime from blowing the 3-0 lead? What if the Oilers sent the series back to Edmonton with a 3-2 series lead? Perhaps we could’ve gotten a Stanley Cup Final with McDavid against Sidney Crosby.
Game 6 was a Dawn commercial, as the Ducks were covered in Oil, losing 7-1 thanks to a Leon Draisaitl hat trick, with Cam Talbot saving 34 of 35 shots, setting up the decisive Game 7 in Anaheim. Caggiula scored his third of the series to open the scoring 3:31 minutes in, but that’s all the Oilers got. Former Oiler Andrew Cogliano scored his first of the postseason in the second period, with Nick Ritchie’s goal just over three minutes into the third period holding up as the game/series winner.
Although the Oilers looked promising, they missed the postseason for the next two seasons thanks to Peter Chiarelli. They looked good in 2019-20 but fell in four games to the Chicago Blackhawks in the “qualifying round” thanks to the pandemic. The 2020-21 season was also impacted by the pandemic, as the season was played entirely against the six other Canadian teams. The Oilers fell in four games to the Winnipeg Jets in the first round.
Finally, the Oilers made the Conference Finals the next season, as they defeated the Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames in the first two rounds, before falling to the eventual Stanley Cup winners, the Colorado Avalanche. The next season, they fell in six games to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Vegas Golden Knights. In 2024, they fell in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, losing to the Florida Panthers.
The Ducks faced off against the Nashville Predators in the Western Conference Finals in 2017, falling in six games to the team of destiny. They made the postseason in 2018 but fell in four games to the San Jose Sharks and have yet to make the postseason since.
As for Perry, the 2018-19 season was his final year as a Duck, finishing his career with 988 games played in their uniform, with 372 goals and 776 points. Perry is the last player to have played for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, as the team was sold to a new owner before the 2006-07 season with the name being changed to what it is today.
Perry signed with Dallas Stars to begin the 2019-20 season, falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2020 Stanley Cup Final. For the 2020-21 season, he signed with the Montréal Canadiens, falling once again to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Finals. He opted to join the Tampa Bay Lightning for the 2021-22 season, falling to the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Final.
Instead of falling in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2023, he and the Tampa Bay Lightning fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the postseason. It was the first time the Leafs won a postseason series since 2004, the final season before Perry joined the league. Perry originally signed with the Chicago Blackhawks to begin the 2023-24 season, but his contract was eventually terminated and he signed with the Oilers. For the fourth time in five years, he and his team fell in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Hopefully, it won’t be the case in the 2025 postseason.
If you enjoy my content, you can follow me on Bluesky @ryleydelaney.bsky.social.
