Injuries will always play a factor in the NHL playoffs.

Every team is going to deal with them at some point, but for the Edmonton Oilers, they piled up early. They entered the postseason with Leon Draisaitl recovering from a medical collateral ligament injury in his knee, Zach Hyman dealing with something that kept him out of five games late in the year, and captain Connor McDavid working through a right ankle injury.

Then there was Jason Dickinson, who blocked a shot late in the regular season that kept him in-and-out of the lineup in the playoffs, and Adam Henrique, who was hurt in Game 1 and didn’t play again.

And that’s just the players we know of.

Ultimately, McDavid said the injuries piled up too soon for them.

Too hurt too soon. The first round is always tough, it’s always chaotic, and it’s tough to play through things so early on, as many guys did in here,” he said after Thursday’s 5-2 playoff-eliminating loss to the Anaheim Ducks. “Credit to our staff for making guys available and making sure they’re as comfortable as possible. that being said, it’s not an excuse either. We expected to have a longer run than we did. It is what it is.”

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, meanwhile, said there were multiple players dealing with fractures.

“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.”

More will surely come out in the coming days about what ailed many on this team, but Draisaitl wasn’t ready to use them as an excuse.

“It’s hard. Our centre one, two, three are playing through stuff,” he said. “At the end of the day, you got to find ways to win games in any way. You’ve got to grind one out, you got to defend one out, and injuries, yeah, they suck and they hit us at a bad time, certainly.

“But at the end of the day, they were the better team.”

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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