Oilers notebook: Why McDavid looked mortal under Ducks coverage

EDMONTON — If there was one thing in Game 1 of Anaheim-Edmonton that stood out as strange, it was Connor McDavid not being able to gain the zone on entries during an Oilers power play.

The Edmonton Oilers went 0-for-2 with the man advantage, and McDavid looked a tad mortal as the Ducks penalty killers stripped him of puck after puck on his way into the offensive zone.

Was it some new strategy that the Ducks devised? Or was it simply McDavid mishandling pucks? (Game 2 is Wednesday, 8 p.m. MT / 10 p.m. ET on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.)

“That was me just not being clean enough,” McDavid said. “That's an area we're obviously very good at, (and I am) not too concerned about it. That being said, they threw some different things at us, and we'll adjust.”

McDavid’s assessment of a 4-3 win in Game 1 was blunt: “The first period was good, the second period was no good, and (in the) third period we found a way to win a game. There's positives in that, and lessons as well.”

The one unique situation in this matchup is that Anaheim assistant Jay Woodcroft spent two-plus seasons as Edmonton’s head coach from 2021-23, and another three as Todd McLellan’s assistant in Edmonton (2015-18). The guy we call “Woody” would definitely provide the rest of Ducks staff with plenty of Oilers intel.

“They'd have lots,” agreed McDavid, who went pointless in Game 1. “But I don't think anything on our power play is hidden. We've been doing this for a long time, and we know what we do really well. So I don't know how many secrets you can really tell …”

Head coach Kris Knoblauch isn’t losing any sleep over McDavid’s ability to return to being the most automatic power-play zone entry in the game today.

“Anytime I see Connor do something, maybe not at his best, it usually doesn't last very long. He usually finds a way to correct it,” Knoblauch said. “I could see the frustration with him on the entries. Once we got set up, we had some looks. But I think there should be a lot of credit to Anaheim. They did a great job of making it hard for us to get into the zone.”

Line dance

The first two injuries of this Round 1 series go to Adam Henrique and Radko Gudas, who will both miss Game 2 for their respective clubs.

Henrique’s knee buckled when he ran into teammate Kasperi Kapanen in Game 1, while Gudas brought an injury into this series and likely aggravated it Monday. Rookie Josh Samanski will draw into his first-ever NHL playoff game for Edmonton, centring a fourth line with Colton Dach and Trent Frederic, while Drew Helleson will take Gudas’ spot on Anaheim’s third pair alongside Gatineau, Quebec’s Tyson Hinds.

The experience of playing for Team Germany in the Olympics will help Samanski handle the nerves Wednesday night.

“That was a big stage, playing with and against the best players,” he said. “It definitely helped me make the jump in regular season (to playing 24 games).”

Jason Dickinson, who re-injured his bad ankle in Game 1 but missed only a shift or two before returning to score his second goal of the game, did not take the morning skate Wednesday. Knoblauch called him a “game-time decision” and Curtis Lazar centred the third line at practice, but we suspect he’ll play — and this won’t be the last morning skate he skips as he drags an injury down the playoff road.

Here’s how Edmonton stacks up for Game 2:

Savoie - McDavid - Hyman

Podkolzin - Draisaitl - Kapanen

RNH - Dickinson - Roslovic

Dach - Samanski - Frederic

Ekholm - Bouchard

Nurse - Murphy

Walman - Emberson

Ingram

Anaheim looks to be going with the same forward lines:

Kreider - Carlsson - Terry

Killorn - Granlund - Sennecke

McTavish - Poehling - Gauthier

Viel - Washe - Moore

LaCombe - Trouba

Mintyukov - Carlson

Hinds - Helleson

Dostál

Hurry hard

Colton Dach grew up in the Edmonton suburb of Fort Saskatchewan, just two doors down from Ducks defenceman Olen Zellweger, who's been a healthy scratch in this series. A few more doors down was the home of Keaton Verhoeff, the stud, right-shot defenceman who is expected to go in the top five at this June’s NHL draft.

“We’ve played a couple of games against each other (as pros),” Dach said of he and Zellweger. “It's always pretty cool to look up and see him, have a giggle and see the smile on his face.”

Dach and Zellweger train together in the summertime at the Shamrock Curling Club, a 70-year-old club situated just off the Mill Creek Ravine on Edmonton’s south side.

“A few of us, my brother (Kirby, of the Montreal Canadiens), Zelly goes there too, a few other NHL players. It's a good little group. We have some laughs, but we get our work done,” Dach said.

How did a bunch of NHLers end up training at a curling club?

“They take the ice out in the summer, so it's actually ideal for us. They have a smooth concrete path where we can shoot pucks. It's a nice little area for us that sometimes it distracts us from our workout,” he said. “Sometimes it sucks because there's no AC in there, so on a hot day we struggle.”

Do they at least leave the bar open for the boys?

“No bar, but they’ll open the garage door to get some fresh air in there," he said. "Sometimes it gets pretty hot.”

It’s been a long while since Edmonton had a fourth line with an identity, but Dach and Frederic have injected some physical play into Edmonton’s lineup. They get in on the forecheck and bang some bodies, a job that suits Frederic, who has finally found a role he can sink his teeth into.

“Since probably Olympic break, I feel like it's getting better. Playing better, more engaged,” he said, after a very slow start to the season. “(Dach) has been great, easy to play with. He's been physical, and he's good at dragging people into the fight. That’s a good thing.”

Knoblauch calls them “The Bash Brothers,” two big guys having the time of their lives in these playoffs.

“No matter how much you play, you spend a lot of time on the bench,” Frederic said. “(Dach) is a good guy to talk to. He’s brought a lot of energy, he’s from here, and he's got a lot of passion.”