The Anaheim Ducks have not won a Stanley Cup playoff series since since 2017, when their team of playoff-tested veterans needed seven games to outlast 20-year-old Connor McDavid and the upstart Edmonton Oilers, who had just ended their franchise’s decade-long postseason drought.
Nine years later, these teams meet again in the first round on Monday night — and they’ve switched roles completely.
The young, hungry Ducks are back in the playoffs after a seven-season absence with an exciting roster and a chaotic style. McDavid’s Oilers are the back-to-back Western Conference champions trying to make another deep run in search of his first Cup.
“They’re a very skilled young team that plays with a lot of energy and creates a lot,” McDavid said. “They’re really dangerous, so we’re going to have our hands full, and it’s our job to slow them down a little bit. … It’s their first time in the playoffs, (so) they’ll be excited, as they should be. They earned their spot, and they’ll be excited. But we’re excited, too.”
The Ducks have at least 10 homegrown players who will make their postseason debuts in Edmonton. That group includes Troy Terry, who first cracked Anaheim’s roster late in the 2017-18 regular season, but wasn’t in the lineup for the Ducks’ first-round playoff loss that spring.
Terry and all of Orange County have been waiting for more playoff hockey ever since, and the 28-year-old forward is thrilled to finally make it after 488 regular-season games and 342 points.
“It’s been the goal every season since I’ve been here, and it’s been hard,” Terry said. “It’ll be my first time going there. Just going through this process that’s been a rebuild, a retool, whatever words we use, it’s been challenging at times, but it’s exciting to be where we are. Everything is coming together.”
The Ducks returned to the playoffs in their first year under Joel Quenneville, who has led his teams to the postseason in 21 of the 23 seasons he has finished behind an NHL bench. Anaheim got off to an impressive start under its new coach and surged into first place in the Pacific Division for a month after the Olympics, only to fall to the third seed with a 2-6-2 skid to end the regular season.
The 67-year-old Quenneville won three Stanley Cup rings as a head coach and a fourth as an assistant, but he realizes his hungry new team must start from the bottom.
“We’re looking forward to what it feels like, and what it’s going to be like, and we’re playing some experts here,” Quenneville said. “So let’s make sure we get that quick lesson.”
The Oilers have won nine playoff series and played 75 postseason games in the past four years, losing back-to-back Finals to Florida. Edmonton has the top-end talent and the veteran poise to make quick work of inexperienced Anaheim — but McDavid recognizes the dangers of a high-scoring young opponent with nothing to lose.
“Playoff hockey is unique,” the six-time NHL scoring champion said. “It’s a skill to win in the playoffs, and we feel pretty good about having that skill, having been there and won a lot of playoff games.”
Expect plenty of goals in this series between two teams with major offensive firepower and significant defensive flaws.
After a half-decade as the NHL’s most consistently awful offensive team, Anaheim finished 10th this year with a franchise-record 265 goals, led by 22-year-old Cutter Gauthier’s 41 goals and 21-year-old star center Leo Carlsson’s 67 points in 70 games.
But the Ducks were forced to get 26 comeback wins this season — tied for the NHL lead and the franchise record — because of their abysmal defensive play in front of goalie Lukas Dostal. Their 288 goals allowed were the fourth most in the league, and they’re one of just two playoff teams with a negative goal differential.
Anaheim’s defensive struggles are rooted in both their forwards’ ineptitude in their own end and their lack of quality depth on the blue line. Those are areas where McDavid and the prolific Oilers can capitalize.
But Edmonton failed to win the Pacific partly because of its goalie problems: Tristan Jarry has been a flop as a midseason acquisition, and Connor Ingram also wasn’t terribly impressive until he made a few strong starts down the stretch — or maybe his veteran teammates were finally ramping up for the playoffs.
Leon Draisaitl hasn’t played since March 15 because of a lower-body injury, but the German star has been putting in extensive work at the Oilers’ practices as he nears a return — likely at some point in this series. Both teams realize the 97-point scorer will alter the matchup.
Center Jason Dickinson hasn’t played since getting hit with a puck on April 8, but Edmonton’s trade acquisition from Chicago also appears to be close to a return.
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