The Edmonton Oilers were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs Thursday night after a 5-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks in Game 6 of their first-round series.
The loss capped off a disappointing season for Edmonton, who entered the campaign with championship expectations after back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals appearances.
“We’ve been an average team all year,” captain Connor McDavid said after the game.
He said, “An average team with high expectations, you will be disappointed.”
Anaheim controlled much of the series with its pace and aggressive play, scoring eight goals out of 16 power-play opportunities in six games.
“That’s a real hockey team over there. They’ve got some good players. But at the end of the day we’ve got to find ways to keep the puck out of our net,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said.
McDavid acknowledged that Edmonton struggled to match Anaheim’s pace. “They played very fast and we weren’t very fast,” he said.
The Oilers also struggled with injuries throughout the playoffs, with McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and several other key players struggling with fitness problems.
“At the end of the day they were better than us,” Draisaitl said: “In my opinion, they weren’t very good.”
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