{"id":489471,"date":"2026-04-24T18:30:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T22:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=489471"},"modified":"2026-04-24T18:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T22:30:28","slug":"how-edmonton-oilers-can-get-connor-mcdavid-scoring-2026-stanley-cup-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/04\/24\/how-edmonton-oilers-can-get-connor-mcdavid-scoring-2026-stanley-cup-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Edmonton Oilers can Get Connor McDavid Scoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connor McDavid<\/a> of the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> just had the second-best regular season of his career in terms of total points scored. However, he has yet to record a point in two games against the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> to start the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The same man who put up 138 points and 48 goals while claiming his sixth-career Art Ross<\/a> Trophy has been shut down by the Ducks. Across two games of the 2026 Western Conference first-round series, number 97 has yet to register a single point. Welcome to our continued coverage of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Last Word On Hockey<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Connor McDavid Isn’t Scoring versus the Ducks<\/h2>\n

McDavid’s silence isn’t a fluke. This is, after all, just the fifth time in his decade-long career, including seven postseason appearances, that he has failed to score in back-to-back games. He’s never gone three games in a row. For someone with 150 playoff points, that’s rarer than fans assume. But here we are with the series tied 1-1 between the Oilers and the Ducks, and there’s a very deliberate reason behind that.<\/p>\n

Oilers and Ducks 2026 Playoff Series, 1-1<\/h3>\n

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Credit Image: \u00a9 Del Mecum\/Cal Sport Media<\/span><\/p>\n

Not many gave Anaheim their flowers when they started the series. Two games in, it is clear that they have done their homework. The Ducks aren’t defending against the Oilers captain once he has the puck. They are taking advantage before he even gets a chance to get a hold of it.<\/p>\n

Even head coach Kris Knoblauch acknowledged that post-game. “They pay extra attention to that when McDavid’s on the ice, so it makes it a little bit more difficult to get through that<\/em>,” he admitted. “So yeah, I’d like a little more of us connecting on passes and being able to get some shots off the rush<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

For someone like McDavid, whose game is built on his skating speed through the open ice, that makes him a gamebreaker. When the neutral zone gets clogged and his entry reads are taken away before they develop, he becomes just another player trying to force the issue. The Oilers need to move the puck faster through the middle of the ice. They need to create secondary options off the rush, and stop telegraphing where McDavid is going. Give him the puck in motion, not standing still.<\/p>\n

Connor McDavid Needs To Get the Power Play Right<\/h3>\n

Edmonton finished this regular season with the best power play conversion. With a 30.6 percent conversion rate, they were a full two percentage points ahead of the second place Dallas Stars. But that conversion is yet to be seen in the playoffs. The Oilers even went 0-for-4 with the man advantage in Game 2 and surrendered a shorthanded goal despite that.<\/p>\n

What makes that worse is that it came off a McDavid turnover on the breakout. If the Oilers want to go deep, they can’t have their best player making these kinds of mistakes. But there’s also some good news. For in Game 2, we could see that the Oilers broke into the zone more frequently and even generated some respectable offence.<\/p>\n

The only issue is they are yet to connect. But the passes were there, and the Leon Draisaitl<\/a>-Connor McDavid crisscross has been deadly as long as they were able to execute it. Number 97 gets it as well. He mentioned people forget. He knows the points will come soon. But till they come, Draisaitl has proven himself to be Edmonton’s savior<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trust Draisaitl as the Relief Valve for the Oil<\/h3>\n

Here’s something Anaheim can’t fully solve. They can load up against McDavid all they want, but Leon Draisaitl already has four points through the first two games of this series. That production doesn’t happen in a vacuum. When defenders collapse on McDavid, Draisaitl finds space. When Edmonton uses that dynamic deliberately by drawing attention to number 97 and letting Draisaitl operate in the soft spots, it creates problems that no defensive scheme can fully contain.<\/p>\n

Knoblauch needs to lean into that. Split them, bring them back together, keep Anaheim guessing about which one is the primary threat on any given shift. As for McDavid, he understands his position and where he stands. After Game 2 he was straightforward<\/a> as he mentioned, “We’ve been in this situation a lot, you know, 1-1 going on the road…we’d like a better outcome tonight…but we’re comfortable going on the road.<\/em>“<\/p>\n

For Oiler fans, they can take solace in the fact that McDavid didn’t make an issue of an apparent leg injury during Game 2. He explained he “rolled up on it<\/em>” postgame, and made it seem like everything is, and will be, fine.<\/p>\n

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That comfort is earned. Game 3 goes Friday at Honda Center, a building that hasn’t hosted a playoff game since 2018. The crowd will be loud. The moment will be big. And Connor McDavid has never needed long to remind the hockey world exactly who he is.<\/p>\n